I was checking out at the grocery store the other day and forgot to hand over my loyalty card. You know - that’s the card that gives repeat customers special discounts. I dug it out of my wallet just before they rang up the total.  Imagine my surprise as the “loyalty discounts” amounted to a sizeable dollar amount! I guess being loyal to that store pays.

Imagine if doctors had a similar loyalty program aimed at keeping patients! What might it look like?

Studies show that patients change doctors more often than one would expect. Some of this is driven by changes in a health plan or network of contracted providers. Still other people change doctors because they move. But, other “defections” occur for any number of reasons. What would be a value added that would make patients stay with one doctor?

I believe that “peace of mind” could be a “loyalty-metric”.  This would come from knowing that your  medical history is ready and waiting for you whenever and wherever you need it - and that it’s kept private and secure from prying eyes. With Americans becoming more and more mobile, easy 24/7 access to one’s medical history - updated by your doctor - would be a tremendous benefit.

Yet another “loyalty-metric” would be the belief that you and your doctor are working together in optimizing your health. By adding to your PHR, your doctor also has a chance to identify unnecessary or duplicate tests, possible drug interactions and the like. This approach establishes the doctor and patient as partners - rather than the doctor serving as a “medical provider.” 

And, this partnership establishes a personal health care system. By making it personal, the patient connects to the doctor rather than seeing him or her as a cog in a larger health care system or network.

 At SSC, we believe that strengthening the doctor/patient relationship through Smart card technology (including our SHAPE™ Card) coupled with personal health records (PHRs), benefits both doctors and patients. I believe that the resulting savings in eliminating duplicate tests, avoiding drug interactions and “peace of mind” would keep me coming back time and again. Hmm, just like my grocery loyalty card!

SHAPE - Secure information at the tip of your finger.

Recently our Corporate General Manager, Mike,  was picking up his dry cleaning and the clerk asked him what he did for a living. Mike - ever the salesman - launched into a discussion about our personal health record, the SHAPE PHR™. The clerk’s immediate reaction was, “That sounds like something I could use. But, how is medical information kept private and secure when using the Internet to transmit it?”

This clerk’s question is the key question consumers and medical providers need to ask when evaluating PHRs. Privacy and security of medical information is paramount if people and doctors are to have confidence in using a PHR. All the other features and benefits of PHRs pale in comparison to this issue.

Let’s face it, PHRs are, at the simplest, electronic file cabinets and file folders. They are a means to store and organize your health information. A comparison of PHRs will find different bells and whistles but, the end result is storage and organization.

The SHAPE PHR was build around the concept of privacy and security. We use defense-grade cryptography far exceeding the financial standards comparison that many firms rely upon. And, our security and cryptography take the extra measure to protect information both in transit and at rest . Our competitors also make efforts to be secure but their efforts are short of ours.

Most every PHR is also protected by a user log-in and password. I don’t know about everyone but, I get kind of lazy about some of my password selections and use the same ones or ones that are simple for me to remember. I also keep a handy list of them so I can get to them when I need them. As a creature of habit, most people will use passwords that aren’t very robust. To counter this and make our SHAPE PHR security the best in the marketplace, we have embedded the SHAPE PHR with the security of our biometric match-on-card, the SHAPE Card™ as the preferred means to access the SHAPE PHR.

The SHAPE Card requires that the PHR owner insert their SHAPE Card in a reader and then prove their identity by having their fingerprint matched to the algorithm on the card. These steps launch the PHR. As importantly, when the person is done using their PHR - perhaps at the doctor’s office - they pull out their card and the screen and their personal and private medical information is no longer accessible!

So, you have the convenience of using a user name and password at home. However, when accessing your PHR at the doctor’s office or another location such as a hospital emergency room and where a Smart Card reader is present, you have the added protection that only you can access your medical information by presenting both your card and your fingerprint.

Oh, and did I mention that we don’t keep a database of fingerprints of our PHR owners? Only a computer algorithm representing the fingerprint is stored on the card and matched through the magic of computer technology.

To answer Mike’s clerk at the dry cleaners - “You can’t be more secure than the SHAPE PHR!”

SHAPE - Secure information at the tip of your finger.

As we speak with doctors across the country we hear a common complaint. Doctors are frustrated that the business of medicine is taking more time that they would rather spend on providing care to patients. If it isn’t government with new or confusing regulations, it’s insurers with new and confusing requirements to file claims! And, mention HIPAA and the challenges of secure and private communication of medical information at your own peril!

The business of medicine is a principle cause of patient complaints, too. So many patients don’t understand why they have to present their insurance card every time they come in the office. They see this as a sign of incompetence on the part of the administration of the office instead of a means to ensure that patients receive the insurance benefits to which they are entitled.

Another frustration for both doctors and patients is correcting claims that somehow don’t get paid. Patients spend more time on the phone with the doctor’s office trying to figure out what went wrong. And, the time staff spends on the phone with the patient and the insurance company would be much better spent on providing care.

Almost without exception we hear, “Why can’t we have a system that recognizes the patients, links them with their insurance coverage and then processes the claim? If we could do these things securely and with little effort we could see more patients, spend more time caring for them and get paid for providing care.”

SSC has listened - and, we’ve heard. Our SHAPE™ products - especially  SHAPE ClaimRemedy™ Revenue Cycle Management - streamline the doctor’s office administration, verify insurance eligibility and prepare and file claims all with embedded security that exceeds HIPAA compliance standards. The result? Quicker patient intake and 97% plus payment on first submission.

Long story short, doctor - We get you paid. And, you get to do what you’re dedicated and trained to do - provide the best health care you can for your patients.

SHAPE - Secure information at the tip of your finger.

The other day I was listening to music when I noticed that the sound wasn’t right. After a few minutes I found that one of the speaker wires had come loose. My stereo system - without that wire attached - wasn’t really a system. It hit me that the same could be said of our health care system. Oftentimes the various components aren’t connected. Perhaps our specialist is across town and not part of the hospital network. We might be on vacation and need to access care - again, the provider of care is not connected to the rest of our care. What we needed, I realized, was a health care system that revolved around us not around institutions - a Personal Health Care System - with the patient at the center and their doctors, hospitals and others as integral team members in the system.

How do we get to a Personal Health Care System? A critical first step is that the patient has to have access to their medical information irrespective of where that care is provided. Personal Health Records (PHRs) provide a repository for medical data to meet this need. But, a PHR, alone,  isn’t connected to anything.

Next generation PHRs, like our SHAPE PHR,™ bring us closer to having a Personal Health System by working with doctors, hospitals and other providers to communicate and input information into the PHR. These connections,with the patient at the center - and with the patient’s permission - maintain a more complete record of a patient’s care and allow other providers to have a more complete picture of the patient’s health care. As importantly, doctors and medical providers must be assured that the PHR is HIPAA-compliant (as the SHAPE PHR is). A PHR of this type will encourage doctors to provide data thereby reflecting care no matter where it is received within the hospital or provider network or across the globe.

The next step is the most important. A Personal Health System must be at your fingertips when you need it. Our SHAPE Card™ allows the patient to securely and privately access their PHR with their SHAPE Card and their fingerprint in the doctor’s office or at the hospital. We’re using the power of the Internet powered by the most powerful security and encryption technology to make this Personal Health System private, reliable and secure.

What can a Personal Health System mean for someone? For a starter, no more annoying clipboards at the doctor’s office. No more fear that, in an emergency a drug allergy will be overlooked. And, studies show that quality of care is enhanced and costs are reduced for patients, medical providers and insurers.

 A Personal Health System - connecting care with the patient at the center and the medical community as integral parts of the team - now that’s music to my ears. 

SHAPE - Secure information at the tip of your finger.

Much is made of identity theft and medical identity theft. But, these are conscious efforts made by criminals. There is little talk about the threat that’s much closer to home and more likely to occur - that of medical mistaken identity. All you have to do is enter your own name in any search engine and you’ll find that there are more people with your name than you ever dreamed possible. And, you don’t have to be a Smith or a Jones to have this be so.

One of our SSC employees, Nancy, has experienced the danger of medical mistaken identity. She has received the wrong prescriptions on a number of occasions; prescriptions that should have gone to another Nancy with her same middle initial and last name. These errors included psychotropic drugs. Had she not realized the error, her life could have been jeopardized by taking them. And, think of the wasted money because the drugs had to be discarded. To boot, she recently found out that her gynecologist has nine patients with her same name and in roughly her same age group.

Medical mistaken identity can be stopped - today - with SSC’s SHAPE card.™ The SHAPE card boasts a biometric match-on-card that carries a representation of an individual’s fingerprint on the card - not in someone’s database. When a patient enters a doctor’s office, requests a medical service or logs on to a medical provider’s site using their SHAPE card and fingerprint they are positively identified, their health information is authenticated and they can be authorized - all in seconds.

In the case of our Nancy, there will be no one else in the world who can be confused for her. It is our goal - indeed our mission - to end medical mistaken identity. We have the technology and the products available and the cost is affordable.

SHAPE - Secure information at the tip of your finger.

The track record for efforts to establish formal health information exchange networks has shown promise. However, concerns about loss of competitive advantage and data misuse lessen provider and health plan willingness to contribute patient data - impeding the growth of exchange networks. This concern coupled with the costs associated with large scale data and information infrastructure has caused these efforts to flounder - or fail. Secure Service Corporation’s core philosophy and architectural design of our SHAPE^TM solutions provide the desired benefits of the exchange networks without the competitive disadvantages and costs associated with them.

The SSC Private Intellectual Architecture creates value by combining Security, Privacy, and Communication in a single environment. SHAPE Linx, our collaborative environment, meets the business needs of medical providers for HIPAA-compliant communications and increased savings and efficiency in transactions and administration. The SHAPE^TM suite of products fulfills the promise of health information exchange networks to providers with robust data protections unsurpassed in the marketplace and without the loss of competitive advantage.

While SSC’s products are technologically sophisticated and cryptographically state-of-the-art, the premise is a simple one that has so far eluded the competition. Everyone is familiar with the story of The Three Little Pigs . A system that protects only privacy can be thought of as a house made of straw. It provides privacy but it can’t stand up to the big bad wolves that are determined to breach it. A product that is built with privacy and security at the core is a house made of sticks. Better than straw - but still vulnerable.

Only SSC’s SHAPE suite of solutions built with privacy, security and surveillance tracking in a communication and collaboration environment at its core - a house made of bricks - can withstand the onslaught of the wolves and provide real value to healthcare stakeholders.

SHAPE - Secure information at the tip of your finger.

The drumbeat for greater use of IT in health care is growing. Pam Mitroff, Secure Service Corp.’s Director of Public Relations and Communications recently attended a National Association of Health Underwriters meeting in Washington, D.C. She told me that almost every speaker included the need for IT in health care as a part of their remarks.

A number of speakers spoke of using technology to improve quality of care. They noted that many senior citizens would benefit if their doctors had easy access to medical information. Many seniors see six or more doctors so coordinating care is important.

An EHR (electronic health record) is not necessarily the best answer to enhanced coordination of care. EHRs are provider-centric. The information is input and maintained by the medical provider. If providers are linked, continuity of care can be improved through sharing of medical information.

A better solution is a patient-centric PHR (personal health record). Patients have a funny habit of seeking care from a variety of sources. A PHR captures information from every medical encounter either through entries made by the patient or by the provider of care – whether they’re in the same medical network or on the other side of the continent.

There is no doubt that bringing technological solutions to health care can increase efficiency and improve quality of care. SSC’s SHAPE suite of products, including the SHAPE PHR, is at the forefront of this growing movement.

SHAPE - Secure information at the tip of your finger.

HIPAA – it’s the elephant in the room of every medical provider. And, we believe that the elephant is going to get much bigger. There is talk about expanding HIPAA to include more types of businesses and processes under the rubric of “covered entities.

”Why might this happen? It’s in the headlines every day. Breaches of data are too common and breaches of private medical information are no longer tolerated. So, how does one justify holding medical providers and insurers to the HIPAA compliance standard and allowing other parties to be less vigilant?

Let’s not forget that the biggest elephant is the federal government (state government is only a bit smaller). The federal government has relied, to date, on the “honor system” for HIPAA compliance – fines and penalties have been rare. We hear that’s about to change and that HIPAA violations will be uncovered and addressed. So, medical providers may want to review steps that they’ve taken and see what they can do next to ensure HIPAA-compliance.

SHAPE Linx™ is a unique secure personal desktop information management and comprehensive connectivity solution. SHAPE Linx provides an encrypted, HIPAA-compliant communication platform that protects information in transit and at rest and it ensures that both the sender and the receiver of information are authenticated and authorized to transfer or access the information.

Before you go elephant hunting make sure you have SSC’s affordable, technology neutral SHAPE Linx information management tool on your desktop.

SHAPE - Secure information at the tip of your finger.

I was struck the other day by two comments made by members of our SSC staff. The first was that there is a progression of where businesses are in their journey to an electronic environment – especially in the health care industry.

Bob’s idea was that there are seven steps along the journey to a secure electronic environment for health care information. You may have a few to add or subtract one or two, but the concept struck me as sound. Bob’s steps were:

1. Paper charts
2. Paper claims
3. Electronic claims
4. Using a picture ID to establish identity
5. HIPAA compliance internal to the organizations
6. HIPAA compliance internally and externally
7. Biometric identity.

He thought that prospects and clients should consider where they are on the journey, where they wish to go and how quickly they need to get there. Then, it becomes a simple matter of helping them implement the SHAPE products and strategies to get them where they want or need to be.

The second comment was made by Brendan. His idea fit well with Bob’s. He pointed out that our solutions could help clients make the transition from drowning in paper to a paperless environment. He has found that some clients and prospects are not ready or willing to move to a paperless world. Our job is to help them make the transition – at their speed and within their needs.

Both of these ideas underscore our mission at Secure Services Corp. That is, to provide solutions that are easy to implement, economical and that provide secure and encrypted communication. And, for health care providers and others using private medical data – it’s a HIPAA-compliant environment.

SHAPE - Secure information at the tip of your finger.