Patient identity proofing

After living through a global pandemic, we’ve all learned that providing people with the right access to healthcare professionals, medications, and insurance providers is incredibly important.

On top of this, the pandemic has shown that both patients and providers must feel comfortable, confident, and safe when handling healthcare matters online. This is particularly the case as more and more elements of healthcare are being moved online in an attempt to protect the health of the global population and spread healthcare services to all. 

Thankfully, our recently launched healthcare identity verification solution can ensure that the safety and privacy of patient information can be guaranteed. Through this, the solution also ensures that the integrity of healthcare providers can be maintained.

But, when healthcare is moved online, how do you accurately verify patient identity? In this blog, we’ll take a detailed look at patient identity proofing and why the process is so important. We’ll then outline exactly how our software can help healthcare providers with patient proofing.

What is patient identity proofing and authentication?

Patient identity proofing is the process of verifying the identity of a patient. The process is used to confirm that the patient is exactly who they’re claiming to be.

Patient identity proofing comes into play before a user can access healthcare, such as scheduling an appointment over the phone or ordering a repeat prescription. It can also be used alongside a traditional authentication process.

The importance of patient identity proofing

Healthcare organizations must ensure that the correct health records and insurance information are matched to the right patient. This is because any errors in patient identity proofing can result in incorrect records, delayed payments, and medical fraud.

Verifying patient identity before starting a medical treatment or service is vital for ensuring a positive patient experience. After all, the inability of many healthcare providers to accurately identify their patients has resulted in slow procedures and compromised files. In some instances, healthcare providers have failed to verify patient identity and this has encouraged fraudsters to attempt to access their treatments.

Of course, most patients who check-in with a healthcare provider will be exactly who they’re claiming to be and will provide accurate information during their registration. However, others may either intentionally or unintentionally provide incorrect information about their demographics or insurance information.

There are lots of reasons why a patient might supply the wrong information. For example, a patient may unintentionally supply the wrong information if they’re forgetful or confused, or if a physical or mental disability means they’re unable to provide sufficient or correct details at the time of the service.

On the other hand, a patient may also intentionally supply you with the wrong information. They may do this in an attempt to use a fraudulent or stolen identity as their own, in an attempt to commit insurance fraud, or because they do not trust your medical facility to keep their personal data secure.

Patient access professionals must confirm the inclusion of accurate identity details into a patient’s record. After all, if incorrect personally identifiable information is included within the record, then a number of issues may arise. These include the inability to locate a patient’s record, data exchange errors, incorrect data analysis, and patient distrust.

To help stop any of these issues from arising, you should enlist the help of a healthcare identity verification solution.

Benefits of patient proofing with Veriff

Our healthcare identity verification solution provides a number of benefits for healthcare organizations. For example, through biometric identity verification and authentication, it can help verify patient identity and keep private health information (PHI) safe.

There are a number of different processes our patient identity proofing solution can help your healthcare organization with, including:

Patient intake

By automating the patient intake process, you can increase efficiency and reduce the risk of human error. With the help of our solution, you can verify a new patient’s identity online, before they even visit a clinic.

At Veriff, we understand that healthcare processes must become easier for everyone, including overwhelmed staff members. By automating the patient intake process, you can not only speed up the process, but you can also free up your staff members to do other things, all while making the process more accurate and reducing the risk of duplicate, incomplete, and inaccurate patient files.

Protection against insurance fraud

With the help of our solution, your healthcare organization can avoid fraudulent claims and any subsequent legal fees that may arise.

Studies have shown that safeguarding your medical organization against insurance fraud has become increasingly important in recent years. In fact, the latest study shows that the number of cases of medical identity theft reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rose from approximately 6,800 in 2017 to more than 45,500 in 2020. This shows us that fraudsters are finding new ways to obtain prescriptions, submit false insurance claims, and even obtain false benefits under victims’ names.

Thankfully, our AI-powered video-first approach to identity verification enables healthcare organizations to prevent fraud and establish digital trust and transparency along the entire patient journey.

Patient age verification

Our age verification solution ensures the patient claiming or registering for a repeat prescription is exactly who they say they are. As part of this, it checks that they’re of the correct age to use that prescription. In doing so, it also ensures that only the prescribed patient receives prescriptions by authenticating identities in real time.

By ditching passwords and instead using biometric identity verification and authentication, you can ensure that the entire process is secure and that the right medicines always reach the correct people.

Treatments and prescriptions

By verifying patient identities online, you can make telemedicine appointments safe and simple. Our solution quickly authenticates patients before they virtually meet with healthcare providers and helps patients securely fill and refill prescriptions online.

When a patient logs into the system or tries to claim an online prescription, they need to provide a selfie. This can then be used to biometrically verify their identity and ensure that the user is exactly who they’re claiming to be.

How Veriff can help with patient proofing

At Veriff, we provide trust and safety in virtual healthcare and telemedicine by harnessing biometric identity verification and authentication.

Our solution helps protect online health records and authenticates identities quickly and accurately. On top of this, it helps streamline health insurance claims, ensures prescription security, and provides a host of other benefits for the telemedicine world.

We believe that every person deserves access to quality healthcare. This means that patients should never have to experience a delay or refusal of care due to a breach of security beyond their control.

Through our identity verification solution, we aim to build trust across all dimensions of virtual care. With medical identity fraud claims continuing to rise, we believe that having proper identity verification measures in place is critical if we want to keep the digital healthcare landscape safe for all users.

Whether you’re looking to protect digital health records, make telephone appointments and prescription delivery simple, or automate your systems and reduce friction points, we believe our healthcare identity verification solution is perfect for your needs.

Speak with the identity verification experts at Veriff

Interested in learning more about how our healthcare identity verification solution can help your organization? Speak to our experts today.

We’d love to provide you with a personalized demo that shows you exactly how our solution can benefit you. Simply start by providing us with a few basic details to get started.