Health Smart Card Activities in U.S.A.

1
Health Smart Card Activities in U.S.A.

• Daniel L. Maloney
• Director, Emerging Technologies
• Department of Veterans Affairs, VHA
• Silver Spring, MD., U.S.A.
• daniel.maloney_at_med.va.gov
• http//www.va.gov/
• http//www.va.gov/card/

2
Main Points

• The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a
  major healthcare provide in the U.S.A.
• VA has plans to begin the initial implementation
  of the VA Express Smart Card in January 2001
• Interoperability is important VA plans to be
  compatible with specifications developed by
  Netlink and G-8 Workgroup, as well as GSA and DoD
• Nationwide distribution for active Veterans
  planned to begin in January 2002
• Rising level of interest in Smart Cards in the
  U.S.A

3
The Department of Veterans Affairs

• 27 Million Veterans and 43 Million dependents
• Nearly one-third of the nations population are
  potentially eligible for VA benefits, including
  dependents
• Second largest of the 14 Cabinet departments
• Facilities in all 50 states, Washington D.C.,
  Puerto Rico and the Philippines
• Nations largest medical system with 159
  hospitals, 129 nursing homes, 35 domiciliaries
  and 362 outpatient clinics
• 58 regional Benefit offices providing monetary,
  disability, pension, educational and vocational
  rehabilitation benefits
• 13 million home loans, and the nations largest
  insurance programs
• 114 national cemeteries

4
VA Express Card

• Establish one card for use in all parts of VA
• Decrease time needed for registration when a
  veteran visits a facility for the first time
• Make limited emergency data available on the card
• Improve data quality by allowing the veteran to
  review their own data on a facility Kiosk
• Enable electronic transactions with the VA using
  electronic PKI keys on the card and the web
  enabled VA Kiosk

5
Schedule

• Secretary of VA states direction to use smart
  card based upon series of meetings
• August 31, 2000 proof of concept laboratory
  demonstration for the secretary of express
  registration, data access at Kiosk and PKI key
  use to digitally sign a form
• January 2001 begin initial card distribution in
  the Chicago and Upstate New York area (about
  300,000 cards)
• Pending management approval, January 2002 begin
  distribution nationwide to active veterans (about
  4 million cards)

6
Veteran Employee Focus Group Reactions

• The main perceived benefit from the veterans
  perspective was the ability to accomplish express
  registration at the second VA facility and
  emergency medical information

7
Veteran Employee Focus Group Reactions

• Veterans liked the idea of using the smart card
  as a tool to interact with the VHA Communications
  Web Based Kiosk (currently being deployed in the
  field)
• Anything to save me time at the VA facility is a
  good thing

8
Important Events

• During the past year in the U.S.A., smart cards,
  Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and web based
  electronic service delivery are emerging
  technologies
• U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)
  SmartGov Project (http//smart.gov/ ) awarded a
  government wide Smart Access Common ID Card
  contract to five companies on May 19 to make it
  easier to Government Agencies to procure smart
  card products and services
• The GSA Access Certificates for Electronic
  Services (ACES) program (http//www.gsa.gov/aces/
  ) will issue digital signature certificates for
  citizens
• Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) Security
  Information (http//www.chime.org/Security/default
  .asp ) has begun an initiative to issue
  healthcare providers smart cards with PKI
  certificates to conduct business with their
  association and business partners.

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Important Events

• On June 30, 2000, the president signed the
  Electronic Signature Act using electronic digital
  signature technology including an ACES
  certificate securely carried on a smart card.
  (http//www.exbtv.com/index7.jhtml?subsectionId69
  12 )
• The Department of Defense has begun issuing all
  active duty personnel smart cards with PKI
  certificates under the Common Access Card program
  that will be completed in 2002.
• Smart card projects are now being presented at
  national conferences such as the MedicAlert smart
  card and a program sponsored by Humana, WebMD and
  Microsoft.

10
Building a VA Future Vision

• The Veterans Card
• Netlink / G-8 demonstration systems
• Interoperability so that the appropriate data can
  be read everywhere
• The Veterans Electronic Passport /Keys
• To enable privacy, security, access and
  electronic service delivery
• The Veterans Private Web Record
• VA Health eVet and VA Health eVAult Project
  (http//www.health-evet.va.gov)
• To empower the veteran to better understand and
  control their health

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Summary

• Key to the success of all these programs will be
  their ability to be interoperable, where
  desirable
• Specifications developed under the Netlink
  Project and the G-8 Workgroup could contribute to
  a solution for global availability of important
  healthcare information with appropriate privacy
  and security restrictions.

12
Main Points

• The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a
  major healthcare provide in the U.S.A.
• VA has plans to begin the initial implementation
  of the VA Express Smart Card in January 2001
• Interoperability is important VA plans to be
  compatible with specifications developed by
  Netlink and G-8 Workgroup, as well as GSA and DoD
• Nationwide distribution for active Veterans
  planned to begin in January 2002
• Rising level of interest in Smart Cards in the
  U.S.A