Healthcare fraud and abuse cases cost the industry billions of dollars a year. Without the right processes in place to detect and prevent fraudulent activities, healthcare organisations could face an investigation that could impact revenue as well as reputation. One of the most common fraud cases is the submission of counterfeit documents. Often, misrepresented information is received from healthcare workers regarding their employment history, especially duration, position and type of institution stated in their work experience, as well as false academic credentials. In the healthcare industry, where ethics, skill and experience are of utmost importance, fraud has a greater impact on the society at large. An unqualified healthcare professional can cost lives, and malpractice may also lead to a loss of credibility for all the parties involved.
A tool that can help combat these issues is TrueProfile.io, a platform that provides document verification for diplomas, employers’ references, licenses and other trust-based objects from its issuing source. It puts the individual in control of safeguarding their data and allowing it to be shared in several ways with whomever they choose, says René Seifert, Chief Digital Officer at The DataFlow Group.
Seifert shares: “The company’s goal is to enable people to work in one country but also safeguard the country’s communities. With the platform, any individual can buy the verification of their diploma and own it forever. It would empower them to become a trusted candidate when they apply for a job because it will get accepted by any third party and they would immediately see the applicant as a trusted candidate, as the documents are legit.”
Majority of the people that are screened are from the healthcare industry, which includes doctors, nurses, laboratory professionals, says Seifert. These individuals are utilising this platform to become credible candidates when it comes to moving to the UAE or any other country in the GCC.
“We realised that TrueProfile.io is also a great tool for companies to have their candidates verified,” he says. “The problem in Asia is that people know about document fraud and whenever somebody changes their job, every time the background check kicks in. You have the same documents being verified over and over again. When a document is positively verified, we issue a TrueProof and a person can have multiple of these and carry this as their portfolio throughout their career. Even in a scenario where a company is paying for verification, the applicant is able and allowed to keep the verification of the result.”
The platform utilises Ethereum Blockchain and every positively verified document is stored there and will be available for third party checks. Some of the users of the platform include an international NGO that is using this service from the employer side. Moreover, the Missouri State Board of Nursing in the U.S. are utilising this service to screen the pipeline of international nurses coming into the state.
He concludes: “We are also able to connect with LinkedIn. So, if you are a doctor and have a TrueProof you can share a link of it on the professional networking website. Therefore, recruiters viewing a candidate’s profile on LinkedIn can verify and compare what is on TrueProof. We recognise the threat and want to offer our unique capabilities to the industry.”
