Read: Health care privacy a major consumer concern

Among the major outcomes of this study:

• Health care providers are not doing enough to secure patients' medical records;

• Health care providers don't respond in a consistent or timely manner when fraud is suspected or has occurred;

• Medical identify theft victims frequently don't learn that their ID has been stolen until three months following the theft;

• Once they find out, it often takes months — and an average of 200 hours — to resolve a case;

• The cost to resolve the average incident is $13,500, a cost often paid by the victim;

• Many victims either don't know who to report theft to, or are afraid to report it for a variety of reasons;

• Many victims report their identify was stolen by someone they knew, most likely a relative;

• Consumers and health care organizations believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has made medical identify theft more common due to insecure insurance websites;

• Theft generally occurs to access medical services and products, not to steal a patient's identity for more general purposes.

The study's authors said that, while such theft can't be prevented, there are steps that can be taken to reduce its spread. They include:

• Monitoring of credit reports and billing statements for evidence of theft;

• Check in periodically with the primary care physician to ensure accuracy of medical records;

• When a consumer suspects identity theft, one should contact a professional identity protection provider for follow-up;

• Education of insured individuals about the risks of sharing medical identity information even with close relatives;

• Health care and other organizations that are responsible for securing patient information should have systems in place to authenticate all patients seeking services.

The full study, which is chock-a-block with details about this growing threat, can be found here.