How Healthcare Leaders Can Leverage Digital Identity to Improve Health Outcomes

Last month, Prove’s Executive Director of Growth, Healthcare Ludy Underwood sat down with Karen M. Spruill, Executive Director, FEP Member Experience at BlueCross Blue Shield Association, and Andy Chu, Senior Vice President of Product and Technology Incubation at Providence, to discuss the latest trends in digital identity technology in healthcare and how leaders can improve digital engagement and better health outcomes. Throughout the discussion, one thing was for certain—providing digital health experiences that are personalized, frictionless, and secure for members and patients—is top of mind. However ongoing challenges, such as fragmented, legacy systems and lack of data consolidation from patients' electronic medical records, can stand in the way of modern healthcare experiences that can improve health outcomes. 

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So what should healthcare leaders be thinking about when it comes to their digital strategies? In the new era of digital health, reaching the patient where they are to provide seamless, instant experiences, healthcare leaders need to provide fast, easy-to-use, and personalized digital encounters as well as great physical encounters. Here are three key takeaways from Ludy’s discussion with Karen and Andy:

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1. Digital identity is critical for creating personalized healthcare experiences

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It always comes back to this question, “How can we provide personalized experiences for the consumer,” said Andy Chu. Similar to retailers, healthcare leaders cannot provide digital health experiences without having a strong foundation of identity at the center. That’s what Providence and BCBS have been working on. If they know the patient’s identity, they can build digital experiences around it in a private and secure manner. 

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Typically, patients will reach out to providers on their way to an appointment or when they get a bill in the mail, but they want to move away from that. The more they know about the patient in their care journey, the more targeted they can be to engage with them at the right time and right point of care. They want to make sure patients understand what access they have and make sure it’s convenient. Sounds easy but there are challenges. 

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2. Fragmentation and lack of interoperability are the biggest digital identity challenges in healthcare today

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The challenge that both Andy and Karen brought up during the conversation was the fragmentation of different networks and the lack of interoperability. There are multiple entities within networks and trying to uncover information about the patient from different electronic medical records or legacy systems to provide them with the best, most personalized care can be daunting and difficult. To solve the problem, there needs to be a standardized, interoperable, secure, and private system of tokenized, reusable digital identities. 

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3. BCBS Association and Providence are pioneers at the forefront of solving these digital identity challenges

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BCBS Association and Providence are both investing in capabilities and solutions to take the friction out of patients’ digital journies when it comes to care. Some of the things they are looking at are multi-factor authentication, passwordless verification, and biometrics. And they both say they revisit their digital strategies every so often because things change so rapidly and there are new capabilities out there. 

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In conclusion, healthcare leaders need to be good stewards of patients' information while providing personalized and relevant care. More organizations are investing in advanced digital identity solutions, like Prove’s, to easily and securely verify patient identities, improving customer experience and managing fraud and risk. You can watch the full recording of the webinar here.

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For more information, visit https://www.prove.com/industries/healthcare