First Pst after migration to Cloud in Health care Blog

  Medical identity theft is a growing problem for the healthcare industry: nearly 15.1 million patient records were compromised in 2018, an increase of nearly 270% on the previous year. While providers are busy rolling out patient portals and electronic medical records to better serve consumers, criminals are sneaking through the cracks to steal patient data and profit from vulnerable health systems. The rapid rise in medical identity theft is partly explained by the fact that it goes undetected for much longer than other types of identity theft, giving criminals more time to use stolen personal information for financial gain. It’s also a lot more lucrative. Medical identities can be used to access treatment and drugs, make fraudulent benefits claims and even create fake IDs to buy and sell medical equipment. This can be devastating for victims, both emotionally and financially. Unlike credit card theft, where victims aren’t considered financially liable, 65% of people who fall prey to medical identity fraudsters are left with hospital bills running into the tens of thousands. The compromised medical record is tough to reconcile, jeopardizing future medical treatment. For providers, a data breach can mean significant reputational damage and loss of trust, and huge financial consequences – each breach costs an average of $2.2 million. But what’s most alarming for providers is that more than half of data breaches originate within the organization. Unfortunately, many providers lack sufficient security protocols and detection tools to safeguard the data they’re holding. The good news is that the tools exist to help you protect your patient data. What can healthcare providers learn from other industries about identity protection? Banking and financial services have pioneered identity protection over the last twenty years, and healthcare can learn a lot by looking at what’s worked in those industries. For consumers, using digital technology to pay your bills, book flights and buy pretty much anything is the norm, all with reassuringly quick fraud detection and resolution. Healthcare has been a little slower to embrace digitization in this way. Despite the opportunities, fears around security, privacy and inconveniencing patients have stalled efforts to transform outmoded processes. Drawing on two decades of innovations in other fields, fast-paced technological developments mean many of the early challenges around implementing safe and secure patient portals have been overcome. 6 strategies to keep patient data safe Here are six smart ways to ensure your organization has done everything possible to safeguard patient data.     Tell your patients how you’re keeping their data safe Patient trust is at the heart of a successful patient-provider relationship. Share the steps your organization is taking to secure patient information, so patients feel reassured and confident in using their portal. Data security should be a key strand in your patient engagement messaging.     Verify patient identities to protect access to medical records To avoid HIPAA violations, it’s critical to ensure you’re giving access to the right patient. Secure log-in monitoring and device intelligence can help you confirm that the person trying to log in is who they say they are. When something doesn’t add up, identity proofing questions can be triggered to provide an extra check. In an exciting new development, the healthcare industry is also starting to see the use of biometrics to supplement existing identity-proofing solutions. Just as you might use facial recognition to unlock your smartphone, there are now ways to authenticate your healthcare consumers’ identity using the same technology.     Automate patient portal enrollment You want your portal to be as secure as possible, but not at the expense of your patients’ time and effort. An automated enrollment process can eliminate the hassle of long, complicated set-ups and reduce errors at the same time.       Arm your organization with a multi-layered security strategy There is no silver bullet for protecting patient information—it will require various tools. A robust data security strategy will be multi-layered, including device recognition, identity proofing and fraud management.     Educate staff on security threats and warning signs Data breaches aren't all malicious – human error is a massive component, from mailing personal data to the wrong patients, to accidentally publishing data on public websites or leaving a laptop behind after getting off the subway. Training staff on the potential pitfalls will help them help you in protecting confidential patient information.     Develop a robust device strategy ‘Bring Your Own Device’ arrangements (BYOD) are convenient for staff and patients, but personal devices need to be secured when accessing patient information across the network. Make sure your teams, patients and visitors are aware of how to log-on securely to WiFi and follow best practice to keep data safe. In a climate of ‘doing more with less’, healthcare leaders are turning to other industries to find ways to boost quality of care and streamline operational efficiency. Automation, digitization and consumer-centric approaches make good business sense across the board, but they’re sensible investments for your data security strategy too. Investing in secure patient identities is a way to prevent painful and unnecessary losses down the line – and it’s what patients have come to expect. ⁠— Find out what more you could do to shore up your data security and prevent medical identity theft.

“Build it and they will come” might work for 1980s movie characters, multinational coffee franchises and beloved sports teams, but it’s not a great engagement strategy for most consumer-facing organizations – especially in healthcare. Take patient portals, for example. Giving your patients a way to access their health records can help improve their health outcomes, increase compliance with care plans, and create a more positive healthcare experience overall. But do your customers know the portal exists? Do they know how it could serve them? Do they trust it? You’ve built it, but how many patients are actually logging on? In 2017, over half the US population had access to a patient portal. Around half of those people used it at least once in the previous year. Of those who didn’t, 59% said it was because they didn’t feel they needed to access an online medical record, and 25% were worried about privacy and security. This tells us two things: If healthcare providers want to increase the number of patients using their portal, they need to proactively communicate the benefits to those patients, and healthcare providers could do more to reassure patients they take portal security seriously. If patients discover that using the portal is better than not using it, and that they can do so securely, they will be more likely to log on. You can address both in your patient engagement and marketing strategies. Perhaps the better mantra is: “if you solve their problem and tell them about it, they will come”. Balancing portal security and patient convenience Your patient portal is more than just a platform for patients to access test results, sort out bills or schedule appointments. It’s a way to nurture the patient-provider relationship. And at its heart, that relationship is about trust. One way to build trust is to ensure your portal meets the strictest of security measures without creating an excessive admin burden for patients. You can do this with a security strategy that layers up several protective measures to help you tackle common areas of vulnerability, including weak ID verification, over-reliance on password-protection, and failure to encrypt sensitive data. A few practical ways to keep your patient portal secure include: using ID verification when someone signs up for the portal using device intelligence and identity proofing when a user signs in to the portal deploying extra security checks where the risk of identity fraud is higher putting systems in place to flag and respond to security breaches as fast as possible. A solution like PreciseID® can help you take care of your patients’ privacy and security behind the scenes. They’ll see just enough to reassure them that you’re taking their security seriously, without any protracted log-in process that puts them off using the portal altogether. Marketing your patient portal so more patients benefit from it Solving your patients’ concerns about security is just one route to boosting portal utilization. Another important way to ensure more patients use and benefit from the patient portal is to actively encourage them to access their online records regularly. Research suggests individuals who are encouraged to use their online medical record by their provider are almost twice as likely to access it, compared to those who weren’t actively encouraged. So how do you convince your patients of the benefits of regularly logging on? That it’s not just a convenient way to manage their medical journey, but could result in better health? The answer lies in consumer data – the lifestyle, demographic, psychographic and behavioral information that gives you a fuller understanding of what drives your patients. Experian Health’s ConsumerView data analytics can capture insights that let you reach out to your consumers with the right message, in the right way, at the right time.  Do they live a busy lifestyle? Reassure them that the portal can save them time. Are there lifestyle factors that may hinder their adherence to medication? Encourage them to use the portal to make sure their prescriptions are up to date. If you discover your consumers are big social media users, you might target your portal engagement campaign through those channels. Equally, if a consumer doesn’t have any social media accounts, there would be no point investing in Facebook ads. Personalization makes your patients feel taken care of, leading to greater trust, loyalty and satisfaction. Increase patient portal engagement today In the wake of consumerism and IT transformation across many other industries, a tailored and digitally secure healthcare service is a must.  “Consumers now expect to be provided with a turnkey, individual experience that is fast and seamless,”  said Kristen Simmons, Experian Health’s senior vice president of strategy and innovation. Your patient portal must be seen to provide a valuable and secure service. While there’s a way to go to increase the number of patients making full use of portals, the tools exist to support healthcare providers’ engagement goals. Learn more about how your organization can leverage consumer insights to improve patient retention and engagement. 

It’s a puzzle many healthcare providers are still working to solve: when over 80% of health outcomes are influenced by non-medical factors, how can health systems help their patients achieve better outcomes? From affording time off work so they can attend an appointment, to accessing healthy food, childcare or transport, your patients’ ability to engage with and benefit from health services can be heavily influenced by a host of social and economic dynamics Understanding these social determinants of health (SDOH) gives you a more complete picture of your patients’ health and life circumstances. You can anticipate their needs, coordinate their care more effectively, and ultimately give them a better healthcare experience. What’s more, harnessing the right data on SDOH leads to smarter investment and operational decisions, yielding advantages for your health system as a whole. That’s why many providers are starting to use non-medical consumer data in their care management planning. Here we look at some of the top use cases for SDOH data. 5 top use cases for data on social determinants of health     Reduce missed appointments No-shows cost providers an average of $200 each (plus a lot of wasted physician time). Often these are down to lack of access to transportation or childcare. SDOH data can help you anticipate where these challenges might occur, so you can offer additional services like a free shuttle bus or crèche. You’ll make the experience a little easier for the patient, and potentially prevent an unchecked health issue from becoming something more serious.     Save costs from preventable health events Unfortunately, life circumstances can lead to many people using health services in a way that could be avoided. Missed appointments or difficulty following a care plan can lead to escalating medical issues, entailing more treatment and readmissions. Patients might also fall back on emergency services because they can’t easily access appropriate alternatives. SDOH data helps you understand the circumstances that might lead to this kind of patient behavior. For example, if you can spot patients who may be likely to dial 911 because they have no other way to get to the health services they need, you can offer alternatives that avoid an unnecessary visit to the ED. This could help you save up to $2000 per Emergency Department visit and around $10,000 for each hospital stay (which often can’t be fully reimbursed if the patient ends up being readmitted).     Increase care plan compliance A patient’s living situation can often determine whether or not they’ll be able to stick to their care plan. For example, specific dietary advice can be a real challenge for a diabetic patient if they have a limited food budget, lack of time to shop and prepare food, or a plain lack of options of where to buy it. An SDOH needs assessment can flag this in advance so clinicians can help patients find a plan that will work for them. Similarly, pharmacies might use consumer data to help minimize abandoned prescriptions or situations where a patient fails to follow dosage directions, which is estimated to cost the industry $290 billion per year.     Save administrative and clinical time Analyzing consumer data can help your operations run more efficiently, which benefits your patients through well-coordinated care, timely information sharing and prompt referrals. Many providers are taking advantage of automated solutions for leveraging SDOH data, saving massive amounts of administrative time for care managers by pre-populating patient data and automating SDOH needs assessments. Consumer insights solutions like Experian Health’s ConsumerView analytics can optimize operational efficiencies and ensure your care managers use their time well.     Investing in relevant community health programs One of the most impactful use cases for SDOH data is to gain a richer understanding of your member base, so you can invest in the most relevant community health programs. For example, a 2018 pilot project by Atrium Health in North Carolina screened for food insecurity in older patients who may have been at risk of readmission. Emergency food services were provided where needed, and as a result, readmissions dropped by 60%. Your purchasing power can also be a force for change. The Cleveland Clinic outsourced its laundry service to Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, a local collaborative working to combat poverty. Ralph Turner, executive director of patient support services at the Cleveland Clinic says: “Establishing the foundation for people to stabilize their incomes and become part owners in a business… in itself generates health and wellbeing in our community.” Leveraging consumer data to improve patient outcomes These examples show some of the varied ways screening for social determinants of health can open the door to understanding your patients and creating truly person-centered care services. Who knows what opportunities are hidden in the SDOH data for your patient population? Are there gaps in your data? Could you combine different data sets for a fuller picture? What exactly is your consumer data telling you, and how do you turn it into meaningful management decisions? At Experian Health, we have comprehensive data assets and analytics platforms to help you answer these questions and more, and leverage consumer data most effectively.