Address Verification and the Health Care Industry
Posted by Kathy Jameson on Thu, Dec 08, 2011
Since the 2009 passage of two landmark bills, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care industry has been quickly moving toward greater adoption of electronic medical and health records. Digital health records underscore the growing need for better patient contact information. Hospitals, clinics, physician offices and emergency departments need accurate and immediate information on their patients.
However, recent studies are mixed as to the accuracy, effectiveness, and security levels displayed by medical institutions during the migration to digital platforms and cloud computing. The situation is further complicated by the fact that data collection and information sharing must comply with electronic protected health information (ePHI), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security rules, and other federal regulations.
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In a survey conducted between February and June, 56.9 percent of physician respondents said their practice uses electronic health records in some capacity other than for billing
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That same survey reported that 52 percent of respondents said their practice was planning to apply for federal EHR incentive payments, up from 41 percent in 2010
Accuracy remains a critical problem. A Journal of Emergency Medicine study reported that just 42 percent of patients could successfully be contacted using phone numbers provided, with nearly 28 percent of those patients providing inaccurate or disconnected numbers.
StrikeIron's Contact Verification Suite for Health Care is the cure for inaccurate and insecure information. The suite was created to help health care providers maintain accurate patient contact information. It can be easily integrated into hospital or emergency room patient registration systems and back-office systems. Correct patient contact information is critical for billing collection and follow-up care.
Another key point of differentiation is StrikeIron's secure, transactional cloud architecture, which minimizes any chance of ePHI violations under HIPAA. StrikeIron’s functionality means health care institutions can verify instantly their patient's contact information. Through the suite, these organizations can verify patient’s addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.
Here's how leading providers use StrikeIron's Contact Verification Suite for Health Care:
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Patient contact information is created and validated during admittance, and the StrikeIron suite decreases the time needed to enter patient contact information and ensures the accuracy of the data entered, flagging any problems in real-time
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The Contact Verification Suite for Health Care batch cleans existing databases to improve data quality, and maintains accurate patient contact information across different systems -- a key component of EMR functionality for sharing patient information between hospitals and physicians
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The suite cleans data during system migrations and Master Patient Index (MPI) projects
Hospital administrators, who are already challenged on the technology front to implement ICD-10, electronic medical records systems, and pursue meaningful use certification, need easy, accurate and secure solutions in the wake of federal audits and mandates.
StrikeIron's Contact Verification Suite for Health Care makes the legislation work seamlessly for any institution that wants accurate, actionable address verification.