The Healthcare sector is the second largest industry after financial institutions to experience identity theft. The increased fraud levels in the medical sector enforced hospitals and insurance businesses to opt for KYB (Know Your Business) regulations. In this digital age, the number of scams and the tricks of imposters to commit fraud is growing with each passing day. Every business is trying to stop facing unsuitable circumstances by involving efficient identity verification protocols. Patient verification is the most beneficial solution for reducing and even eliminating fraud in the medical sector.
Verify Patient Identity – Policy
Patients’ medical records or information are extremely significant in hospitals. Pharmaceuticals develop innovative medicinal formulas for the next generation by using medical information. Data breaches can also lead insurance businesses to experience monetary losses.
Prior to using advanced verification measures like know your patient, there were multiple scams that hospitals had to experience in the name of identity fraud. But still, after incorporating modern verification protocols in place, the fraud rate is not reduced to a level as it should be. The primary reason for data breaches in the healthcare sector might be perpetrators or their business partners. Recently, hospitals have selected automated identity verification systems like Know your patient in order to mitigate medical identity theft in the sector.
Medical Identity Theft – How It Can Be Avoided?
Patients, insurance companies, and hospitals suffer the consequences of not complying with know your patient practices. Once the fraudsters become successful in stealing the records or data of patients, it becomes obvious that it is time for patients to deal with adverse consequences. Let’s take an example, what would happen to the person if the imposter becomes successful in changing their blood group while committing a scam. The individual will get the blood of the changed group at their next visit to the hospital. This can undoubtedly lead to patients losing their life. The imposters being treated on the patients’ identity card can also lead the person to pay for the surgery he never went through. Therefore, it is necessary to follow know your patient verification to avoid such scams.
After having discussed the possible fraud in the medical industry, now let’s dig deeper to understand the ways of knowing your patient that could be used to prevent medical identity fraud:
Provide Social Security Number if Possible
Never provide your SSN (social security number) easily to anyone. Ask the professionals the reason for them needing it? Give the SSN number only if inevitable.
Regularly Monitor Credit Card
Businesses facilitate their customers for choosing their services. Credit card providers also provide the service to their consumers to monitor or check their credit card details on a regular basis. Consumers must also be vigilant enough to know that they are expected to check the details of their credit cards regularly as a step towards their own security.
Review your Medical History
Patients must check their medical records by taking them from doctors or hospitals or other professionals. If you see something other than your own medical information or you do not recognize the record, then it may reflect that fraudster has become successful in altering your data. Regular checking of your medical records is extremely important otherwise you may end up in an emergency room having a different blood group that may ultimately lead you to lose your life. Regular checking of patient history is also important for hospitals as it gives them a way to follow the know your patient protocols.
Opting a Medical Identity Monitoring Solution
Many healthcare institutions now deliver consumers medical identity monitoring solutions in order to comply with knowing your patient’s measures. Hospitals decided to have this service so that it may assist them in making a decisive forecast regarding the health of patients.
Authenticate Patient Identity through Biometric Verification
Clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare entities can authenticate the patients’ identity once the initial identification process completes. Know your patient can be done through biometric verification and it can also help in verifying businesses. The transactions made by the customers can be verified by performing 3D depth analysis on patients’ faces. Consumer verification processes are beneficial for:
- Identifying patients to deliver remote medical solutions to them
- Doing the ongoing know your patient to verify customers on a regular basis
- Selling of online pharmaceutical drugs to the prescribed patients
- Patient verification for eliminating medical identity fraud
- Authentic identification of consumers using the government-issued ID cards for combatting insurance scams
In a Nutshell
Knowing your patient is significant for the healthcare sector to fight medical identity scams. The growing number of identity frauds made it compulsory for doctors, hospitals, and other medical entities to practice effective processes to identify their consumers and enhance the information protection measures for patients. Identification of customers can assist hospitals to have an uninterrupted workflow process and deliver a better experience to patients.