A 139-year-old man arrived at a Calgary pharmacy recently to fill a prescription. At least, his health-care number said he was 139. The patient at the counter was in his 70s.
"It turned out to be a careless clerical error," recalls the pharmacist. "One digit on the prescription was different from the man's actual health-care number." The patient received his prescription, but the episode showed two things — there was no fraud attempt, and an Albertan long dead still had an active health-care number.
Government Acknowledges Discrepancy
Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally said Wednesday that fraud is a key reason for bringing in new driver's licences with health-care numbers, starting July 2. He added in a statement Thursday: "As of the end of last year, there were 500,000 more paper health cards in circulation than there were people living in Alberta. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including people passing away or moving out of province. Our health-care system is worth protecting, which is why we are taking steps to safeguard it from potential fraud and misuse by helping ensure health coverage is only being accessed by those who are eligible."
Government's Own Doing
If there really are 500,000 cards unattached to humans, that's the government's own doing. There is no legal requirement to notify Alberta Health Insurance of a death or a move outside Alberta. Notification is strictly voluntary. It's up to relatives and survivors who probably aren't in the mood. Obviously, nobody got around to it with the cardholder who lived on bureaucratically to age 139.
And yet, every death in Alberta is registered with a provincial certificate. You'd think that many years ago, deaths could have been digitally linked to health numbers, resulting in automatic cancellation.
Criticism from Medical Professionals
"One thing that the government absolutely is very good at is documenting every person that is born and every person that dies in this province," says Dr. Paul Parks, emergency ward doctor and former president of the Alberta Medical Association. "They have very good records, so for them to pretend they can't keep track of these outstanding numbers, it's nonsense."
Privacy Concerns with New Cards
The new integrated cards may sound convenient. Few Albertans will lament the loss of their tattered paper versions. The government argues that security risk is high with the current card because there's no photo. But provincial privacy commissioner Diane McLeod says the new integrated cards come with their own serious problems. Her main point is that your health number will be visible to people outside health-care settings. The Registrar of Motor Vehicles, for instance, will have the health information, but is not entitled to it and is not subject to privacy laws. "As such, they will hold highly sensitive health information of all Albertans, with no corresponding duty to protect this information and no consequences for breaches," McLeod wrote.
