<p>Watch an episode of SVU, Law &amp; Order or CSI on TV, and you're bound to hear about doctor-patient confidentiality in hushed, almost reverent terms. Go to a new doctor's office and, amidst all the other paperwork, you'll be asked to sign a form enumerating your federally-mandated medical privacy rights. Call a hospital to check in on a friend and you're likely to hear that those rights prevent them from connecting your call.</p><p>So then why is medical identity theft one of the most common forms of identity theft and growing?</p><p>It's partially because, like many small businesses, doctor's offices often don't understand best practices when it comes to protecting the information they keep on their patients, and their record-keeping is often based on antiquated forms and methods of documentation that are long past their prime.</p><p>For instance, I recently made an appointment with a new, highly recommended physician whose staff immediately emailed me a new patient information form to fill out and they suggested that I return it to a Hotmail account! I was dumbfounded that they would even recommend email -- which is transmitted in plain text (with a few exceptions) and easily intercepted -- to pass along my entire medical history.</p><p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/things-doctor/story?id=22807672">Keep reading...</a></p>