[Erin524]

So, a little background here.

Back in the early spring of 2006 I started getting mail from my insurance company for bills to doctors. A lot of doctors.

Thing is, I hadnt seen any doctors. Sure, my thigh was numb and I'd been to my regular doctor, but that was it.

The doctors who were listed on these insurance letters were from a local hospital. Several neurologists. Apparently a woman with a similar (but a little different name) had somehow ended up on my insurance. Her name was Erin MiddleName LastName-hyphenated LastName. (her middle initial was the same first letter as my middle name)

She was the same age as me (born about 2 months before me). I had seen a doctor for a ruptured achilles tendon at the same hospital these bills were coming from about 5 years before. So, I'm guessing that she had gone to one of the doctors there, the office worker/secretary must have looked her name up in the system and picked the first name that matched that came up without asking demographic information like her address, name of insurance company, things like that.

I remember when trying to investigate how this lady ended up on my insurance (amazing how the office workers ignored HIPAA or is it HIPPA? rules) I was able to figure out when she was born, (march) her insurance company name, and was able to find out that she was having some sort of serious neurological problem (but not exactly what was wrong)

Oh yeah, I found out that there were FIVE other people with my same name (6 of us in all!) that were listed in the hospital computer. Amazed me at how common my name is.

I tried all summer to get her off of my insurance so they'd stop sending me the bills.

I kept getting calls from this lady's doctor's, telling me I should come in for a treatment or whatever, and I would go off on them, telling them that she was somehow on MY insurance and would they please remove MY information from her medical files and make sure they get the correct information about her from her. (I was starting to get annoyed with the whole thing)

Then August came, and I suddenly had optic neuritis. A week later I had a bunch of MRI reports. (and a huge bill for the MRI because the evil twin had screwed up my insurance so much that I had to use my credit card to pay for the MRI)...and then I had to worry for months about my own health while getting mail from that lady's doctors.

I kept getting occasional bills for this lady till december, and the bills finally stopped coming about the same week that I got diagnosed in January of 2007.

Tonight I was googling my own name, because I've got an internet stalker that somehow managed to get my real last name. So, I googled my own name to see if anything came up under my real last name, and there she was. She's apparently a special education school teacher and works at a school that's about a block from where my best friend from grade school lived when she was growing up. (when I went to my friend's house, we'd walk up to that school and played on their playground...never went to school there tho)

So, if my internet stalker googles my name, they're not going to find me. They're going to find my (not so) evil twin. (it wasnt really her fault...she was sick, and the person who was supposed to make sure who she was didnt do their job correctly)

I'm wondering now if I should warn this person about my internet stalker, since I was able to see where she works and her phone number!! (and they had a handy map on their site that even shows you how to get to where she works and what room in the school she works in!) My internet stalker lives in North Dakota, so it's not that huge of a drive for the whacko to drive down here and go look her up if he/they so choose.

I dont know if I should contact her, because I dont want to sound like I'm a stalker or someone who's trying to steal her identity (she already borrowed mine for the better part of a year!) I probably wont contact her just because of that reason. I dont know if she still has whatever medical problems that she had that sent her to a neuro (it would be really creepy if she has MS too...One of the neuros she saw that year was the same guy who did my second opinion...at the MS Clinic...and I had to explain to him about what happened with my insurance and her. He thought it was creepy that he had two people in the same year with the same name)

I'm just really glad that I've been pretty good about protecting my real last name since I got onto the internet way back in the ancient days of the Internet. Stalkers are creepy. I already had one back when I was younger who still occasionally shows up sometimes.

[Carry]

Who knows, Erin---she might think you are her evil twin & you are both innocent parties with the mix-up.

[kicker]

When my older brother died, his work company's life insurance contacted the executor of his estate (my other brother) that he had life insurance and named so and so and then HIS last name!! (A female first name) and none of us siblings knew of her. We knew he wasn't married, but he was a ladies man and we wondered if this was some illegitimate daughter he had. Turned out another guy in company (he was not dead) had same name, beneficiary was his his wife. Between my sister and I, three different women at wake came up to us and said my brother was going to marry them if he lived. He knew he was dying, lied to them all. So we got a little giggle at a very sad occasion.

[Dejibo]

I would contact her so BOTH of you can go to your hospital and speak to a patient advocate about fixing the mix up. Its UNfair that you should have to pay for an MRI because they wont fix their mess. I would sit in that waiting room until the cows came home, or they fixed it. its INSURANCE FRAUD for them to keep billing after they have been advised they are using the wrong information. Maybe she has been getting YOUR bills?! I would stop in and ask her to meet you in a public place, and discuss this hospital mix up. She may not wish to speak to or deal with you at all. As far as a stalker. You cannot be responsible for the actions of others, you can only be responsible for your own actions. You cannot predict what another will or wont do. Once she is aware of this very close name game connection she will be more aware of in coming and out going information.

Medical care is a precious thing, and insurance companies have caps and limits. please dont let treatments for another patient eat up your limits.

[Erin524]

Originally Posted by Dejibo

I would contact her so BOTH of you can go to your hospital and speak to a patient advocate about fixing the mix up. Its UNfair that you should have to pay for an MRI because they wont fix their mess. I would sit in that waiting room until the cows came home, or they fixed it. its INSURANCE FRAUD for them to keep billing after they have been advised they are using the wrong information. Maybe she has been getting YOUR bills?! I would stop in and ask her to meet you in a public place, and discuss this hospital mix up. She may not wish to speak to or deal with you at all. As far as a stalker. You cannot be responsible for the actions of others, you can only be responsible for your own actions. You cannot predict what another will or wont do. Once she is aware of this very close name game connection she will be more aware of in coming and out going information.

Medical care is a precious thing, and insurance companies have caps and limits. please dont let treatments for another patient eat up your limits.

It was cleared up in January of 2007. I had been complaining to the insurance company about it ever since it had started. They were aware of the problem but couldnt do much about other than send registered letters to the doctors that were sending them stuff about her bills.

and then I was having to use the insurance, so I had to make sure to tell them which doctor visits were real ones, and which ones were hers. (she was sure seeing more doctors than me...so whatever was wrong with her, she was worse off than I was)

I'm not sure what finally stopped things and how it got straightened out. I'm guessing that when the new year came about, my insurance company must have done an audit or something on my insurance and figured out what was what, and finally got her doctor's offices to figure out that it was my insurance and not hers.

It was really irritating, and convinced me to keep a tight control on my identity. (My insurance account number at the time used my social security number....scary!!)

It also made me aware that when the person behind the desk is checking you in whenever you show up for appointments, they need to confirm that it's you by asking a demographic question or two. Like your address or something.

I'm going to the MS Clinic at the end of the month. Same hospital that started the whole problem because an office person just assumed that my name was her name. When I get there, I'm hoping they're going to make sure I am who I am. I dont want to go thru all of that again.