Technology advancement has led to an increase in crime. One of the most well-known crimes that is used to steal money, assets, or other financial benefits is identity fraud. It is present in almost every business. After the financial sector, the healthcare industry is the second most vulnerable to identity theft. The increased levels of fraud in the medical sector compelled hospitals and insurance companies to implement Know Your Patient regulations. In this digital era, there are more scams and cheating tricks being used every day to commit fraud. Every company is attempting to avoid encountering unfavorable situations by utilizing effective identity verification protocols. Patient verification is the best method for reducing and even eradicating fraud in the healthcare industry.
Policy to Verify Patient Identity
Medical records and information about patients are crucial in hospitals. By utilizing medical data, pharmaceutical companies create cutting-edge drug formulas for the coming generation. Hospitals had to deal with numerous identity fraud scams before using advanced verification techniques like know your patient. Additionally, data breaches can result in financial losses for insurance companies. Despite the use of contemporary verification protocols, the fraud rate has not yet dropped to the point where it should be. The majority of data breaches in the healthcare sector are caused by hackers or their partners. To combat medical identity theft, hospitals have recently implemented automated identity verification programs such as know your patient.
How to Avoid Medical Identity Theft
Patients, hospitals, and insurance companies pay the price for failing to follow know your patient procedures. When patients’ records or data are successfully stolen by fraudsters, it is clear that patients must now deal with negative repercussions. The imposters receiving care on the patient’s identity card can also cause the patient to pay for a surgery they never had. In order to avoid such fraud, it is imperative to follow the know your patient verification process. After talking about the potential for fraud in the medical sector, let’s now delve deeper to understand the patient-knowing techniques. These methods can be employed to prevent medical identity fraud:
1- Maintain Consistent Credit Card Monitoring
Businesses make it easier for their clients to select their services. Additionally, credit card companies offer their customers the option to regularly monitor or check their credit card information. Additionally, clients must be aware of the importance of regularly checking their credit card information as a precaution for their own security.
2- Examine Medical Records Regularly
Patients must obtain their medical records from their hospitals, doctors, or other healthcare providers in order to review them. If they see something other than their own medical information or if the record does not look familiar, it’s possible that a scammer has successfully altered their data. Hospitals need to regularly review patient histories as it allows them to adhere to the know your patient regulations.
3- Choosing a Patient Age Verification System
In order to adhere to know your patient policies, many healthcare organizations now offer patient age verification services. Hospitals made the decision to offer this service so it would be simple to determine a patient’s actual age in order to diagnose a true illness and guard against fraud. ID verification for pharmacies is also important to protect minors from gaining access to adult medical drugs.
Using Biometric Verification to Confirm Patient Identity
After the initial identification process is finished, hospitals, clinics, and other medical organizations can verify the patients’ identities. Know your patient could also be implemented by biometric verification. Patients’ faces can be subjected to 3D depth analysis to confirm the transactions made by customers. Patient verification processes are useful for:
- Identify patient and providing them with remote medical solutions
- Regularly performing the ongoing know your customer regulation to verify clients
- Online pharmaceutical drug sales to patients with prescriptions
- Identifying patients to stop medical identity fraud
- To prevent insurance fraud, validate customer identification using government-issued ID cards
Conclusion
The medical industry has become the second most affected sector by ID fraud. Fraudsters use false identities to defraud medical insurance companies and hospitals for their free treatment. It is crucial for the healthcare industry to implement know your patient regulations to combat medical identity fraud. Due to the rising number of identity fraud cases, it is now mandatory for hospitals, doctors, and other medical entities to use effective processes to identify patient. It has the potential to improve patients’ information security measures. Identification of customers can assist hospitals to have an uninterrupted workflow process and deliver a better experience to patients. Customer identification can help hospitals maintain a smooth working environment and provide a better patient experience.
