By HAYATO MURAI/ Staff Writer
May 12, 2023 at 18:07 JST
A sample Individual Number Card (Provided by Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications)
Another glitch has come to light in the Individual Number Card system, with human error blamed for the issuing of an incorrect card.
The error during the data-inputting process led to a card user having the health information of a stranger linked to their card, Katsunobu Kato, the health minister, revealed at a May 12 news conference.
The health information of the stranger was disclosed when the user presented the card at a medical institution, according to Kato.
To have more people use the card, health insurance providers have been linking information about their members to their cards, also called the My Number Card.
Recently, some individuals who tried to obtain copies of their family register using their My Number Card at convenience stores received the register of a different individual.
Health insurance providers normally ask their members for their My Number Card information so health information can be linked to that card, according to ministry officials.
But when a member doesn’t provide that information, staff at the health insurance provider consult individual resident register information to obtain the My Number Card information for the linking.
The mix-up appears to have been caused by an insurance provider staff member who confused the My Number Card information of individuals with identical names or the same birthdates.
The staff member then linked the wrong My Number Card with the health insurance membership number.
Ministry officials said there were 7,229 cases between December 2021 and November 2022 of the wrong information being linked to a My Number Card.
The information was revised whenever such discrepancies were discovered, but there have been four cases in which an individual looked at the information of the other individual whose information was wrongly linked before such a revision could be made.
Ministry officials said efforts were being made to ensure that such errors do not occur, for example, by asking health insurance providers to be extra careful when linking their information to the My Number Card.
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