Identity theft warning as woman lumped with $200,000 debt due to 'outrageous' medical bills racked up by total stranger: 'None of this was me'
- An Arizona woman is experiencing the nightmare that is medical identity theft
- Jennifer O'Connor owes more than $200K for someone else's medical treatment
A Phoenix woman serves as an example of the devastation that medical identity theft can cause, as she contends with the more than $200,000 in bills she's received since someone else began pretending to be her.
Jennifer O'Conner was charged $217,000 for a singular surgery, and she wasn't even the one in the operating room.
'The bills are outrageous. I get a new bill every day, and I just want to cry,' she told Arizona's On Your Side.
Other bills she has in her house are for $32,000, $9,300, and so on - she says she's lost track of the sum total.
She says she's aware of at least two ambulance rides and four hospital stays at Banner and HonorHealth facilities.
O'Connor (pictured) says she gets a new bill everyday, most make her 'want to cry,' because there's not much she can do to stop the problem
Arizona woman Jennifer O'Connor has been charged close to $300,000 for someone else's medical bills - she is the victim of medical identity theft
'She used my insurance at Banner because I have Banner insurance. At HonorHealth, she did not use insurance, so she just gave them my information and said, "I don’t have insurance,"' O'Connor said.
'I’m getting bills from CT scans, bills from anesthesiologists, different doctors that she saw at the hospital. It’s just overwhelming.
'Twenty-four hundred dollars for anesthesia, and I’m like, anesthesia? When did I go under anesthesia?' she said.
The real insurance policy holder works as a respiratory therapist at a Banner facility. Her boss submitted a letter to their employer proving the real O'Connor was on the clock at work when the fake one was receiving some of these medical treatments.
But even that wasn't enough to even begin solving Jennifer's problem.
Multiple law enforcement offices have so far failed to help O'Connor - a respiratory therapist - and experts say it is largely on the onus of the individual to work with providers once medical fraud has been committed
She's filed police reports with the Phoenix Police, Mesa Police, and Maricopa County Sheriff's Office - but none have been able to take any concrete steps toward resolving the issue.
'I get two emails from Banner saying they’re going to garnish my wages for a visit at Banner Boswell ER for $150, and a $36 bill from Banner Desert. They just sent it to collections,' O'Connor explained.
Beyond the extreme financial toll, medical identity theft poses a significant threat to an individual's health because of the mixed medical records that are now on file under their name.
'All her medical stuff in on file. Not mine,' said O'Connor. 'If I was in a car accident on the way home, God forbid, and I was out of it and needed blood products, I could die because she probably doesn’t have the same blood type as me, and that terrifies me.'
Eva Velasquez, who leads the Identity Theft Resource Center, a non-profit dedicated to issues precisely like the one O'Connor is facing, told On Your Side that the 'unfortunate reality is that you must resolve this directly with the entity where the fraud occurred.'
'Unfortunately, the onus is often on you, the victim, to supply that information, to do your own investigation and build that case,' she said.
Velasquez advised it's getting easier and easier for fraudsters to obtain data from others to then create the fake identity.
'I encourage people to focus their energy on just protecting their identity, on the whole,' she said.
She agreed that mixed medical records could ultimately turn into a major problem at a potentially critical moment.
'You potentially now have mixed medical records with the thief, and you could get improper care and an improper diagnosis.
'You could also not have the ability to get necessary prescriptions filled or to get access to necessary medical equipment because the thief has already gotten those things in your name,' she warned.
The On Your Side team said they have been unable to get any answers from Banner or HonorHealth about O'Connor's predicament.
