In March 2004，Joe Ryan got a notice from a billing agency for a hospital near Denver，Colorado. The hospital wanted payment for surgery totaling $41,188. Ryan had never set foot in that hospital. Obviously there was some mistake. “I thought it was a joke，”says Ryan. But when he called the billing agency，nobody laughed. Someone，who's also named Joe Ryan，using Ryan's Social Security number，had indeed been admitted for surgery. He figured clearing this up would take a just few phone calls. Two years later，Ryan continues to suffer from the damage to his credit rating and still doesn't know if his medical record has been cleared of wrong information. Joe Ryan was the victim of a little-known but frightening type of consumer cheating that is on the rise：medical identity theft，which involves using your name to get drugs，expensive medical treatment and even cheating insurance payments. As Ryan discovered，money isn't the half of it. When someone steals your name to receive health care，his medical history becomes part of your record-and setting the record straight can be extremely difficult. That's because，in part，the information is handed out among dozens of caregivers，from doctors to medicine stores to insurance companies and labs. “I wanted to help straighten this out，”says Ryan，“so I went to the hospital，and they had a three-inch-thick record for me，but they wouldn't let me see it. I showed them my ID，and they said that's not Joe Ryan's signature. Well，of course not!They had this other guy's signature. ” Ryan had fallen into a victim's Catch-22：If your record doesn't appear to be yours，you may not have the right to read it，much less change it. Ryan's next step was a visit to the police department. But the police said that there was not much they could do，that the local law enforcement has little experience with medical ID theft，and cases like this can end up being considered a civil matter. The billing agency sent Joe Ryan a notice to______.