Last week, the Ponemon Institute, sponsored by Experian ProtectMyID, released their second annual . The study concluded that roughly 1.5 million Americans are victims of medical identity theft. And, according to the study, the average cost to resolve a case of medical identity theft is $20,663, up from $20,160 in 2010.

The study surveyed 1,672, and of those, 633 were known to have experienced identity theft directly or through the experience of a close family member.

The types of attacks that lead to medical identity theft are not unlike other types of identity theft: family member stole the credentials (36 percent), don't know the vector of the breach (17 percent), the breach was at a health care provider (14 percent), malicious employee at a health provider's office (10 percent), lost wallet (9 percent), mailed statement intercepted by criminal (8 percent), and phishing attack (6 percent).

Leuer believes that, unlike financial identity theft, medical identity theft is not on the top of peoples' minds. "When people lose their wallets, they'll think to replace their driver's license and they'll call their credit card companies but they won't think to report their health insurance card," she says. "Hopefully, we think, the increased mandatory reporting of health breaches will drive more needed awareness about medical ID theft," she says.

Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission released its annual consumer fraud report, and for 11 years straight identity theft topped the list of complaints with 9 million Americans falling victim every year.