A woman called me from Miami, Fla., last month. She had personal medical information about me, and she mumbled something about “uncompensated care” to me.

I was pretty unnerved that this woman knew something that was in my medical records. The only way she could know this is through hospital records or MaineCare; I called both. The hospital didn’t think its computer had been breached, and MaineCare claims it doesn’t have medical records.

I hung up on the woman from Florida, before she had a chance to try to sell me something. My husband called the number that had shown on ourcaller ID and asked, “Why are you calling my wife?” She hung up on him.

I thought with all the new privacy health laws something like this couldn’t happen. I called the attorney general’s office, and they said they had heard this complaint from others. They gave me a 1-800 number to call so I could make a formal complaint with the federal government. I called this and a man told me that they could investigate the hospital’s computer, but not MaineCare (Medicaid.) He said he would send me a form to fill out, but I never received one. It seems like no one wants to do anything about this.

I’m not sure what the scam was about, but this I do know: This woman had information about me that no one should have known.

I’ve also noticed that many doctors/hospitals now ask for our Social Security number. As I understand it, the law does not require us to give our Social Security number to any doctor or hospital, so in the future I will not provide it as a form of identification.

Christine H. GavittThorndike


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