Keep a close watch on your personal medical records, because if they get stolen, you could be on the hook for $19,000, a recent survey said. The Ponemon Institute survey said 36 percent of survey respondents paid an average of $19,000 in 2013 to resolve medical identity thefts, including payments for credit counseling and legal advice, payments for medical treatments incurred after the identity theft led to a lapse in medical coverage and reimbursing providers to pay for services used by fraudsters.

Overall, the survey said the number of estimated medical identity theft victims grew from 1.5 million in 2012 to 1.8 million in 2013. A majority of survey respondents (56 percent) said the most likely consequence of medical identity theft was a loss of trust in their physicians. Participants also said being a victim of medical identity theft could lead to errors in medical treatment as well as misdiagnoses. The survey was conducted in April and included 788 adults who either had their medical information stolen or that of a close family member.