Healthcare

Positive identification of all prospective patients registering for services within a health care delivery institution is crucial to ensure healthcare services are given to the right person. As Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems (sometimes called an Electronic Medical Record or EMR) are widely being adopted by health care provider organizations throughout the world, iris biometrics solves the fundamental problem of preventing mistaken patient identification with easy to use dual eye iris biometrics. In many institutions, there are many patients with similar names so it is essential to ensure the institution treats the right patient.

In addition, healthcare institutions have a fundamental need to know exactly who is being treated to ensure that each patient is authorized to receive services and that payment and reimbursement are properly handled.

Iris biometrics is ideally suited to provide positive identity confirmation prior to the delivery of services. Most importantly, iris recognition is hands-free and contactless, so that the registration process avoids any opportunities for contamination within the institution.

In summary, there are several advantages of migrating from a credential based system to iris based registration:

Prevent duplicate records. The enrollment process instantly checks the database for existing enrollments of the eye, preventing the assignment of a second unique identifying number to a person who already has a record in the database.

Prevent fraudulent access to healthcare service. While typical credentials can be fraudulent, stolen or simply lent out, iris biometrics combats medical identity theft by preventing an individual to claim another’s identity.

Improve revenue cycle management. Positive identification of patients in the absence of reliable credentials or intentionally misleading identity claims can deliver high returns on investment. Biometrics can positively link patients with their insurance policies, past insurance records and past payment history, so that health care delivery institutions can determine the financial risk of each patient prior to or during treatment. Changing reimbursement models, including high deductible health plans, strongly incentivize institutions to place more emphasis on cash collections up front rather than afterward, when obtaining reimbursement becomes much more difficult. Biometrics allows institution to identify patients at the time of registration with a history of claims rejection, or avoiding paying copay or deductible charges.

With increasingly changing reimbursement models and high deductible health plans placing more payment liability with the patient, health systems must increase their focus on cash collections. Positive identification of patients who have avoided payment of deductible or copay charges also makes the collection process more defensible.

Improve the patient experience, leading to greater patient satisfaction and loyalty. Iris based registration solutions can instantly retrieves the right patient record for diagnosis and for adding new information. Institutions can replace the burdensome and time-consuming authentication process of IDs and passwords with biometrics. The patient can be instantly linked to their EHR record at arrival time, thereby streamlining the registration process. Best practice patient registration process will continue to grow as a strategic business issue

Improve quality of care and prevent medical errors. Biometrics avoids patient misidentification of people with the same or similar names. Since EHR systems include diagnoses, prescriptions, surgeries and other treatments, these people are not put at risk of medical errors bases on a compromised EHR record.