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Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. The term identity theft was coined in 1964. Since that time, the definition of identity theft has been statutorily defined throughout both the U.K. and the U.S. as the theft of personally identifiable information. Identity theft deliberately uses someone else's identity as a method to gain financial advantages or obtain credit and other benefits, and perhaps to cause other person's disadvantages or loss. The person whose identity has been stolen may suffer adverse consequences, especially if they are falsely held responsible for the perpetrator's actions. Personally identifiable information generally includes a person's name, date of birth, social security number, driver's license number, bank account or credit card numbers, PINs, electronic signatures, fingerprints, passwords, or any other information that can be used to access a person's financial resources.
Medical privacy, or health privacy, is the practice of maintaining the security and confidentiality of patient records. It involves both the conversational discretion of health care providers and the security of medical records. The terms can also refer to the physical privacy of patients from other patients and providers while in a medical facility, and to modesty in medical settings. Modern concerns include the degree of disclosure to insurance companies, employers, and other third parties. The advent of electronic medical records (EMR) and patient care management systems (PCMS) have raised new concerns about privacy, balanced with efforts to reduce duplication of services and medical errors.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is a United States Act of Congress enacted by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 21, 1996. It modernized the flow of healthcare information, stipulates how personally identifiable information maintained by the healthcare and healthcare insurance industries should be protected from fraud and theft, and addressed some limitations on healthcare insurance coverage. It generally prohibits healthcare providers and healthcare businesses, called covered entities, from disclosing protected information to anyone other than a patient and the patient's authorized representatives without their consent. With limited exceptions, it does not restrict patients from receiving information about themselves. It does not prohibit patients from voluntarily sharing their health information however they choose, nor does it require confidentiality where a patient discloses medical information to family members, friends, or other individuals not a part of a covered entity.
Blue Cross Blue Shield Association is a federation, or supraorganization, of, in 2022, 34 independent and locally operated BCBSA companies that provide health insurance in the United States to more than 115 million people. It was formed in 1982 from the merger of its two namesake organizations: Blue Cross was founded in 1929 and became the Blue Cross Association in 1960, while Blue Shield emerged in 1939 and the Blue Shield Association was created in 1948.
Cambia Health Solutions is a nonprofit health care company based in Portland, Oregon. It is the parent company of Regence, a member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association operating in Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Washington; Asuris Northwest Health; BridgeSpan Health; and LifeMap.
Blue Shield of California is a mutual benefit corporation and health plan founded in 1939 by the California Medical Association. It is based in Oakland, California, and serves 4.5 million health plan members and more than 65,000 physicians across the state. Blue Shield of California was founded as a not-for-profit organization. As of 2014, it is no longer tax-exempt in California and has been paying federal taxes for several years before that.
Medavie Blue Cross is a not-for-profit Canadian medical care insurance company headquartered in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Premera Blue Cross is a not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield licensed health insurance company based in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, United States. It sells health insurance plans under the Blue Cross license in Washington state except Clark County and under both of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licenses in Alaska.
Protected health information (PHI) under U.S. law is any information about health status, provision of health care, or payment for health care that is created or collected by a Covered Entity, and can be linked to a specific individual. This is interpreted rather broadly and includes any part of a patient's medical record or payment history.
WEDI, pronounced "wee dee", is a not-for-profit user group in the United States for users of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in public and private healthcare. It is sometimes referred to by other names including some or all of the words Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange.
A data breach is a security violation, in which sensitive, protected or confidential data is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen, altered or used by an individual unauthorized to do so. Other terms are unintentional information disclosure, data leak, information leakage and data spill. Incidents range from concerted attacks by individuals who hack for personal gain or malice, organized crime, political activists or national governments, to poorly configured system security or careless disposal of used computer equipment or data storage media. Leaked information can range from matters compromising national security, to information on actions which a government or official considers embarrassing and wants to conceal. A deliberate data breach by a person privy to the information, typically for political purposes, is more often described as a "leak".
The Erlanger Health System, incorporated as the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hospital Authority, a non-profit, public benefit corporation registered in the State of Tennessee, is a system of hospitals, physicians, and medical services based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Erlanger's main location, Erlanger Baroness Hospital, is a tertiary referral hospital and Level I Trauma Center serving a 50,000 sq mi (130,000 km2) region of East Tennessee, North Georgia, North Alabama, and western North Carolina. The system provides critical care services to patients within a 150 mi (240 km) radius through six Life Force air ambulance helicopters, which are equipped to perform in-flight surgical procedures and transfusions.
Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, Inc. (CAQH) is a non-profit organization incorporated in California as a mutual benefit corporation. It was first incorporated under the name Coalition for Affordable, Quality Healthcare, Inc., and then renamed the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, Inc. on August 8, 2002. It is based in Washington, D.C. Previously a 501(c)6 tax-exempt organization, CAQH changed its tax status in 2016, although it remains a non-profit.
Elevance Health, Inc. is an American health insurance provider. Prior to June 2022, Elevance Health was named Anthem, Inc. The company's services include medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans through affiliated companies such as Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Empire BlueCross BlueShield in New York State, Anthem Blue Cross in California, Wellpoint, and Carelon. It is the largest for-profit managed health care company in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. As of 2022, the company had 46.8 million members within its affiliated companies' health plans.
Identity theft involves obtaining somebody else's identifying information and using it for a criminal purpose. Most often that purpose is to commit financial fraud, such as by obtaining loans or credits in the name of the person whose identity has been stolen. Stolen identifying information might also be used for other reasons, such as to obtain identification cards or for purposes of employment by somebody not legally authorized to work in the United States.
Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is a mutual insurance in the United States with more than two million members in Iowa and South Dakota. It is the dominant health insurance in Iowa. It is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. Founded in 1939, Wellmark offers dental and health insurance as well as life insurance. It began participating in the health care exchange for 2017.
Medical data, including patients' identity information, health status, disease diagnosis and treatment, and biogenetic information, not only involve patients' privacy but also have a special sensitivity and important value, which may bring physical and mental distress and property loss to patients and even negatively affect social stability and national security once leaked. However, the development and application of medical AI must rely on a large amount of medical data for algorithm training, and the larger and more diverse the amount of data, the more accurate the results of its analysis and prediction will be. However, the application of big data technologies such as data collection, analysis and processing, cloud storage, and information sharing has increased the risk of data leakage. In the United States, the rate of such breaches has increased over time, with 176 million records breached by the end of 2017. There have been 245 data breaches of 10,000 or more records, 68 breaches of the healthcare data of 100,000 or more individuals, 25 breaches that affected more than half a million individuals, and 10 breaches of the personal and protected health information of more than 1 million individuals.
The Anthem medical data breach was a medical data breach of information held by Elevance Health, known at that time as Anthem Inc.
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield is a health insurance provider serving 3.5 million individuals and groups in Maryland and the Washington metropolitan area. It has dual headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C. It is a nonprofit organization and an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
References
- ↑ Flessner, Dave (2019-09-30). "Chattanooga-based BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee refunds $22.6 million to policy holders". Times Free Press. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
Tax-paying Not-for-profit, Health Plan
- ↑ Lundy, Davis (2019-09-14). "Moments in Memory: BlueCross BlueShield founding shaped future of city's health care". Times Free Press. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
Moments in Memory BlueCross BlueShield
- ↑ "More than 220,000 customers affected by stolen BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee data" Associated Press; January 13, 2010.
- ↑ "US health insurer fined $1.5m over 2009 data breach" Naked Security; March 15, 2012]