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’

A Phoenix woman is an example of the devastation that medical identity theft can cause as she struggles with the more than $200,000 in bills she has received since someone else impersonated her.

Jennifer O’Conner had to pay $217,000 for a single operation, and she wasn’t even the one in the operating room.

‘The bills are outrageous. I get a new bill every day and all I want to do is cry,” she told Arizona’s At your side.

Other bills she has in the house are $32,000, $9,300, and so on. She says she lost track of the total amount.

She says she is aware of at least two ambulance rides and four hospital stays at Banner and HonorHealth facilities.

Arizona woman Jennifer O’Connor has to pay nearly $300,000 for someone else’s medical bills – she’s a victim of medical identity theft

“She used my insurance with Banner because I have Banner insurance. At HonorHealth, she didn’t use insurance, so she just gave my information and said, ‘I don’t have insurance,'” O’Connor said.

‘I get bills from CT scans, bills from anesthesiologists, different doctors she saw in the hospital. It’s just overwhelming.

“Twenty-four hundred dollars for anesthesia, and I’m thinking, anesthesia? When did I go under anesthesia?’ she said.

The real policyholder works as a respiratory therapist at a Banner facility. Her boss sent a letter to their employer proving that the real O’Connor was at work when the fake one was undergoing some of these medical treatments.

But even that wasn’t enough to even solve Jennifer’s problem.

Multiple law enforcement agencies have so far failed to help O’Connor, a respiratory therapist, and experts say it is largely up to the individual to cooperate with health care providers once medical fraud has been committed.

She has filed police reports with the Phoenix Police Department, Mesa Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, but none have been able to take concrete steps to resolve the problem.

“I get two emails from Banner saying they are going to garnish my wages for a visit to Banner Boswell ER for $150, and a bill for $36 from Banner Desert. They just sent it to collections,” O’Connor explained.

In addition to the extreme financial toll, medical identity theft poses a significant threat to an individual’s health due to the mixed medical records now kept under their names.

“All her medical cases are on file. Not mine,” O’Connor said. “If I got into a car accident on the way home, God forbid, and I was gone and needed blood products, I could die because she probably doesn’t have the same blood type as me, and that scares me. ‘

Eva Velasquez, head of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that deals with issues exactly like those facing O’Connor, told On Your Side that the “unfortunate reality is that you have to deal with this directly with the entity where the fraud was committed’. occurred.’

“Unfortunately, the onus often falls on you, the victim, to provide that information, to do your own investigation and build that case,” she said.

Velasquez advised that it is becoming easier for fraudsters to obtain data from others and then create the false identity.

“I encourage people to focus their energy on protecting their identity in general,” she said.

She agreed that mixed medical records could eventually become a major problem at a potentially critical time.

“You may now have mixed medical records with the thief, and you may receive inappropriate care and an incorrect diagnosis.

“You may also not have the ability to get necessary prescriptions filled or access necessary medical equipment because the thief has already gotten those things in your name,” she warned.

The On Your Side team said they have received no answers from Banner or HonorHealth about O’Connor’s predicament.