Federal Trade Commission: August 1, 2009 Deadline

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approaching its deadline of Identity Theft Red Flags Rule on August 1, 2009.

What Rule requires

1. The Rule requires creditors and financial institutions to adopt identity theft prevention programs.

2. Purpose of the Rule dictate that health care professionals are covered by the Rule when they regularly defer payment for goods or services

The FTC is also concerned with Medical identity theft, where a patient uses the name or insurance information of another person. Medical identity theft can result in false billing and potentially life-threatening corruption of a patient’s medical records.

Why is compliance with the Red Flags Rule important?

The Red Flags Rule is essential to healthcare’s moving ahead and becoming fully operational in an E-Health environment.

Protecting against identity theft/medical identity theft and ensuring data confidentiality, integrity, and availability are critical success factors in the “trust” equation essential to E-Health.”

The FTC offers a “how-to” guide for businesses on the Rule, available at:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/idtheft/bus23.pdf and a do-it-yourself kit for low-risk businesses available at: http://ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/redflagsrule/RedFlags_forLowRiskBusinesses.pdf

Source: FTC.gov Dotmed