The health sector is the second industry after financial institutes to face identity theft fraud. Medical identity theft has increased to a level that compelled hospitals and insurance companies to adopt Know Your Patient (KYP) laws. In the digital era, the number of frauds and the wiser ways of fraudsters to commit crimes is increasing with each passing day. Every industry is trying to avoid unfortunate events by incorporating effective verification systems. The Healthcare industry is also trying its hand in this race. Patient identification is the ultimate solution for eradicating medical identity theft.
Patient Identification Policy
Medical records or data are extremely important in hospitals. Pharmaceuticals take the medical data and are trying to develop advanced medicinal formulas for the next generation. Insurance companies can also face financial losses as a result of data breaches.
Before the incorporation of advanced systems, there were a lot of frauds that hospitals had to face in the name of identity theft. After having the modern verification systems in place, the number of frauds is not minimized as it should be. The major cause of data breaches in the healthcare industry might be cybercriminals or their business associates. Hospitals have recently adopted digitized verification methods so there are chances they are not deploying sophisticated patient identification policies which are causing them to face medical identity theft.
How Can Medical Identity Theft Fraud Be Avoided?
Once the fraudsters become successful in stealing the history or the current data of the patients, it causes the hospitals, insurance companies, and patients to suffer a lot. Especially patients become the most vulnerable from the effects of such crimes.
Just think for a moment what would happen if the blood group of the patient might have been changed by the criminal while stealing their data. The next time when the patient visits the hospital, they will get the blood of some different group. The criminals being operated on the patients’ ID can also cost legitimate customers to pay for surgeries they never had.
Below are the ways to combat medical identity theft frauds:
- Give Social Security Number (SSN) If Necessary
Never give your social security number easily. Ask the officials why they need this? Only give the SSN number if inevitable.
- Monitor Your Credit Card Regular
Companies provide their customers some benefits for joining their services. Credit card providers also facilitate their customers to check their credit card details regularly. Customers also are vigilant enough to monitor their credit card details for their security.
- Review Your Medical History
Patients must review their medical history by taking it from doctors or hospitals. if you see something other than your medical record, it may mean that the fraudster has amended the information or it is of someone you don’t recognize. Regularly checking your medical history is extremely important, otherwise, you may get a changed blood group in your body in case you go to the emergency room and need a blood transfusion immediately.
- Utilizing A Medical Identity Monitoring Service
Many healthcare centers now facilitate their customers by providing medical identity monitoring services. Monitoring patients’ medical records will help the hospitals to make a decisive prediction about the health of patients.
Patient Identification Through Biometric Verification
Once the initial verification of the customers is done, clinics and pharmacies can authenticate the customer through facial recognition technology. 3D depth analysis is performed on customers’ faces that can verify the transactions made by the customers. Customer identification policy is beneficial for:
- Verifying customers to provide remote medical services to patients
- Perform Ongoing KYC to authenticate customers periodically
- Responsible selling for online pharmaceutical stores
- Patient identification for eradicating medical identity thefts
- Accurate verification of customers using the government-issued ID documents for fighting insurance frauds
Conclusion
Knowing your patient is vital for healthcare industries to combat medical identity theft frauds. The increasing number of identity theft made it necessary for hospitals and pharmaceuticals to incorporate efficient methods to verify their customers and increase the data security for patients. Verification of customers can facilitate hospitals to have a streamlined workflow and provide a better experience to patients.