By TRACEY DRURY
tdrury@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1609

Have a doctor appointment after June 1? Be prepared to prove who you are.

Area physician practices are preparing for implementation of a Federal Trade Commission rule designed to cut down on identity theft and fraud.

The Red Flags Rule, issued in late 2007, interprets physician practices as "creditors" when they accept insurance and bill patients after services are rendered of if they allow payment plans. An initial implementation date of November 2008 has been repeatedly delayed, sometimes within 24 hours of the implementation date.

Western New York practices have already begun asking patients to show photo ID or otherwise prove they are the person named on the insurance card.

"In the last few years, there was more potential for people stealing someone else's credit card to pay the bill," says Sandy Yeater, executive director of Tonawanda Pediatrics, the region's largest pediatric practice with four offices.

"But now with the increased cost of health insurance and increased deductible plans - and fewer people having insurance - there are people voluntarily giving people access to their insurance and people who are stealing it, who come in and pretend to be someone else," she says.

And that's what the FTC plan is hoping to guard against. The rule is a provision of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, which required the FTC and other federal agencies to make rules for creditors and financial institutions. Physician offices were included in the creditors category.

Practices in the region are taking a wait-and-see approach in anticipation of another delay, says Christine Ignaszak-Nadolny, executive director of the Medical Society of the County of Erie. The society has provided seminars and programming over the past two years to ease the process.

Buffalo Medical Group began asking patients for photo ID last summer. "It definitely is a burden and it doesn't make patients happy," says Daniel Scully, executive director.

UBMD has also begun asking patients to prove their identity. Brigid Maloney is general counsel for UB Associates Inc., the corporate parent of UBMD.

"We are asking all of our patients, even those whom we know well, to provide us with proof of identity, and this can be inconvenient, cumbersome and even offensive to some," she says.