• By now, most people know about the perils of identity theft, where someone steals your personal or financial account information and makes fraudulent charges or opens bogus accounts in your name.
• Lately, a not-so-new twist has been getting a lot of attention - medical identity theft. That's where someone gains access to your health insurance or Medicare account information and uses it to submit phony insurance claims, obtain prescription drugs or medical devices, or get medical treatment in your name.
• Besides its high cost, medical ID theft also can have deadly consequences: Suppose someone poses as you and gets an appendectomy; if you later entered the hospital with abdominal pain, your medical file would show that your appendix was

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