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Why Telemedicine Needs Secure Patient Identification

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Telemedicine/Telehealth is growing….fast

It’s difficult to call telemedicine the shiny new object in healthcare, mostly because it’s origin can be traced back to the first half of the 20th century.  In fact, the first people to use video communication for medical purposes were clinicians at the University of Nebraska who in 1959 established a two-way television setup to transmit information to medical students across campus, and five years later linked with a state hospital to perform video consultations. (source: http://evisit.com/history-of-telemedicine/) 

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The rising use of telemedicine services in healthcare demands a more holistic approach to accurate patient identification.

Since then, telemedicine has rapidly evolved as a trusted source of care, particularly for patients living in rural areas who traditionally have limited access to healthcare, and the industry is expected to reach 7 million patients worldwide by 2018, fueling an 18 percent growth rate by 2020. This is good news for a wide swath of key players in healthcare, especially providers who are already laser focused on advancing healthcare’s “triple aim” – improving the patient experience, improving population health, and reducing the per capita cost of care, plus telemedicine has proven to be a strong tool to increase patient engagement. Patients stand to benefit handsomely from advances in telemedicine too for its convenience and accessibility, quickly latching on to the “care when and where you want it” mantra of the technology.

Yet, for all it’s convenience and increased accessibility, healthcare providers should take caution on procedures in place to identify patient identities prior to administering telemedicine services. Advances in telemedicine combined with an influx of newly insured patients under The Affordable Care Act have undoubtedly spawned opportunities for patients to commit fraud by stealing or swapping identities to receive services they aren’t eligible for. Undoubtedly the issue of limited reimbursement continues to be a major barrier to the expansion of telehealth — shouldn’t providers pay more attention to adopting technology that establishes a concrete and indisputable audit trail for telemedicine services?

What can telemedicine healthcare providers do to increase patient identification accuracy and adopt a strategy that has the capability to address the need to ensure a patient is who they claim to be?

Telemedicine patient ID laws murky, differ from state to state

As is the case with administering a lot of other digital health tools in healthcare, rules and regulations are fragmented and differ from state to state. Some states like Maryland, Virginia, and New Mexicohave laws and regulations that facilitate the greater use of telemedicineyet others such as Texas are actively seeking to pass laws that restrict telemedicine services to only those patients who have previously seen a doctor. 

Regulating telemedicine is a tricky endeavor in healthcare. Most healthcare providers (especially those in medically underserved, rural communities) want to see the expansion of telemedicine because of the potential gains in individual and population health plus increasing the convenience of healthcare delivery helps build patient loyalty and speciality physician access. Think about how much good will is built with chronically ill patients who don’t have to make a painful journey to the doctor’s office to receive care!

However, the potential risks of fraud and medical identity theft by telemedicine patients because of the apparent ease of assuming another person’s identity threatens to jeopardize patient safety and compromise patient data integrity which is essential to maintain in an era of increased interoperability and data sharing. Perhaps Alison Diana, formerly of Information Week, summed it up best by saying: “With multiple organizations providing their well-meaning suggestions, states following their own rules, and insurers taking various strategies, telehealth adoption is hampered by fear, uncertainty, and doubt.”

What’s clear is that telemedicine is yet another tool in a provider’s toolbox that deserves the same patient identification scrutiny and caution given to a face-to-face encounter. Health data security is an issue in healthcare that has evolved beyond brick and mortar identification scenarios and expanded to any point along the care continuum where a patient has access to data or care services. As President and CEO Russell Branzell and Board Chair Charles Christian of CHIME said, “As data exchange increases among providers, patient data matching errors and mismatches will become exponentially more dangerous and costly.” (source: http://www.globalmed.com/telehealthanswers/telehealth-data-security-and-a-national-patient-id/) 

With the number of employers increasing employee telemedicine service offerings and the number of people now eligible for these services now estimated to be in the tens of millions, the healthcare industry has a vested interest to ensure 100% accurate patient identification. 

Holistic patient identification is the new norm

The digital age of medicine has created a host of new patient touchpoints along the care continuum that require healthcare providers to reassess their patient identification policies to ensure that patients are safe, treatment is accurate, protected health information is attributed to the correct medical record and fraud does not cause medical errors that could increase provider liabilities. The conundrum for healthcare providers is identifying a patient identification technology that has the capability to provide accurate patient identification no matter where a patient is along that care continuum and can flexibly be used at ANY touchpoint, regardless if it’s virtual or physical.

What’s interesting about the explosion of these new patient touchpoints and accessibility is that provider focus (justifiably) is usually targeted on technology, compliance, and reimbursement — all important components to ensure success. For example, articles prognosticating about what telemedicine needs to succeed rarely address adopting stricter patient identification technology to protect both patient and provider. However, our field research demonstrates that healthcare providers are increasingly paying closer attention to perhaps the most essential element of any digital health tool, the absolute necessity of ensuring accurate patient identification prior to administering care.

When it comes to accurate patient identification, telemedicine should not be treated any differently than, say, access to a patient portal or a physical trip to a doctor’s office. Holistic patient identification accuracy protocols that have the flexibility to be used in different capacities but ultimately to achieve the same purpose — ensuring patient identification accuracy and patient data integrity no matter when or where a patient seeks access to medical information or services.

Photo biometrics a perfect fit for patient ID in telemedicine

One patient identification technology surging to meet the demand for holistic patient identification in healthcare is biometrics.  The use of biometrics for accurate patient identification in healthcare offers immediate, sustainable benefits (increases in patient safety, reductions of duplicate medical records, elimination of fraud) but what often goes unnoticed are broader, tangential advantages that can be applied to new patient touchpoints along the care continuum.

For example, a healthcare provider using photo biometrics for patient identification in healthcare can ensure accurate patient identification at the point of service then have the ability to verify that same patient’s identity through a portal, or prior to a telemedicine session using facial recognition. Hospital re-admission reduction provides an excellent example of a tangential benefit biometrics delivers to the healthcare industry. By ensuring the accuracy of a patient’s identity during a home health visit or telemedicine session (key components to reduce re-admits), healthcare providers can administer accurate, timely patient care that helps reduce the possibility of a re-admission which significantly adds to the cost of care and can result in Medicare reimbursement reductions. 

Biometrics for patient identification offers another distinct advantage to telemedicine — an indisputable audit trail. Healthcare providers can rest assured that they now have a concrete list showing which patient accessed telemedicine services and what day and time they received the services. In this era of shifting regulations and evolving legislation, healthcare providers who implement photo biometrics for patient identification are at a distinct advantage over those that may rely on more antiquated methods to verify patient identities.

Although the use of photo biometrics for holistic patient identification across the care continuum is a new concept in healthcare, more providers understand its value and are exploring the use of this technology. 

Is patient identification for telemedicine services a concern for you? What specific challenges do you face?

Leave us a comment below!

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Improving Mobile Patient Identification with Wireless Technology

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Patient Identification isn’t Cookie Cutter

You know the drill. A trauma patient is whisked into the emergency room bypassing the normal registration process to receive immediate care. Despite the patient’s condition, you as a patient registration representative are still responsible for establishing the patient’s identity, verifying their insurance eligibility, and ensuring that services rendered are allocated to the proper electronic medical record so the hospital can maintain high levels of data integrity and secure accurate revenue cycle compensation. Or, perhaps a handicap or disabled patient arrives at your facility and you may have to adjust normal registration procedures to compensate for their condition which may involve approaching the patient in the waiting room instead of asking them to approach you. 

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Particularly in emergency situations, wireless biometric patient identification devices offer convenience and portability to ensure patient safety.

The following post was submitted by Brad Marshall, Enterprise Development Consultant with RightPatient®

Whatever the case may be, some hospitals that have implemented biometrics for patient identification now have the ability to use a wireless camera to identify a patient at bedside or in-person, adding registration flexibility and removing the need to deal with the often cumbersome tangle of wires, USB cables, and devices on computers on wheels (COWs) or workstation on wheels (WOWs).  These hospitals understand that wireless, portable patient identification offers distinct advantages to quickly identify patients with special conditions without the restrictions of a USB connection that may limit mobility and waste valuable time. 

The Flexibility of Free Standing Patient Identification in ED or Bedside

The ability to quickly, easily, and accurately identify patients in emergency situations can often be the difference between life and death. Think about identifying an unconscious or unknown patient who arrives in the Emergency Department (ED) with a long medical history that includes medication allergies or important pre-existing conditions. Treating a patient in the absence of this critical health data not only endangers their health, but it presents a huge liability to the hospital should something go wrong based on missing or incomplete information. Not to mention that fact that in healthcare, especially in emergency situations, seconds matter.

Patient registration staff and clinicians both need the convenience and portability of a wireless biometric patient identification device that can be used to quickly determine a patient’s identity at any physical touchpoint along the care continuum. Think for a moment about the importance of verifying a patient’s identity at bedside. Accurate patient identification is not only an important safety protocol, but it also offers a variety of other benefits including:

Innovative wireless patient identification devices increase productivity by saving time without compensating accuracy during the registration process. Characterized by their mobility and efficiency, these devices are configured to seamlessly communicate with biometric patient identification systems integrated with electronic health record (EHR) platforms to ensure 100% accuracy.

Conclusion

Wireless devices are revolutionizing patient identification in healthcare by combining the speed and accuracy of biometrics with a convenient and portable design that eliminates the frustration of maneuvering cumbersome COWs and WOWs and the restrictions of USB connected devices. Specifically designed to ensure patient safety, lower hospital liability, and strengthen and sustain patient data integrity, wireless patient identification devices almost seem to be a “must have” for any hospital that is vested in ensuring the highest quality care, especially amid challenging conditions. 

Interested in learning more? Drop us a note and we will be happy to set up a no obligation demo to show you firsthand how these devices operate, and provide more details about the advantages.

Brad Marshall works for RightPatient - the industry's best biometric patient identification solution.Brad Marshall is an Enterprise Development Consultant with RightPatient®. With several years of experience implementing both large and small scale biometric patient identification projects in healthcare, Brad works closely with key hospital executives and front line staff to ensure project success.

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Improving Revenue Cycle Management with Accurate Patient ID

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The following post was submitted by Jeremy Floyd, Healthcare Director at RightPatient®.

The Dangers of Duplicate Medical Records

Most of us already know that duplicate medical records in healthcare pose a direct threat to patient safety. The concept is rather straightforward — if a duplicate medical record exists for a patient within an electronic health record (EHR) database or master patient index (MPI), chances are that clinicians may make a medical error based on a fragmented view of a patient’s medical history.  There are myriad reasons why a duplicate medical record may exist ranging from patient names that have complex spellings and/ or variations of a name, data entry input errors by hospital staff, identity sharing among patients, and unenforced admissions quality standards across a provider network. 

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Eliminating duplicate medical records to improve revenue cycle management is achieved through accurate patient identification.

Duplicate medical records can be created from the simplest of errors — using nicknames to identify a patient or a missing digit on a social security number, date of birth, or address for example. Often times, the problem of duplicate medical records is most prevalent with patients who have similar or identical names.

Compounding the problem of duplicate medical records in healthcare is the shift change of healthcare providers from single entities to complex integrated delivery networks (IDNs) and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) which require that patient records contained in multiple MPIs be aggregated into a single Enterprise Master Patient Index (EMPI) to provide a holistic view of the patient’s record across the care continuum. Unfortunately, many healthcare organizations are unaware of the complex variations in how a person is demographically represented in multiple records in different systems. Consequently, when basic matching criteria is used on various combinations of a person’s name, date of birth, gender, and social security number, the end result is patient records with multiple typographical errors, or different representations of a person’s name as un-matched duplicates in the resulting EMPI. 

It becomes quite clear that the evolution of healthcare to expand data sharing that benefits both individual and population health is exacerbating the risks that duplicate medical records have on the ability to provide safe and accurate care not to mention placing financial constraints that inhibit the flow of accounts receivable.

The Hidden Effect of Duplicates on Revenue Cycle Management

We talk a lot about how duplicate medical records negatively impact patient safety.  We know that their presence can easily create unnecessary medical errors and weaken patient data integrity. We also understand that the bulk of duplicate medical records are created by patient misidentification.

What is often overlooked and not discussed enough is the effect that duplicate medical records have on efficient revenue cycle management. The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) recently wrote about the inverse relationship between duplicate medical records and revenue cycle management stating that, “Lowering the duplicate patient record rate increases revenue cycle efficiency by improving the accuracy of information used to submit claims, collect payments, and provide care.” (Source:  http://www.hfma.org/Content.aspx?id=16788) 

The fact is that the negative impact of duplicate medical records extends far beyond patient safety, affecting many other “downstream financial activities” — as HFMA states in their article. In other words, duplicates pose a direct threat to financial stability and efficiency because their existence leads to medical reporting inaccuracies and repeat testing that insurance companies will not reimburse. Plus, duplicates can negatively affect or even sabotage other hospital initiatives that rely on high levels of patient data integrity — the implementation of an EHR system for example. HFMA notes that that many other downstream activities can be affected by duplicates, specifically:

  • Inefficient use of medical records staff time on correcting duplicates rather than focusing on coding
  • Delayed claims payments or denials due to the use of an incorrect name or other identifiers, or for duplicated services
  • Higher A/R days due to late payments
  • Patient safety risks when the duplicate record does not include all important information, especially items such as medication allergies, diagnostic test results, or previous diagnoses
    (Source: http://www.hfma.org/Content.aspx?id=16788)

What’s clear is that the most likely source of duplicate creation is patient registration leading many healthcare organizations to more closely evaluate best practices and existing workflow and identify areas of improvement. Many are also implementing modern patient identification technologies that eliminate duplicate medical records by removing the ability to create them in the first place. 

Using Accurate Patient Identification to Increase Revenue Cycle Efficiency

Perhaps one of the hottest topics to surface in the wake of healthcare digitization is the absence of static patient identifiers, especially in the context of exchanging patient information quickly, affordably, and safely. Patient matching inconsistencies have bubbled to the surface in many broader discussions about establishing efficiencies in healthcare — most notably for healthcare information exchange and information governance. However, recognizing the need to establish tighter control over accurate patient identification should first be defined in the context of how it will improve internal initiatives (e.g. – revenue cycle management) before expanding applicability to projects that provide data sharing to a larger provider demographic.

Among the numerous options available to help identify and reduce duplicate medical records and improve patient identification in healthcare is the use of deterministic or probabilistic data matching. Although these methods are relatively sufficient to clean MPIs of duplicates, the disconnect seems to be implementing a more secure and accurate patient identification technology on the front end to sustain a clean MPI moving forward. Remember that there is a distinct difference between identifying and cleansing an MPI of duplicates, and deploying another strategy to ensure that a database remains clean. This is where many healthcare providers fall short.

The most effective approach to eradicating duplicate medical records and improve revenue cycle management is evaluating modern patient identification solutions that are powerful enough to sustain a clean MPI and prevent some of the aforementioned downstream repercussions that can damage financial health. After all, a fluid and efficient revenue cycle management system uninhibited by the impact of duplicate medical records helps to keep costs down and improve the quality of care.

RightPatient is a smart health platform thatJeremy has worked in the biometrics industry for nearly a decade and has real world experience with fingerprint, palm vein, finger vein, iris and face recognition technologies. He currently oversees the RightPatient™ Healthcare division of M2SYS Technology, including sales, business development and project management. Before taking over the Healthcare unit, Jeremy spearheaded the growth of the core biometrics division, working closely with Fortune 500 clients like ADP, JP Morgan & BAE Systems to implement biometrics in large identity management projects. 

free webinar on achieving accurate patient identification in healthcare

Free Webinar: The State of Patient Identification in Healthcare

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free webinar on achieving accurate patient identification in healthcare

Accurate patient identification and data matching in healthcare to ensure patient safety along the care continuum is a complex challenge for most healthcare organizations. Common names, lack of proper ID, identity swapping, and the explosion of new patient touchpoints (mHealth apps, patient portals for example) to access personal health information (PHI) has created problems for organizations that still rely on antiquated methods of identifying patients and places them at a high risk of committing medical errors that could jeopardize patient safety.  

free webinar on achieving accurate patient identification in healthcare

The increased complexities of achieving accurate patient identification in healthcare raise questions about the most suitable strategies to implement. Join us on September the 10th from 1 – 2pm EDT for a free webinar on patient identification in healthcare.

Achieving accurate patient identification in healthcare is a key strategic goal of healthcare organizations across the industry as they continue to explore new technologies that have the ability to meet modern demands of the new digital health paradigm in the wake of the shift to a patient-centered wellness approach and a push to better understand the individual patient. Unified views of patient data across any care setting is a growing necessity despite the variability in data capture methods, systems, and a lack of patient identification industry standards.

In the absence of a unified view of patient data, healthcare organizations will continue to make medical errors with incomplete or inaccurate information. Access to accurate, complete PHI is one of, if not the most vital component to deliver quality, cost-effective care and the only way to accomplish this is to establish accurate patient ID at the point of registration/access so the patient’s entire medical history supports immediate care or a wellness event. Complete and accurate medical histories must be linked to any point along the care continuum to truly achieve patient-centered care.

Join us on September the 10th for a free webinar on the state of patient identification in healthcare and a comprehensive overview of strategies and technologies healthcare organizations can use  to improve and sustain accurate patient ID. Plus, we will address the growing use of biometrics for patient ID, explain how it’s being used, and what return on investment (ROI) hospitals have realized since implementing it at their facilities. 

Topics covered during the free one-hour webinar include:

• The current state of patient identification in healthcare
• Patient identification challenges
• Using biometrics for patient ID across the care continuum

Join us on September the 10th from 1pm – 2pm EDT as we explore the topic of patient identification in healthcare and offer an overview of how biometrics is a viable solution to increase patient ID accuracy and patient safety along the care continuum.

Tell a friend or colleague! This is your chance to learn from experts in patient identification, ask questions, and engage in the discussion. Have a question you would like to ask during the webinar? Please visit the webinar landing page to sign up and leave your question or write it in the comments below.

Looking forward to seeing you on September the 10th!