Physicians are prime target for identity theft. (Keep Provider Numbers Under Wraps).

Physician beware: Someone could be making profit off your name.

Taking advantage of the e-commerce trend and insufficient enforcement measures to safeguard patient and physician information in hospitals and clinics, crooks have come up with sophisticated schemes to steal physician identities and then walk away with millions of dollars.

In California, for example, individuals allegedly defrauded the state's Medicaid program of $3.9 million by using physicians' stolen identities to order bogus tests, then bill both Medicare and Medicaid for the tests. The criminals were eventually arrested and charged, but in many cases, the perpetrators of this type of crime are never found.

Identity theft as a general crime has increased in popularity over the past 4-5 years, and physicians are one of its primary targets, David Haxton, a prosecutor with the California Department of Justice told this newspaper.

Statistics from the Federal Trade Commission illustrate the rapid growth of this type of crime. In 2000, the FTC logged 31,000 complaints related to general identity theft. By 2001 the complaints had more than doubled to 86,000.

In California, identity theft is a particular problem for Medi-Cal, the state Medicaid program. "Medicare is harder to defraud because the insurance forms go out to the recipients," Mr. Haxton explained. Medicaid doesn't send out notices of what claims are being submitted, so there's no paper trail to track down criminals.

Carlotta Hivoral, deputy attorney general with the state's Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse, said physician identities are accessible from sources such as a state medical board's Web site, local physician directories, or the yellow pages.