Revolutionizing Healthcare Call Center Identity Verification

In today’s highly regulated industries like healthcare and insurance, customer service representatives (CSRs) face the daunting challenge of ensuring the privacy and security of sensitive information while simultaneously providing a quick, seamless, and personalized customer experience. In this blog post, we’ll share the story of a CSR working in a healthcare call center who was struggling to efficiently verify caller identity in a timely manner. You’ll learn how Hitachi Solutions’ Identity Verification app has transformed the process, standardizing, simplifying, and speeding identify verification while elevating the caller experience and enhancing key performance indicators (KPIs).

The Importance of Building Relationships and Improving KPIs

In any customer-facing industry, building strong relationships with callers is essential for delivering an exceptional customer experience. In healthcare, where sensitive information is involved, trust is of utmost importance.

A CSR must strike a delicate balance between maintaining the security of patient/member data and fostering a positive relationship with the caller. By improving key call center KPIs such as first call resolution (FCR), average handle time (AHT), and quality assurance (QA) scores, CSRs can effectively build trust with callers and create more satisfying and efficient engagements for both parties.

Identity verification plays a critical role in delivering such experiences. A streamlined and secure verification process reduces call duration and helps CSRs resolve issues on the first call. Not only does this heighten the patient/member journey, it also significantly improves their overall experience — all of which leads to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

This is where the Hitachi Solutions Identity Verification for Engage app comes in. We understand the importance of this CSR challenge and wanted to empower them with an easy-to-use, automated tool that allows them to focus on nurturing caller relationships while maintaining the highest level of security.

To demonstrate the value, let’s take a quick before and after look:

A Day in the Life of a Healthcare Call Center CSR

Meet Sam. They’re a dedicated CSR working in a healthcare call center.

Their day is filled with numerous phone calls from patients, insurance companies, and healthcare professionals seeking assistance with account details, insurance claims, and appointment scheduling. As part of their job, Sam must verify the identity of each caller before providing any sensitive information. This process is essential to maintain compliance and protect patient privacy.

Before the Hitachi Solutions Identity Verification app, Sam had to rely on a complicated desk procedure and scattered information sources to verify callers. This cumbersome process not only consumed valuable time but also increased the risk of disclosing sensitive information to unauthorized individuals.

Sam often had to juggle multiple documents, spreadsheets, and databases while attempting to maintain a friendly and empathetic demeanor with the callers on the line. These inefficiencies often led to long call durations, dissatisfied customers, and a decline in Sam’s call center KPIs.

Call Center Identity Verification Modernization

Since implementing the Hitachi Solutions Identity Verification for Engage app, Sam’s call center experience has been completely transformed. The app provides a user-friendly interface that allows them to quickly and accurately verify caller identities while maintaining a conversation with the customer. The app’s customizable features enable integration with their organization’s specific verification procedures and requirements so it’s a seamless interaction.

With the Hitachi Solutions Identity Verification app, Sam now verifies callers using an easy three-step process:

1. Launch the application: Sam can initiate the verification process directly from the contact record or during a phone call activity, reducing the need to access multiple systems.
2. Complete the verification: The app offers configurable sections for demographics, account details, and extended verification. Sam can easily mark each field as correct or incorrect, ensuring the required number of correct answers is met for successful verification.
3. Submit the verification: Once all required sections are completed, Sam can submit the verification with just a click, automatically creating an audit history for compliance purposes.

With the new simplified process, Sam is focused on building relationships with callers, improving call center KPIs, and delivering an exceptional customer experience — not on the process or searching for information.

Hitachi Solutions’ Call Center Verification App

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare and insurance, we don’t need to tell you the importance of securing private information. And today’s customers, patients, and members have come to expect personalized, secure experiences during all their interactions. As the call center often serves as the first point of contact, ensuring a positive experience — for callers and CSRs — is vital to meeting your business goals and delivering outstanding service.

This is why we developed the Hitachi Solutions Identity Verification app. It is a powerful and customizable solution designed to simplify and secure customer verification processes in industries requiring strict protection of sensitive information.

By providing an efficient and intuitive interface, the app helps CSRs quickly and accurately verify caller identities while maintaining strong customer relationships. Key features include:

• Integrated and streamlined process — Enhances efficiency with built-in verification procedures
• Customizable questions & answers — Tailors verification to meet specific requirements
• Configurable business rules — Adapts app functionality to align with policies
• Multiple caller personas — Supports various caller types with custom verification
• Audit-ready verification record — Ensures compliance and simplified reporting

The Hitachi Solutions Identity Verification app has revolutionized the customer identity verification process, providing CSRs like Sam with a seamless, secure, and efficient solution that:

• Secures sensitive data and privacy and reduces fraud risk
• Improves consistency and compliance
• Reduces CSR swivel and enhances caller engagements
• Optimizes KPIs through standardized and integrated processes

The app not only alleviates the stress associated with navigating cumbersome verification procedures, it also significantly enhances the overall efficiency, productivity, and security of call center operations and helps CSRs build stronger relationships with callers.

Improve Call Center Verification Processes with a Partner You Can Trust

With Hitachi Solutions’ Identity Verification app, you can transform your customer, patient, and member service operations while ensuring privacy and the security of sensitive information. And leaning into such modern, cloud-based digital technology will position you to be more agile, responsive, and innovative and help you deliver the impactful experiences you need to succeed in today’s competitive environment.

However, we know change can be daunting, and most companies benefit from an expert advisor. Hitachi Solutions is dedicated to supporting our healthcare and insurance call center customer goals and resolving their challenges. With extensive experience implementing industry-driven, custom call center solutions built on the Microsoft platform for almost two decades, we have the proven expertise to help you achieve your objectives.

Let’s discuss how we can work together to create a more efficient and secure future for your call center. Contact us today to learn how to get started with our app today!

A Lack of Security is Costing You

We don’t need to tell you the importance of securing private information. But we can emphasize the value of having the right tool to secure that precious information. Did you know:

• Each HIPAA violation can cost between $100 and $50,000/per patient record for healthcare providers who have not put strong security measures in place?
• The cost of the average breach for healthcare hit $10.1 million, more than any other industry?
• In 2022, the healthcare industry faced the highest average cost of a breach over the last 12 years?
• The most common method for a data breach was stolen or compromised credentials?
• 83% of organizations have experienced a data breach?

Source: Security Alliance 2022 Cost of Data Breach Report