Medical Identity Theft

Credit to Insurance Fraud.org

Identity theft, the fastest-growing crime in America, has spawned a vicious new strain: medical identity theft. Thieves steal your personal information to line their own pockets with fraudulent claims against your own health policy.

Medical thieves can heist your health-insurance number, Social Security number and other personal information. Often the information is stolen by employees at medical facilities, and resold on the black market. Thieves also may hack into medical databases or break into medical facilities.

Medical ID theft can cost you thousands of dollars, constant stress, and even threaten your life and health. Unless you check your medical records closely, you may discover you were defrauded only after the damage has been done.

As many as 500,000 Americans have been victims of medical identify theft, says the World Privacy Forum. And this crime is spreading fast: The Federal Trade Commission received almost 19,500 reports of medical ID theft from January 1992 to April 2006. About one every four reports came in 2006 alone.

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.insurancefraud.org/medical_id_theft.htm

Joblessness Hits 9.5%, Deflating Recovery Hopes

By PETER S. GOODMAN
Credit to New York Times
Published: July 2, 2009

 
The American economy lost 467,000 more jobs in June, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.5 percent in a sobering indication that the longest recession since the 1930s had yet to release its hold. “The numbers are indicative of a continued, very severe recession,” said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh. “There’s nothing in here to show that the economy and the market are pulling out of the grip of recession.”


The Labor Department’s monthly snapshot of employment, released Thursday, challenged visions of a recovery already taking root. The numbers intensify pressure on the Obama administration to show returns on programs aimed at improving national fortunes — not least its $787 billion stimulus plan.

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/business/economy/03jobs.html