Seen At 11: Your Medical Information Could Be Getting Stolen And Sold

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It's happening more and more -- your most private medical information is at high risk for being stolen and sold to the highest bidder.

As CBS2's Dana Tyler reports, it's raising questions about whether enough is being done to keep your information from being exposed.

Chris Carlin recently got a series of calls claiming she was entitled to a payout if she joined a class action lawsuit involving Zofran, a drug she used.

"I said, 'Leave me alone,'" she said. "I hung up."

Carlin said she was shocked that the callers also knew she had a miscarriage.

"This is stuff that they have no business knowing," Carlin said.

Carlin said the callers wanted her bank account number in order to add her to the suit. But she didn't fall for it.

Carlin became suspicious because in 2012, her hospital notified her that her medical records had been stolen.

"They wanted something from me, and that I find extremely frightening," Carlin said.

And she's not alone.

Since the U.S. government started keeping track in 2009, more than 30 million Americans have had medical records stolen.

"You should be considerably worried," said Paul Viollis, a security expert with Risk Control Strategies.

Viollis said thieves get top dollar when they sell the stolen medical information.

"The product is actually worth five times the street value of any other piece of identifying information," Viollis said. "So if your Social Security number is worth a buck, this is worth five."

He adds that hospitals simply don't do enough to protect patients.

"They're creating an easy pathway or breezeway, if you will. for hackers to come right in and absolutely remove that information," Viollis said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services keeps track of breaches. More than 1,000 are on its website and dozens of hospitals in this area are on the list.

CBS2 asked a dozen local hospitals that had breaches to do on-camera interviews, but none would. A spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association said, "Hospitals do an outstanding job of protecting information."

But Viollis said hospitals should do more -- and that patients should demand answers.

"More and more people need to hold hospitals accountable and ask them specifically, 'How are you protecting my information?'" Viollis said.

To see if your hospital or medical office had a breach, check out the U.S. Department Health and Human Services list of branches here.