Health care reform doesn't exclude identity theft by illegal immigrants

September 10, 2:01 PMIdentity Theft ExaminerJoe Campana

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President Obama gave a well-delivered speech outlining his vision for health care reform. Conceptually, I agreed with his initial three points. But from the professional perspective of being this medium’s identity theft and privacy messenger, two statements made by the president stood out as spelling continued medical identity theft by illegal immigrants and by others.

The President said his plan covers approximately 30 million uninsured Americans. Most democrat health reform supporters have quoted 47 million people as being uninsured in the United States. Where went 17 million? Republicans have criticized the larger number as including more than 10 million illegal immigrants. Some sources estimate that the U.S. has more than 20 million illegal immigrants, and the President’s quote affirms the higher estimate.

The President addressed falsehoods about healthcare reform in his speech. Obama emphasized that illegal immigrants would not be covered.

So how will the growing population of about 20 million illegal immigrants get health care when they need it? It’s a serious issue and it must be addressed as part of healthcare reform.

I am not taking a position for or against illegal immigration. My position is against government-assisted identity theft. Local governments sell our identities, and most do nothing to prevent identity thieves from using your identity to obtain government welfare benefits. The facts are that illegal immigrants need a social security number to work and to obtain healthcare. Collectively, illegal immigrants are the largest consumers of stolen identities.

The American Medical Association has been fighting the applicability of a new law—The Red Flags Rule, intended to end certain types of identity theft. The law requires health care providers to authenticate the identity of new patients. A person using a fictitious identity could receive health care; however, the health care provider could not bill the identity theft victim or the victim’s insurance company. This is exactly what is needed to stop medical identity theft. The federal government cannot allow health care providers to create medical records in the name of a victim and permit the victim or victim’s insurance company to be billed for services rendered to an imposter. This type of insurance fraud and abuse involving identity theft must be addressed as a part of health care reform.

The Red Flags Rule was slated to go into effect on November 1, 2008. Financial institutions, large and small, regulated by federal banking and credit union regulators had to meet this compliance date. However, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) delayed compliance until May 1 and on its eve, delayed it again to August 1, 2009 to give small businesses and health care providers more time to comply.

During FTC budget hearings in June 2009, the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, chaired by Representative José Serrano (D-NY), expressed concern about the Red Flags Rule applicability to health care providers.

The 2010 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill issued by Serrano’s subcommittee on July 10, 2009 states

“The Committee is extremely concerned by the Federal Trade Commission’s decision that small-sized health care providers are subject to the Red Flags Rule. . . The Committee also understands that the FTC has reached a different conclusion and believes the costs of compliance will be minimal. . . the Committee understands that the FTC has delayed implementation until August 1, 2009 . . . The Committee requests the FTC to further delay implementation while it works with the health care provider and small business communities. . .”

The committee increased the FTC budget request by $4.5 million in the appropriations bill, and on July 29, 2009, the FTC delayed compliance for a third time until November 1, 2009. Will the compliance deadline to help stop identity theft be delayed beyond November 1, 2009? Will health care providers be exempted?

The big question I have with respect to health care reform is how will illegal immigrants get health care treatment if they are excluded under the public option? Will they obtain it the same old way by committing medical identity theft by pretending they are legal Americans with your social security number in hand?