Voice Biometrics and HIPAA

Jason Gaya posted an item about HIPAA and biometrics on his emPower LMS blog that, in my opinion, makes a strong case for a voice biometrics solution. HIPAA mandates strict protection of health records. One way to ensure compliance is to implement tighter identity verification through multi-factor authentication. The three factor categories are “something the caller knows” (e.g., account number), “something the caller has” (e.g., hardware token) and “something the caller is” (e.g., voiceprint).

In his article, Gaya identifies several features that a biometric system used to secure health records should have:

• Cost-effective
• User-friendly
• Easy to deploy
• Fast verification process
• High degree of accuracy (e.g., low crossover error rate (CER))
• Interoperability
• Customized to the environment (e.g., factor in background noise of emergency room, etc.)

I believe that a voice biometrics solution has those features. Additionally, it’s a proven technology which can ensure HIPAA compliance by allowing only authorized access to health records.