Imprivata, a healthcare IT security company, and Verato, a provider of patient identity matching solutions, today announced an integration partnership to offer a comprehensive solution for patient identification and record matching challenges. The integration will link links Imprivata PatientSecure, a positive patient identification solution for healthcare, with Verato Universal™ MPI, a cloud-based master patient index (MPI) solution powered by Verato’s proprietary referential matching technology.
Importance of Robust Patient Identification Strategy
According to Black Book, an average of 18 percent of a health system’s records are duplicates, meaning almost one in five patients do not have a complete medical record at the point of care. Healthcare organizations must deploy robust patient identity strategies to eliminate these duplicate records, assemble complete care histories, reduce redundant tests and procedures, and enable their patient engagement, patient access, and patient safety agendas. This joint offering directly addresses this problem while simultaneously laying a foundation for interoperability through accurate patient record exchange.
Imprivata/Verato Integration Benefits for Healthcare Organizations
By combining biometric authentication and referential matching, healthcare organizations can securely and accurately match patients to their medical records using a process of in-person identity proofing, advanced record resolution, and authentication. As cited in a 2018 research report by The Pew Charitable Trusts, biometrics and referential matching are two of four cornerstone opportunities to improve patient matching in the exchange of health information.
The combined solution from Imprivata and Verato also puts healthcare organizations on a path to comply with forthcoming regulations on interoperability, most recently evidenced in the proposed rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), which reflect a critical shift in the industry towards enabling patient access and reducing information blocking.
“Our customers are asking for a comprehensive solution for managing the end-to-end problem of patient data,” said Mark LaRow, CEO of Verato. “Biometrics capture patient identities wherever the patient appears, and referential matching ensures that all the records are linked to the correct patient. Together, Verato Universal MPI with Imprivata PatientSecure support the full lifecycle of patient identity. This solution will help providers, who are now being challenged to provide near-perfect patient information because of forthcoming regulations by ONC and CMS, support patient-directed access and eliminate “information blocking.” Additionally, there is a need for accurate patient data to feed new initiatives like analytics, telemedicine, precision medicine, social determinants of health, and clinical decision support. All of this tells us that we cannot continue pursuing the same patient matching architectures of the past 20 years. Something new is needed. And that something is the integration of biometrics and referential matching.”
