Healthcare Council

Health care organizations worldwide are implementing smart health cards supporting a wide variety of features and applications. Smart health cards can improve the security and privacy of patient information, provide the secure carrier for portable medical records, reduce healthcare fraud, support new processes for portable medical records, provide secure access to emergency medical information, enable compliance with government initiatives and mandates, and provide the platform to implement other applications as needed by the healthcare organization.

The Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council brings together payers, providers, and technologists to promote the adoption of smart cards in U.S. healthcare organizations. The Healthcare Council provides a forum where all stakeholders can collaborate to educate the market on the how smart cards can be used and to work on issues inhibiting the industry.

Council Resources

• Smart Cards in U.S. Healthcare: Benefits for Patients, Providers and Payers, Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council white paper, February 2007

• Smart Card Applications in the U.S. Healthcare Industry, Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council white paper, February 2006

• Implementation profiles of healthcare organizations using smart cards

  • French Sesam Vitale Health Card
  • German Health Card
  • LifeNexus Personal Health Card
  • Mount Sinai Medical Center Personal Health Card
  • Queens Health Network
  • Texas Medicaid
  • University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

• HIPAA Compliance and Smart Cards: Solutions to Privacy and Security Requirements, Smart Card Alliance white paper, September 2003

Council Management and Membership

The Healthcare Council is managed by a steering committee made up of participants from across the healthcare and smart card industry. The Healthcare Council steering committee is led by chair Paul Contino, Mount Sinai Medical Center, vice chair Aaron Zitzer, Siemens Medical Solutions, and secretary Michael Magrath, Gemalto. Additional steering committee participants include: Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation; IBM; TrustBearer Labs; SMART Association.

Smart Card Alliance members who are active in the Healthcare Council include:

• ACI Worldwide
• BearingPoint
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• CardLogix
• Digital Identification Solutions
• EDS
• Gemalto
• Giesecke & Devrient
• Healthmeans
• Honeywell
• IBM
• MasterCard Worldwide
• Maximus
• Mount Sinai Medical Center
• Northrop Grumman Corporation
• OTI America
• PPG
• Secure Services Corp.
• Siemens Medical Solutions
• S.M.A.R.T. Association Inc.
• Thales e-Security
• TrustBearer Labs
• U.S. Department of Defense
• VeriFone
• Visa USA
• Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corp.

Healthcare Council participation is open to any Smart Card Alliance member who wishes to contribute to the Council projects.

For more information about the Healthcare Council or for more information on becoming a member of the Alliance, please contact the Alliance office via email at info@smartcardalliance.org or via telephone at (800) 556-6828.