Clear to provide online biometric identity verification for US Medicare beneficiaries

Clear has scored a major contract in the healthcare industry. A release from the firm says it has inked a deal with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the single largest payer for health care services in the United States, to modernize identity verification for Medicare beneficiaries and providers on Medicare.gov.

Its Clear1 secure identity platform will enable biometric identity verification completed with a selfie, for account creation, account recovery and access to healthcare information.

Still arguably best known as the airport biometrics company, Clear has been making inroads into the healthcare sector of late with its Clear1 secure identity platform. Per the release, Clear1 is HIPAA-compliant and Full Service certified by Kantara Initiative against NIST IAL2/AAL2, denoting it as a high-assurance digital identity layer suited for healthcare environments facing an increasing risk of fraud and identity theft.

Clear1 already boasts partnerships with Epic, Welldoc, Wellstar Health, University of Miami Health, Hackensack Meridian Health, Community Health Network and others. This week it announced a partnership with Atlanta-based Sharecare, to integrate Clear1 into as the trust infrastructure for Sharecare’s AskMD, an “AI-enabled health navigation and decision support solution.”

Clear, Sharecare aligned with gov’t stance on Medicaid reform

Both Clear and Sharecare are among those collaborating with CMS to support a “voluntary, standards-based ecosystem of private-sector technology partners that integrate with the CMS Aligned Network,” according to a release. Jeff Arnold, executive chairman of Sharecare, says

AskMD “harnesses the art of what’s possible into a single trusted, interoperable and scalable health navigation and decision support solution, and Clear shares our position that trusted identity across the healthcare system is a critical foundation for delivering these services responsibly.”

In tandem with the White House, CMS has made “health tech ecosystem alignment” one of its priorities, as it aims to usher in digital transformation and “kill the clipboard.”

The Medicare.gov partnership will further advance those goals.

“We’re pleased to support CMS in advancing more secure and seamless access to healthcare information for Medicare beneficiaries,” says David Bardan, general manager and head of healthcare at Clear. “Identity challenges impact Americans of every background, and outdated processes create real barriers to care. Clear1’s reusable, high-assurance identity can help reduce those barriers and strengthen the delivery of care for millions across the country.”

Caryn Seidman Becker, CEO of Clear, says the company has “spent more than 15 years building public-private partnerships grounded in the belief that identity is foundational to trust. Bringing Clear1 to Medicare.gov builds on that work and reflects our long-standing commitment to improving access to care.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)  |  CLEAR  |  CLEAR1  |  digital ID  |  healthcare  |  identity verification  |  patient identification  |  selfie biometrics