Health-care worker sentenced for ID theft

By Maureen O'Hagan
Seattle Times staff reporter

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It was the first prosecution nationally under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which became effective in April 2003.

Richard W. Gibson, of SeaTac, was a Seattle Cancer Care Alliance phlebotomist — someone who collects blood and other samples for laboratory testing — when he obtained the Social Security number and other identifying information from Eric Drew, a patient. He used the information to apply for credit cards and ran up charges of about $9,000, prosecutors said.

"It's true you didn't murder anyone," Martinez said, but "in a very real sense, you committed a vicious attack on someone who was fighting for their life. You did so for probably the most base reason of all — greed."

At sentencing, Gibson said he was truly sorry for the crime.

Drew, who has since transferred to a hospital in Minneapolis, was too sick to travel to yesterday's sentencing, his lawyer said. But in a videotaped statement from his sickbed, he said the crime was doubly difficult, coming at a time when he was undergoing bone-marrow transplants.

"Every spare minute of my life had been consumed with this fraud violation," Drew said. "I was stunned that someone who had worked so closely to me for so long, knowing my situation, could do such a thing."

Drew, a mortgage banker from the San Francisco area, had come to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in the fall of 2003, according to his lawyer. A short time later, he began receiving notices that credit cards had been issued in his name. Drew called police — and just about everyone else he could think of — but could not get law enforcement to investigate. Even the credit-card companies wouldn't help, he said, explaining that even after he called them to stop them from issuing the fraudulent cards, they did so anyway.

"My frustration level grew as more and more applications, confirmations and then collection calls started to come in," he said.

From his sickbed, Drew began conducting his own investigation, eventually getting a reporter from KING-TV interested in the case. After KING aired a segment on the crime, viewers identified the perpetrator as Gibson.

The U.S. Attorney's Office chose to prosecute under the new law, which made it illegal to disclose personally identifiable health information. Martinez sentenced Gibson to the maximum allowable under federal sentencing guidelines.
 
He also ordered Gibson to pay about $9,000 in restitution for the credit-card charges and to pay back Drew for the costs he incurred hiring a lawyer and a credit-repair firm.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com