Uniting Accurate Patient Identification with Secure Single Sign-On (SSO) to Improve Data Integrity in Healthcare

May 26, 2015/5934 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG /by John Trader

Today we announced a new strategic alliance with Healthcast, Inc. to bring biometric patient ID and single sign-on (SSO) technology to healthcare.

One of the biggest obstacles facing the healthcare industry is ensuring high levels of patient data integrity. As computerization of health information continues and the scope of health information organizational exchange expands into health information exchanges (HIEs), and integrated delivery networks (IDNs), maintaining the integrity and completeness of health data is paramount yet much more complicated and challenging. The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) recently stated that:

“The overarching goal of HIEs is to allow authorized users to quickly and accurately exchange health information to enhance patient safety and improve efficiency. Achieving this goal is dependent on the ability to link (match) multiple, disparate records relating to a single individual.” (Insuring Data Integrity in Health Data Exchange, AHIMA Resources, 2012)

Achieving high levels of patient data integrity in healthcare is largely contingent upon establishing accurate patient identification — a complex process due to the absence of any standardized patient identification credentials and a lack of consistency on how patient identification information is collected. Implementing a secure patient identification system should be the precursor to any patient data integrity improvement strategy, one that has the ubiquity for use at ANY patient touchpoint (e.g. portals, mHealth, and kiosks) and has the power to prevent duplicate medical records and fraud which can quickly poison an electronic health record database and create a host of “dirty data.”

Coupled with the importance of deploying a modern patient identification system is the urgency to establish stricter single sign-on (SSO) security protocols for access to personal health information (PHI) from clinicians or any staff authorized to view this data. Healthcare data breaches continue to pose a tremendous strain on the industry, recently highlighted in The Ponemon Institute’s 2015 2nd Annual Data Breach forecast which states:

“Healthcare organizations face the challenge of securing a significant amount of sensitive information stored on their network, which combined with the value of a medical identity string makes them an attractive target for cybercriminals.” (2015 Second Annual Data Breach Industry Forecast, The Ponemon Institute, 2015)

A logical first step for any healthcare provider is to implement stronger SSO technology to simplify and secure access to PHI that helps deter fraud, prevent duplicate medical records, and increase operational efficiencies.

In an effort to help introduce and increase adoption of arguably the two most important components that will improve patient data integrity for any healthcare organization, today we announced a new strategic alliance with Healthcast — joining forces to offer our best-of-breed biometric patient identification solution with their #1 ranked single sign-on solution (KLAS, 2014) to increase patient safety and secure access to patient data.

Biometric Patient Identification CIO Testimonial Video

May 7, 2015/5128 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG /by John Trader

Like many who attended the 2015 HIMSS trade show in Chicago, we were excited (and a bit overwhelmed) at the amount of health IT knowledge and information swirling around the exhibit halls and aisle/booth conversations between attendees and vendors. One theme that we were excited to see is the continued surge of implementing biometrics for patient identification by many healthcare organizations that understand it’s value to help:

1. eliminate duplicate medical records
2. prevent healthcare fraud and medical identity theft at the point of service
3. Increase patient safety

testimonial on using iris biometrics for patient identification

Learn more about how our RightPatient biometric patient identification solution can help your healthcare organization through this firsthand testimonial from a hospital CIO.

Ever since the use of biometrics for patient identification arrived on the scene just a few short years ago, many hospitals are now reaping the dividends of this technology to achieve the aforementioned benefits and helping to add revenue back to the bottom line by cutting back on fraud and eliminating medical errors resulting from patient misidentification. The future of implementing biometrics for patient identification is bright, and increasing it’s luminosity as more hospitals and healthcare organizations learn about how the technology works to improve patient data integrity.

We took a moment to sit down with the Healthcare Data Management team in their booth on the HIMSS trade show floor to participate in a video interview about our RightPatient® healthcare biometrics patient identification solution to help explain it’s advantages and unique qualities plus provide a firsthand testimonial from a hospital CIO who has implemented our platform using iris recognition.

The interview includes firsthand testimonial from Lee Powe at Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital in Elkin, NC about how he originally deployed palm vein biometrics for patient ID, but quickly switched to the RightPatient solution using iris biometrics once he saw the advantages plus what results Hugh Chatham has realized since first deploying the technology including: reductions in duplicate medical records, elimination of Medicaid fraud, and a high level of patient acceptance.

Michael Trader from RightPatient is then interviewed to describe the iris biometric patient identification platform, what makes it unique, and why healthcare providers should consider implementation.

Thanks to the staff at Health Data Management for the opportunity to discuss what makes our biometric patient identification solution unique, and allow us to feature Lee’s testimonial on why he values the technology to help increase patient safety and reduce healthcare fraud at Hugh Chatham.

Post Show Thoughts on Biometric Patient Identification from the 41st Annual NAHAM Conference

April 28, 2015/3648 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG /by John Trader

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

Last week we wrapped up participation in the 41st Annual National Association of Healthcare Access Management (NAHAM) trade show in Indianapolis, IN. We were happy to be represented as a healthcare biometric patient identificaiton and data integrity vendor, demonstrating the strength and ubiquity of our solution and offering demos of iris recognition as a smart modality to consider for patient ID in a healthcare environment.

Misunderstandings of biometric patient identification technologies was a recurring theme we observed at the 41st Annual NAHAM trade show.

Through our conversations with NAHAM trade show attendees, we learned a lot about their perceptions of biometric patient identification and helped to clear up common misunderstandings of how the technology works to keep patients safe, eliminate duplicate medical records, and prevent healthcare fraud and medical identity theft at the point of service. Common misunderstandings, their clarifications, and key takeaways included:

Misunderstanding – All biometric patient identificaiton technologies have the ability to prevent duplicate medical records, eliminate fraud and ID theft in real time, and improve medical data record integrity.
Clarification – The ONLY way to prevent duplicate medical records and improve patient data integrity with biometrics is to implement a system that, during patient enrollment, compares a captured template against ALL stored templates in the biometric database. This is known as a “one-to-many” (1:N) comparison. It’s also the only way to ensure high levels of data integrity across the HIE or IDN.
Takeaway – Understanding the differences in biometric matching is vital if you expect the system to prevent duplicate medical records and improve medical record data integrity. If you are relying on biometric patient ID technology that segments the EHR database (i.e. – entering a date of birth) prior to performing a search, this is not a true way to prevent duplicates, fraud, or medical ID theft.
For more information, please click here.
Misunderstanding – Biometric hardware devices that require patient contact are acceptable in a healthcare environment.
Clarification – Biometric hardware modalities that require physical contact by a patient do not support hospital infection control policies and open the door to spreading germs and illness. Plus, patients are less likely to enroll in a biometric patient identification system that requires physical contact (e.g. – palm vein and fingerprint) over modalities that do not require any contact (e.g. – iris recognition).
Takeaway – Patient acceptance and subsequent enrollment in a biometric patient identificaiton initiative is critical to the success of the deployment. Patients are less likely to enroll in a biometric patient ID system when it requires physical contact with a hardware device.
For more information, please click here.
Misunderstanding – Experience in the biometrics industry doesn’t matter in the context of deploying a patient identification system within a healthcare environment.
Clarification – The success of any biometric identification management deployment is largely dependent on a solution provider’s experience deploying biometrics in a variety of physical and geographical environments to draw from that wisdom and customize the solution to fit the unique needs of any end user. Chances are, healthcare facilities would rather work with a vendor that has a long track record of deploying biometric identification management projects around the world in a host of environments with varying conditions and has the ability to discern implementing the most effective and sustainable hardware and software solutions that will maximize return on investment (ROI).
Takeaway – When performing due diligence on biometric patient identification vendors, don’t discount experience as a key factor in your decision to invest. Vendors that have a long history of experience in deploying biometric technology in a variety of industries and offer cloud applications, system integration, high-performance computing, human factor engineering, and machine learning helps to ensure that you will always be provided with innovative, scalable, practical solutions that are the best possible fit for your needs.
For more information, please click here.
Misunderstanding – Biometric patient identifcation technologies only apply to patients who have physical identifcation credentials.
Clarification – We heard quite a few attendees comment that due to limitations in their existing biometric patient identification solutions, they only enroll patients who can physically present official identification documentation leaving all other problem areas unaddressed (e.g. – patients without identification, “frequent flyers,” drug seekers, etc.). The truth is that a core value of an effective biometric patient identification solutions is it’s ability to enroll ALL patients, regardless of the conditions that exist to truly capitalize on the purpose of implementing the system – to protect patient safety and eliminate duplicates, fraud, and ID theft.
Takeaway – Biometric patient identification vendors who offer the ability to reliably verify a patient’s claimed identity prior to his/her initial biometric enrollment add more value by ensuring that a patient can verify their claimed identity which produces cleaner data.
For more information, click here.

As a biometric patient identification solution provider who spends a lot of time at healthcare trade shows listening to feedback from healthcare professionals on their perception and understanding of this technology, we hear quite a few misunderstandings about how it actually works and a solution’s capabilities to accomplish the stated objective of increasing patient safety, eliminating duplicate medical records, and preventing fraud and medical ID theft. As a biometric technology vendor with over a decade of experience implementing solutions in a variety of verticals and environments around the world, we understand the criteria that leads to a successful deployment. Please visit our “Resources” Web site page to learn more about biometric patient identification and dispel some of the common misunderstandings that exist.

What was your biggest takeaway from the 41st Annual NAHAM conference?

P.S. – Congratulations to Anne Marie Mariani, Corporate Director of Patient Access at St. Luke’s Hospital and Healthcare for winning the $100 Amazongift certificate we raffled off at our booth!

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.

Over 99% of Patients Overwhelmingly Accepting of Iris Biometrics for Patient Identification

February 18, 2015/4978 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG /by John Trader

Iris-biometrics-for-patient-identification-in-healthcare-RightPatient

Iris recognition, long branded as “creepy” and “invasive” is finally getting a chance to set the record straight. Often depicted through wildly inaccurate Hollywood spy film sensationalism and embellished on the pages of science fiction novels, ask an average person to describe what this technology is and answers may range from “Isn’t that the technology that beams a laser to scan your eye?” or “Yes, iris recognition – that’s when someone scans your retina.” Answers to what iris recognition is perceived to be can oscillate from slightly inexact to outlandishly untrue. Thankfully, our experience deploying iris biometrics for patient identification in healthcare has provided us with key field research on not only how patients perceive the technology, but also their willingness to use it as a patient safety tool that eliminates duplicate medical records/overlays, and prevents medical identity theft and healthcare fraud at the point of service. Here’s what we found out:

Contrary to popular belief, patients overwhelmingly choose to enroll in iris recognition for patient identification.

One of the core tenets in our approach to developing biometric patient identification solutions for healthcare is offering the flexibility for hospitals to choose which biometric modality is most suitable or desired. Some hospitals may choose fingerprint biometrics with the confidence that their patient demographic has excellent skin integrity and would not object to this modality. Other hospitals may choose to deploy palm vein biometrics for patient identification or finger vein biometrics, both of which use near infrared light to map out a vein pattern beneath the skin’s surface. Still other facilities have evaluated the RightPatient® biometric options and decided that iris recognition is the most optimal biometric modality for patient identification. Iris recognition uses a high definition digital camera to capture your photograph and construct a unique biometric template, which is then linked to your electronic medical record. Iris recognition does not “scan” your eyes and we know that iris biometrics and retinal scanning are two completely separate biometric modalities; it is very simply a high resolution digital photograph and the technology is 100% safe for patients.

When we embarked on our journey to offer the healthcare industry a more secure and effective way to establish patient identification accuracy through the use of biometrics, our goal was to remain flexible in our biometric options and to educate our customers, understanding that hospital environments and patient populations ultimately dictate deployment parameters. Through the use of our human factor engineering expertise – which is based upon the body of knowledge about human abilities and characteristics that are relevant to design and the application of this knowledge to the design of systems for safe, comfortable employee use – we custom build our solution to help ensure a seamless experience that covers all touchpoints.

When presented with the options, we have found that many hospitals prefer to use iris recognition. The reasons vary, but essentially the non-contact, hygienic nature of the technology coupled with accuracy and matching speed make it an appealing choice. Some hospitals that use RightPatient® initially expressed concern that patients may be leery of iris recognition, which could affect participation rates. In practice, however, we have observed quite the opposite. Our customers have reported that at least 99% of patients opt-in to using iris recognition to protect their medical identities. 99%. Once patients see the technology for what it is – no different than having their picture taken with any other camera – and understand the value in enrolling, any preconceived notions are quickly neutralized.

This makes perfect sense considering the technology’s purpose is to keep patients safe from medical errors, the danger of duplicate medical records and the potential devastation that medical identity theft and fraud can cause.

You don’t even have to take our word for it. Check out this customer testimonial video on patient acceptance of our RightPatient® patient identification solution with iris biometrics:

What are your concerns about the use of iris recognition for patient identification? Please leave us your questions and comments below.

Fortune Magazine Article Highlights Growing Use of Biometrics for Patient Identification

February 10, 2015/5233 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG /by John Trader

A patient has their photo captured with an iris recognition camera at a hospital that has deployed biometrics for patient identification.

Excellent article in Fortune magazine today written by Laura Shin that addresses the topic of healthcare data breaches and whether or not the increasing use of biometrics for patient identification will add a layer of protection to help thwart hackers in the future and eliminate medical identity theft and healthcare fraud.

We are grateful that Laura included us in her research for the article, mentioning our work with implementing iris biometrics for patient identification at Novant Health’s Clemmons Medical Center location and a specific case of when a father brought his son into their facility, pointing out that: Read more

How Accurate Patient Identification Impacts Health Information Management (HIM)

January 8, 2015/4781 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG /by John Trader

We have spent a lot of time during the past few years discussing how establishing accurate patient identification in healthcare with biometrics is the most effective technology to prevent:

— Duplicate medical records
— Healthcare fraud
— Medical identity theft

and improve:

— Patient safety
— Revenue cycle management

The use of biometrics for patient identification in healthcare helps HIM departments spend time on more value added services.

What often goes unnoticed is the impact that biometric patient identification solutions have on Health Information Management (HIM) departments. HIM departments carry tremendous responsibility on their shoulders in any healthcare organization acting as the entity in charge of providing and processing medical records containing patient information from pre-admission through discharge and afterward until the record is complete. This process includes:

— Preparing, indexing, and imaging all paper medical records
— Analyzing the health record for accuracy and to ensure it is completed
— Releasing patient information and protections assigned for closed-adoption, drug treatment, alcohol treatment, sexual, and behavioral health issues
— Coding for research, reimbursement, and provider report cards – coding personnel are responsible for abstracting diagnoses and procedures from medical records and assigning them a numerical code to ensure accurate billing and for data collection
— Analyzing active medical records to ensure all diagnoses are accurately documented
— Upon a client’s discharge from the hospital, process documents to provide relevant client demographic and medical information to the designated aftercare agencies to facilitate follow-up and continuity of the client’s care

Often considered the “medical record gatekeepers” of the healthcare industry, HIM departments perform one of the most critical functions in the healthcare work flow by ensuring the safety of patients through medical record accuracy. HIM also helps to facilitate fast and efficient payments under strict time constraints for services rendered, and spend a lot of time correcting patient records because healthcare facilities want to be paid on the care provided to patients in a timely fashion.

A large part of medical record reconciliation is resolving duplicate medical records and overlays (when two patients medical histories appear on one medical record) which consumes Full Time Equivalents (FTE’s), and swallows up resources that could otherwise be spent on more value-added tasks that directly impact revenue cycle management and limits penalties.

Litigation is also an important point to stress. A patient’s chart must be able to withstand the scrutiny of a legal proceeding if a patient were to sue a healthcare facility lending even more importance to the work of HIM to ensure medical record accuracy. There is also the issue of reporting. The HIM department is directly responsible that medical records are accurate for quality reporting which has a direct impact on reimbursement and avoiding penalties imposed by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) that range from readmissions to demonstrated improvement in patient outcomes. Keep in mind the new healthcare paradigm – stressing the quality vs. the quantity of services provided, a huge shift change that carries additional responsibility and an increased sense of urgency to ensure data accuracy at any healthcare facility.

Which brings us to the use of biometrics for accurate patient identification on the front end.

Healthcare facilities that have invested in deploying biometrics for accurate patient identification to prevent duplicate medical records and overlays on the front end are seeing the trickle down benefits to HIM departments, specifically the fact that they are spending less time reconciling duplicates and overlays and more time on coding, revenue cycle management, and reporting. It should be noted however, that biometric patient identification solutions built with search capabilities based on “one-to-many” matching types are the only solutions available that can truly prevent duplicate medical records, fraud, and medical identity at the point of registration. Do your homework before selecting a vendor, not all offer this type of back end matching capability.

Why is it important to reduce HIM FTEs spent on reconciliation of duplicate medical records and overlays? As noted earlier, many hospitals have expanded responsibilities vis-à-vis Meaningful Use, EHR implementation, and meeting Affordable Care Act requirements, and it has become disadvantageous to continue devoting any time at all to duplicate medical record and overlay reconciliation. Biometric patient identification solutions open the door to re-allocation of HIM FTEs to more critical functions such as coding, reimbursement, and reporting. Simply put, implementing biometrics during patient registration is opening the door for HIM departments across the industry to provide a larger and more productive support role to meet the shifting sands of reimbursement and address the need to move towards quality vs. quantity of care.

Hospitals should be actively seeking to deploy patient matching and patient identification technologies that eliminate barriers (e.g. duplicate medical records, overlays) and maximize HIM productivity to shift FTEs away from continuous master patient index (MPI) cleanup and more towards coding, quality review, reimbursement, and other areas. Many hospitals are already re-aligning their HIM departments in the wake of EHR implementation, and we expect to see more of the same for those using biometrics for accurate patient identification.

What other ways can the use of biometrics for patient identification reduce HIM FTEs?

RightPatient® Receives Award from Fierce Markets for Patient Identity Management Solution

December 17, 2014/3874 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG /by John Trader

RightPatient® was awarded “Best in Class” and “Fiercest Engagement Solution” for their patient identity management and patient engagement platform that helps to increase patient safety.

We are honored to announce that FierceMarkets, renowned publishers of many prestigious B2B publications, including several dedicated to healthcare and health IT, bestowed the “Fiercest Engagement Solution” award to us for our RightPatient® patient identity management and patient engagement solution. The entire RightPatient® team was excited and humbled to be recognized for our efforts to help increase patient safety, eliminate duplicate medical records, and prevent medical identity theft and fraud.

The FierceMarkets awards recognize pioneering technologies and solutions that will “catapult healthcare delivery into exciting new realms.” An elite team of judges comprised of CEOs and technology leaders from leading U.S. hospitals and health systems carefully evaluated candidates based on the following criteria: Read more

Podcast Features RightPatient® President Michael Trader Discussing Biometrics and Patient Identification

December 2, 2014/3674 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG /by John Trader

Our thanks goes out to Kelley Hill and Terry Baker from Healthcare Tech Talk for inviting our own Michael Trader to speak about the rising use of biometrics for patient identification in healthcare.

The rising use of using biometrics for patient identification in healthcare has hospitals curious about the technology.

Kelley and Terry recently hosted a podcast to learn more about how the use of biometric identification technology is helping to: Read more

New Podcast Released on the use of Biometrics for Patient ID in Healthcare

November 3, 2014/4786 views / 0 Comments/in BLOG, Podcasts /by John Trader

Thank you to our friends at Avisian publishing for allowing us the opportunity to appear as a guest on their latest SecureID News, “Regarding ID” podcast on the increasing use of biometrics for patient ID in healthcare.

Listen in to this podcast from SecureID News on the rise of biometrics for patient identification in healthcare.

Listen in to this podcast where SecureID News’ Gina Jordan interviews both Michael Trader, President of M2SYS Technology, and Melaine Wilson, VP of Revenue Cycle Management at Novant Health to discuss:

What is RightPatient®?
Why patients are overwhelmingly being acceptive of using biometrics to protect their medical identity and ensure they receive accurate medical care
How RightPatient® protects patient privacy
Where is biometrics for patient identification being used across the care continuum?
How is Novant Health using RightPatient® at their hospitals?
What Novant Health patients are saying about using iris biometrics for identification
Why RightPatient® was built to seamlessly interface with ANY EHR provider software
How easy it is to scale up the RightPatient® system
How RightPatient® is used for accurate patient identification across an EMPI
How RightPatient® supports: patient safety, quality outcomes, and hospital infection control

This podcast serves as an excellent resource for education on how the RightPatient® biometric patient ID system works, why hospitals are adopting the technology, what patients think about it, and it’s application to authenticate a patient at each and every touchpoint along the care continuum.

Thank you to Gina and the entire SecureID News team for the opportunity to appear on the podcast and discuss the rising use of biometrics for patient ID in healthcare!

Posts

Uniting Accurate Patient Identification with Secure Single Sign-On (SSO) to Improve Data Integrity in Healthcare

Biometric Patient Identification CIO Testimonial Video

Post Show Thoughts on Biometric Patient Identification from the 41st Annual NAHAM Conference

Over 99% of Patients Overwhelmingly Accepting of Iris Biometrics for Patient Identification

Fortune Magazine Article Highlights Growing Use of Biometrics for Patient Identification

How Accurate Patient Identification Impacts Health Information Management (HIM)

RightPatient® Receives Award from Fierce Markets for Patient Identity Management Solution

Podcast Features RightPatient® President Michael Trader Discussing Biometrics and Patient Identification

New Podcast Released on the use of Biometrics for Patient ID in Healthcare

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