My Daughter’s Medical Records Are Showing A Surgery She Never Had. How Do I Protect Us?

Pennsylvania

My daughter was on medical assistance in 2022 and is now on CHIP (she’s 3 years old).

I called today to schedule an eye doctor appointment. The scheduler initially told me she couldn’t talk to me because a privacy password had been added to my account.

I was able to prove I’m her legal guardian so the scheduler was able to bypass the password.

She told me the password was added in July of 2022, and was related to a surgery/hospital admission May 3 of 2022, for ear tubes. My daughter was not hospitalized at that time and she never had an ear infection until this past winter (let alone ear tube surgery). We never heard of the password before and I was at the doctor with her 5 days ago (when she got the eye doctor referral).

I’m guessing the most likely scenario is that somehow in a data entry error my daughter’s chart was combined/mixed up with another child, possibly with the same birthday or a similar name. My daughter’s first name is common, last name is not, but it’s a different spelling of a very common last name in my area so I could see how an error like that could happen.

The alternative is some sort of identity theft but I’m not sure how I’d even begin to unravel that.

Given that my daughter was on state health insurance at the time, if any procedures were falsely charged to her insurance, how do I protect myself? Who do I need to talk to, and how do I navigate the situation?

I have a call in to the privacy department at the hospital but it appears it’s a single person’s inbox who so far hasn’t called me back. Medical records department essentially said it’s above their pay grade and punted it to the privacy person. Primary care has a note in her account and her doctor is going to take a look to see if they can get me any context.

What else can/should I do to protect my daughter?