Publications – Healthcare

• Effective Healthcare Identity Management: A Necessary First Step for Improving U.S. Healthcare Information Systems.
  Government policy makers are looking carefully at the best ways to improve the efficiency of information systems in the healthcare industry. Much emphasis has been placed on the need for electronic health records for every American, and at ways to exchange those records at the regional, state and national levels. This brief was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare and Identity Councils to introduce the current problems with healthcare identity management, security and privacy, and propose leveraging existing federal standards and technologies already used in other government identity programs. Download brief. View document.

• French Sesam Vitale Health Card Profile
  This profile describes the French implementation of the Sesam Vitale health card. Download profile. View all profiles.

• German Health Card Profile
  This profile describes the German smart health card implementation. Download profile. View all profiles.

• A Healthcare CFO’s Guide to Smart Card Technology and Applications. (NEW)
  This white paper was developed for healthcare CFOs by the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council to outline the key benefits and business case for using smart cards for healthcare applications. The white paper outlines some of the major challenges faced by healthcare CFOs and discusses how smart card technology can provide innovative, practical and cost-effective solutions. Download white paper. View full executive summary.

• Healthcare Identity Management: The Foundation for a Secure and Trusted National Health Information Network.

  Policy makers are looking carefully at the best ways to improve our healthcare system with much emphasis being placed on the need for electronic health records for every American. This effort also includes creating an infrastructure to allow the exchange of these records at the regional, state and national levels. This paper introduces the current challenges and explains why identity management in healthcare is an essential and foundational element that must be made a priority by policy makers in order to achieve the goals of widespread use of electronic health records to support the secure and seamless exchange of healthcare information. The paper also recommends best practices for introducing a healthcare identity management infrastructure–one that provides the needed security and privacy controls that should be specified by policy makers. Download brief. View document.

• HIPAA Compliance and Smart Cards: Solutions to Privacy and Security Requirements
  This report discusses how smart cards can help health care providers and insurance companies meet the requirements of HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. Designed as an educational overview for decision makers, it summarizes the HIPAA privacy and security requirements, provides an overview on how smart cards work, describes how smart cards can be used to support HIPAA compliance and implement other health care applications, and outlines key implementation success factors. The report includes profiles of several U.S. and international smart health card implementations. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Identifiers and Authentication – Smart Credential Choices to Protect Digital Identity.
  The Smart Card Alliance developed this position paper to describe the issues with unique identifiers and discuss how smart cards can be used as authenticators when using unique identifiers. Download position paper. View position paper.

• Identity Management Systems, Smart Cards and Privacy
  This position paper describes key elements in the design of an identity management system that affect privacy and security and the benefits that smart cards bring to identity management systems. View document.

• Identity Management Systems, Smart Cards and Privacy: Frequently Asked Questions
  This FAQ answers questions about privacy, security and smart card benefits for identity management systems. Download FAQ. View full FAQ.

• Mount Sinai Medical Center Personal Health Card Profile
  This profile describes the Mount Sinai Medical Center Personal Health Card. Download profile. View all profiles.

• Queens Health Network Profile
  This profile describes the Queens Health Network smart card-based patient health card. Download profile. View all profiles.

• Secure Identification Systems: Building a Chain of Trust
  This report discusses the importance of a robust chain of trust for secure ID systems. Developed for decision makers, the report summarizes why today’s ID systems are vulnerable, what makes an identification system secure, and what factors need to be considered in developing a secure ID system’s chain of trust. It defines the components of a secure ID system and discusses key considerations for enrollment, issuance, usage and implementation. The report describes how a robust chain of trust can be implemented to authenticate an individual’s identity and ensure the validity of the ID and credential once the ID has been issued and is in use. It describes the role smart cards play in the chain of trust, discusses smart card implementation considerations, and summarizes how smart cards can help to address the key vulnerabilities of current ID systems. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Smart Card Applications in the U.S. Healthcare Industry
  This white paper was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council to describe the value that smart cards deliver in a variety of U.S. healthcare applications. Developed as an educational overview for executives and senior managers in healthcare provider organizations, it reviews key challenges that the U.S. healthcare provider industry faces and examines the key drivers for implementing smart card-based systems to address these challenges. The white paper concludes with profiles of a number of organizations who are implementing smart cards illustrating the diversity of applications that are enabled by smart card technology and the business benefits that the technology delivers to healthcare organizations. Download white paper. View full executive summary.

• Smart Card Technology in Healthcare: Frequently Asked Questions.
  This frequently asked questions document was developed to answer questions about how smart cards work and how the technology is used to manage patient identity and protect a healthcare consumer’s personal information. Download FAQ. View FAQ.

• Smart Cards in U.S. Healthcare: Benefits for Patients, Providers and Payers
  This white paper was developed by the Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council to describe the benefits of smart cards to healthcare industry participants. The paper describes the challenges within the healthcare industry and the clear opportunities for the use of smart card technology for security and privacy in healthcare. The paper examines smart card use in healthcare today and suggests additional applications for consideration. Download report. View full executive summary.

• Taiwan Health Card Smart Card Project Profile
  This profile describes the Taiwanese implementation of a national health care smart card. Download profile. View all profiles.

• University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Profile
  This profile describes the UPMC smart patient health card pilot. Download profile. View all profiles.