Medical Records Are the New Credit Score - WSJ

If someone somewhere types the wrong number on some form and your credit score goes down as a result, you’ll be in a pinch the next time you need a loan. The same holds true for medical records and applying for health insurance, the WSJ reports.

Maybe somebody miscoded a diagnosis in one of your medical files, or maybe someone incorrectly transcribed something a doctor said. If you have a common name, someone else’s record might end up in your file. Errors like these “happen all the time,” Joy Pritts, a researcher at Georgetown’s Health Policy Institute tells the WSJ.