We are living in a time where members have more access to their personal health information than ever as a result of digital health initiatives to improve portal adoption. As members are taking more control of their health, there is also an increase in the number of vulnerabilities this presents to their identity data.
Traditional security methods are no longer enough to protect against the ever evolving types of fraud and ever increasing number of data breaches. In fact, eighty-nine percent of healthcare organizations have had patient data stolen in the past two years,1 yet the healthcare industry spends less than six percent of its budget on cybersecurity.2
Balancing the Need for Data Security with the Need for Member Engagement
With fraud on the rise and members demanding more security, identity proofing is more essential than ever before.
The challenge lies in onboarding and verifying identities in a manner that doesn’t discourage portal adoption. Members are taking advantage of portals to view and get answers to coverage questions, track claims and account activity, locate doctors and services, find health advice, manage their member profile, pay bills, and more.
However, members may be discouraged from using these online services if they do not trust their data will be kept secure and private, and if the process to verify their identities at login is too cumbersome. A multi-layered defense is needed in the form of multi-factor authentication of the identity to achieve this balance with maintaining member engagement.
Mitigating Fraud with Identity Proofing
By placing low friction authentication methods up front in an identity verification process, the real members are able to quickly access the portal. Fraudsters, however, should face a lot of friction, as they are unable to pass the layers of identity proofing put in place.
This is important because when fraudsters are successful it not only compromises the trust of the member in the healthcare organization, but also increases costs for the healthcare organization. It then has to remediate the breach and potentially pay out false claims. Worst of all, patient safety may be in jeopardy if any of the patient’s health data is altered and care providers then act on bad information.
Click here to learn more about how LexisNexis Risk Solutions is helping healthcare organizations find the right balance between keeping data secure and providing easy access to portals for better member engagement.
References:
89 Percent of Healthcare Entities Experienced Data Breaches
4 Healthcare Cybersecurity Stats That’ll Raise Your Blood Pressure