Hospital Identity Theft

At the UCLA Medical Center, it has been reported that since 2003, at least 1,000 patients' records have been illegally accessed. Even celebrities such as Britney Spears and Farrah Fawcett have been affected by this unfortunate violation. Recently, the women accused of accessing Fawcett's records pleaded not guilty of selling Fawcett's records to a celebrity magazine. Preventative measures are being taken by the state of California and Arkansas; their plans are to require that patients are notified when their records are being accessed before they are able to access them.

I believe this is a huge step forward to preventing identity theft because hospital records provide: health insurance, D.O.B, home/billing addresses, and credit information. All of these things when put into the wrong hands can cause terrible misfortune. I'm interested and want to see what other laws states are going to pass in order to prevent this crime.

IDENTITY THEFT AND UCLA