Telehealth during COVID-19: How to Increase Security while Maximizing Efficiency
As COVID-19 cases continued to rise worldwide, technology followed suit with many industries, including healthcare, amplifying their usage. Frontline heroes turned to telehealth technology with increased frequency compared to years prior as more than 46% of patient services were offered virtually. Although treating patients remotely is not new, (the earliest record shows telehealth in use in the late 1950s and early 1960s) privacy and security regulations have evolved to help safeguard patients seeking care. Since doctors and patients are continuing to maintain physical distance and leveraging communications to bridge this gap, it is more important than ever to confirm that the right patients are being reached.
With the world evaluating what the “new normal” looks like, legal measures regarding remote healthcare services are also being reviewed. While the healthcare industry awaits updated guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one step can be taken now to continue ensuring the correct patients are being contacted. Thankfully, there is a way for this to be accomplished in a simple, seamless and secure manner – analyzing phone number data.
Number portability allows consumers the choice and convenience of switching service providers while retaining their telephone number. With more than 600K telephone number porting transactions occurring daily (over 200M each year) in the United States alone, there’s a very good chance more than a few of these porting changes are patients. One thing to consider is that fraudsters might pose as patients to gain access to confidential information, so it is prudent to review telephone number porting activity as part of your process for confirming the identity of the person to whom you are providing information.
PortData Validate is the only authorized data source for accurate and up-to-date telephone number porting information for fraud and identity theft mitigation and risk assessment in the United States. The service provides real-time information regarding service provider ownership and porting history. PortData Validate can provide a healthcare provider or a company working on their behalf, with information about a telephone number to assess the risk of a patient-related interaction via that telephone number.
Telehealth technology allows healthcare providers to efficiently help their patients, and the information provided through PortData Validate will help allow them to simply, seamlessly and securely know that they are providing information to the intended recipient.