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I have several insurance cards in my wallet, including medicare, hospitalization, etc. Is there a danger in this if I lose my wallet or have it stolen?
There could be, if you don't have backup copies at home, with your policy numbers. What you might want to consider is making color copies of all of them, front and back, and carrying the copies in your wallet, leaving the originals at home. The copies will all have your name, address, policy number, company, etc, which is all you need to prove coverage.
If your wallet is lost or stolen, you will lose only the copies, not the original cards.
There could be, if you don't have backup copies at home, with your policy numbers. What you might want to consider is making color copies of all of them, front and back, and carrying the copies in your wallet, leaving the originals at home. The copies will all have your name, address, policy number, company, etc, which is all you need to prove coverage.
If your wallet is lost or stolen, you will lose only the copies, not the original cards.
Good idea, thanks! Of course, then if they steal the cards from home, I'm sunk for awhile. What a system, what a life.
Most health care ID cards are easily replaced should they be stolen or lost. Virtually all have abandon the personally identifiable number with a random generated ID (notice Medicare no longer uses SSAN but some random alphanumeric ID#). Use of a stolen health care ID may only get them some free medical care, but so long as you reported the theft/loss, you are not financially liable anymore. Now, should you have a health care credit/debit card, (HSA, FSA, etc.) those are not medical ID's but rather dedicated credit/debit cards and should be safeguarded the same as any other credit/debit card.
Now, under the federal EMTALA and any state specific additions, emergency medical care must be provided without any requirement to show proof of insurance. In practical sense, the ability for any emergency or non-emergency provider to verify insurance without any documents is pretty routine. All they really need is what plan and your ID number. You can keep those on a single blank business card in your wallet using a code such as M (medical) - HM (Humana) - 1234567890 (ID#), or D (dental) - DD (Delta Dental) - 1234567890 (ID#)... etc., etc.
Most health care ID cards are easily replaced should they be stolen or lost. Virtually all have abandon the personally identifiable number with a random generated ID (notice Medicare no longer uses SSAN but some random alphanumeric ID#). Use of a stolen health care ID may only get them some free medical care, but so long as you reported the theft/loss, you are not financially liable anymore. Now, should you have a health care credit/debit card, (HSA, FSA, etc.) those are not medical ID's but rather dedicated credit/debit cards and should be safeguarded the same as any other credit/debit card.
Now, under the federal EMTALA and any state specific additions, emergency medical care must be provided without any requirement to show proof of insurance. In practical sense, the ability for any emergency or non-emergency provider to verify insurance without any documents is pretty routine. All they really need is what plan and your ID number. You can keep those on a single blank business card in your wallet using a code such as M (medical) - HM (Humana) - 1234567890 (ID#), or D (dental) - DD (Delta Dental) - 1234567890 (ID#)... etc., etc.
I have several insurance cards in my wallet, including medicare, hospitalization, etc. Is there a danger in this if I lose my wallet or have it stolen?
A danger of what? My insurance cards are probably the least important thing in my wallet.
A danger of what? My insurance cards are probably the least important thing in my wallet.
There was a time not so long ago that health insurance cards contained personally identifiable information on the face of the card. So some use to have name, address, date of birth and even SSAN right on the card. Some use to (a few still do) have a coded system, but even that info was able to be compromised once someone discloses the crypto key that was used. However, most have dropped the personal info as technology makes obtaining the info from a encrypted database easier that encoding it on the health card.
Ok, seems I can't worry about every possibility, so right now I'll do the best I can. (sigh)
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