Sadly to say, a common place that identity theft occurs is at your health provider and/or insurer.

We have access to everything - name, date of birth, address, social security number, employer, phone number, and often even drivers license number. Most of the places I've worked shreds anything that has any personal information on it. Unfortunately, not all do, even though a new federal law mandates it. I was shocked on my current job when I was training and all the claims, reports, etc. that my trainer was disposing of went into the trash. I immediately went into my supervisor and expressed my surprise. We now have two shredders and a documentation service.

It's a good idea to ask your healthcare providers and insurers what their privacy practices are, and don't be afraid to ask about documentation disposal.

Unfortunately, that still won't stop the determined identity thief. I could easily pick a patient and write everything down on a piece of paper, put it in my purse, and take it home. In fact, that's what several employees of a local insurer did about a year ago. I've also heard of a case where a group of employees at a mortgage banker were opening credit cards in clients' names. In some businesses, even the lowly rank-and-file have access to sensitive information.

Sadly, the only way to prevent this is to pay all your own medical bills yourself. Who can do that anymore?

So ya gotta be careful, careful, careful, and check, check, check.