As promised, here’s Craig Workinger from HiMSS…
I’ve been attending HiMSS for more than 15 years (do I get an award for that?), and every year I see a few things that surprise me. That’s what keeps it interesting.
One surprise is the number of vendors who claim to have a patient identity solution when what they actually do is patient identity for one specific application, like labs or payments. They don’t provide that identity outside of their system. There’s almost no one addressing the need for a universal identity repository – a database that would handle identity authentication for multiple applications. (That’s what Securlinx offers, and that’s why we are excited about the opportunities we are seeing to help healthcare organizations.)
The other surprise is the absence of the insurance industry. The major insurers are a huge part of healthcare, involved in everything from procedures and protocols to reimbursements and record-keeping. And they see how much money is lost every year from errors and fraud. Yet hey don’t have a presence here and don’t seem to collaborate with other organizations much right now. That will change, though. Collaborating to reduce costs and improve care would be a natural focus for them, not to mention a great marketing message. Insurers are a key component in all this.
