A common obstacle that the healthcare industry has faced for some time is the inability of knowing with a high level of confidence that the patients are really who they claim to be prior to receiving care. Positive patient identification is accomplished through a design called identity proofing. It was observed at the time when AI-powered KYC/AML IDV checks were started being performed on prospects to verify their identity credentials that, unlike the banking and corporate sector, an individual does not have to pass different phases of an ID verification for risk elimination, the ID checks were not as healthily practiced in the healthcare industry.
HIPAA does require that there should be a process of patient identification to know who is accessing the information? Is it a clinician or a nurse? It could also be the patient themselves or she may be a patient's proxy or caregiver who's accessing the medical data.
KYP Vs KYC
The ID verification process in patient identification is almost the same as KYC authentication in the banking and corporate sector.
AI-powered (KYC) verification in know Your Business entities and financial institutes such as insurance companies, banks, brokerage houses enable the verifiers to confirm the originality of prospects by verifying their personal ID credentials like name, residential address, origin, nationality, date of birth, and other things, in a heartbeat. The solution ensures that the prospect is authentic and reduces association risk to zero and also helps in preventing financial crimes such as money laundering.
Now, the patient identification solutions do not help in combatting terrorism or money laundering but it is still a good solid process to know who the patient is so that you can ensure that you're giving the right people access to personal and clinical information, It is as important as KYC as any negligence or delay in such delicate matters can endanger the patient’s life.
Document Verification in Patient Identification
The digital solutions authenticate the identity of a patient in seconds with precision by following this simple brief process.
- At the time of patient identification, prior to providing treatment/therapy, on the hospitals or healthcare platforms, the patient uploads his/her identity records that can be a driving license, or government-issued national ID, or others.
- For patient identification, the individual does upload a live selfie
- The patient verification solution captures and scans the essential information, authenticates its credibility by cross-checking presented information with data hardcoded in confidential regulatory digitized data warehouses.
Biometric Recognition for Patient Identification
The facial biometric scan is also run on the patient to ensure his ID and age. The automated solution at the time of document authentication recognizes facial elements. Since due to a plethora of smart technologies, facial masks, and other tricks can be used by fraudsters. The patient identification solution ensures accuracy by depth analysis and detects the liveness of the patient.
Importance of Patient Identification Solutions
When a soul visits a doctor's office. They do ask for a driving license and insurance card, so there is an attempt made to verify the identity. But unfortunately, it tends to sort of stop there. Once a card is provided. They might take an image of it or scan it. But the individual who's taking that information typically is not trained on what to look for to spot a fraudulent card. The information that might be contained on that piece of identity evidence is not verified. It should be authenticated by AI-driven patient identification verification solutions.
For patient identification, without an automated digital system, some of the steps of the KYC construct can be performed, but it doesn’t lead it to its logical end conclusion. So if a hospital wants to really assure that the patient is who they say, they are. They would not only collect those cards, but they would also put in some mechanisms for verification.
Use cases of Patient Identification Solution
Age Verification
Many youngsters and teenagers are found to be indulged in drugs and other substances. The pharmacies can use patient identification solutions and perform ID and facial recognition to make sure that the patient is not underage for consumption of the particular medication.
Medical ID Theft Prevention
Sometimes the internal staff of hospitals or healthcare providers can use the medical data of patients for their personal gain. They sell the information to potential buyers and those same people with fake IDs and insurance cards appear to get treatment and prescriptions. An advanced patient identification can put such immoral acts instantly.
Insurance Companies
The fraudsters with synthetic IDs and insurance details can commit insurance frauds with the name of someone else and who knows what the insurance amount will be used for, can be an illegitimate operation, so in some way, patient identification can help in combating terrorism.
Conclusion
What's the takeaway from that for healthcare providers across the nation? Well, some might look at this and say, well, they are doing pretty good without patient identification solutions but if a hospital/pharmacy is going to the effort of collecting identity documentation, they should make sure that the service or medication is getting to the right person, who is also eligible for it, people are not abusing restricted substances or a health insurance fraud is not committed, and protect patient information.
