Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is revolutionizing all types of businesses, including healthcare. With its ability to generate as well as analyze content, GenAI is helping providers with diagnostic and treatment decisions, informing medical research, and giving patients tools to better understand their health conditions.
However, the vast potential of GenAI brings with it security risks. The healthcare community understands the delicate balance needed around issues of data privacy and HIPAA laws, and the dangers of intellectual property theft, misinformation, enhanced cyber threats, fraud, and deepfakes. Unfortunately, fraudsters often target the healthcare sector, with the phone as their preferred method of communication.
This has led to a disconnect among consumers, who understand the importance of phone calls in managing their health yet also are hesitant to answer. In the first quarter of last year, Americans lost over $16 million to healthcare fraud, with most victims contacted through phone calls. According to the FCC, health insurance open enrollment periods see an uptick in fraudulent calls and texts from threat actors attempting to steal money and personal information from consumers.
There was also an alarming increase in robocalls and spam calls across all sectors last year, with a large proportion of robocalls made by scammers. For example, last April, Americans received more than 4.4 billion robocalls. On average, there were 146.9 million robocalls a day and 1,700 every second in April, an increase from March’s 137.6 million a day and 1,592 per second.
Why Do Scammers Target Healthcare?
The health sector is particularly appealing to threat actors because they know that consumers are more trusting of calls from health providers. Scammers can then use the stolen data to create false insurance claims, commit identity theft, or conduct black-market sales.
One common healthcare scam involves fraudsters posing as people who work for Medicare or Medicaid asking consumers for personal data or money, threatening loss of coverage if they don’t receive payment. These healthcare-related attacks are often sophisticated and involve caller ID spoofing so that the call appears to come directly from a hospital or physician’s office.
Technologies to Combat Phone Fraud
Consumers have made it clear they want more protection against unwanted calls and fraud. There is technology available that can help healthcare and other businesses establish the phone as a trusted platform for communications with consumers. These outgoing calls for businesses display the business’s logo and brand name, as well as a reason for the call. Possible reasons for the call include: “Appointment Reminder,” “Customer Inquiry,” “Customer Service,” “Refill Reminder,” “Delivery Service,” “Patient Callback,” and “Upcoming Visit.”
These branded calls are verified with end-to-end call verification to help ensure the call is legitimate. The reason for the call adds additional reassurance to consumers who may be afraid to pick up, even from what appears to be a trusted health provider’s number.
As technological advancements and security challenges continue to intersect in the healthcare industry, companies can help ensure that the phone remains a reliable and safe communication channel for patients. By adopting these new capabilities, healthcare companies and providers can demonstrate they care as much about patients’ security as they do about their health, and they’re making good faith efforts to address patient security concerns.
About Jonjie Sena
Jonjie Sena is VP of Product Management at TransUnion, responsible for driving the go-to-market strategy for Contact Center and Communications Solutions. Jonjie and his team focus on helping businesses overcome the impacts of the robocalling epidemic and restoring trust in phone calls.
Jonjie has over twenty years’ experience leading product strategy, technology and marketing teams to launch and drive market adoption of solutions for communications service providers and enterprises. He holds multiple patents in personalized and authenticated communications. Prior to joining TransUnion, Jonjie held executive roles as VP Product Marketing at Neustar, VP Marketing at TEOCO, and VP Products & Technology at ACE*COMM.
