Cyber attacks are more common in the healthcare sector than you might think. These security breaches take several forms, ranging from identity theft to data manipulation. Health files include extremely confidential data that includes medical records, national healthcare numbers, and other sensitive information that is relevant to the patient's personal information. Cybercriminals who are adept at intercepting online data for malicious purposes are very interested in this information. If you want to know more about the significance of identity theft in the healthcare sector along with knowing the most suitable way to verify your patient’s identity, then you have certainly come to the right place.
Why Know Your Patient Procedures are so Important?
Considering the idea of Know Your Customer (KYC), which is intended to provide safety for banks and financial institutions in the form of consumer identity and authentication, not only to guarantee online protection and eliminate money laundering but also to conform with regulations and norms. Likewise, in the healthcare industry, there is a pressing need to take action to reduce the possibility of security breaches.
Taking the idea of e-KYC a step forward, KYP is equally important in the medical field. To combat cybercrime, drug theft, and data leaks, the first move should be to verify your patient identity. Therefore, you should verify your patient’s identity online and implement effective procedures for delivering prescriptions, medical results, records, etc.
How to Verify Your Patient’s Identity?
The Know Your Patient (KYP) method is carried out by online identity authentication processes. The system would require the online user to have an official id card, such as a driver's license, with a photo on it, in order to open an account with a hospital. Second, in the patient verification process, the user will be asked to take a selfie using their smartphone's camera. Face authentication will be performed by the device, which would compare the facial characteristics of the image on the ID document to the facial biometric data captured in real-time. If all matches are found, the machine moves on to the next step. The device also includes an age verification check, which verifies the consumer's age before prescribing medicines.
The age data from the ID document is retrieved and compared to the information entered into the portal by the user. Furthermore, user verification checks are performed against AML regulations and penalties lists to ensure that the user's identity has never been associated with any illegal activity. After carrying out checks to verify your patient’s identity, they are onboarded as legitimate users. Data protection and consumer privileges are taken seriously by regulatory bodies. Each agency that handles consumer data now has the burden of incorporating secure technologies and online authentication tools into their systems. This is to lessen the chances of bad players and activities infiltrating the system.
Two Most Crucial Use Cases of IDV solutions in Healthcare
Protecting Confidential Information
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has laid out a set of principles and procedures for dealing with patient information and subsequent guidelines to verify your patient’s identity. These directives must be strictly enforced by every medical establishment in order to protect the confidential information used to identify patients. To prevent any breaches and ensure the confidentiality of medical records, the data flow is constantly tracked. Any inconsistency can cause serious suffering. When dealing with Protected Health Information (PHI), an entity must take precautions to protect the patient information. An information loss, otherwise, could result in hefty regulatory penalties on the institution.
Screening Minors in Online Ordering
Before delivering ordered medication to a customer, online pharmacies must verify their age. Moreover, age validation needs to be performed by online medical retailers and hospitals before prescribing medication to patients. It is because there are age-restricted drugs in shops that require a thorough age verification check; otherwise, selling medicines to minors will be considered an illegal activity. Age verification can be performed by employing online identity authentication solutions KYP. They incorporate all the necessary tools required to validate the age claimed by a patient and that too without any physical contact.
