IdenTrust (part of HID Global) announced that it has been selected by MEDENT to provide IGC PKI certificates, which have been cross-certified to the U.S. Federal Bridge Authority, for MEDENT’s eHR application. IdenTrust will also manage MEDENT’s identity proofing for the issuance of all digital identities. IGC PKI certificates are approved by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for EPCS compliance and are also compliant with the National Health Architecture guidelines for Directed Exchange.
MEDENT is rolling out the IdenTrust IGC PKI certificates to its New York state customers, who are required by New York Education Law Article 137 §6810 to issue all prescriptions for both controlled and non-controlled substances via electronic prescribing by March 27, 2015. The IGC PKI certificates will also be made available to all MEDENT clients in the nine states it supports. Moving to a paperless process allows for the integration of a patient’s health and pharmacy records, minimizes the chance for medication errors, and helps protect against criminal activities such as forging or stealing prescriptions.
“Ultimately, what EPCS does is include eHR application owners, like MEDENT, in the workflow for delivering quality patient care,” said IdenTrust CEO Karen Wendel. “The magnitude of this cannot be understated. Our partnership with MEDENT is a natural extension of our shared commitment to securing eHR applications and the critical purpose they serve.”
Gary Cuthbert, MEDENT President said, “The experience IdenTrust has — from being a federally regulated entity themselves, to providing digital identities for programs at the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, and many other eHR applications for EPCS — is the reason we chose IdenTrust. We believe our product is the best eHR application on the market, and we wanted to partner with the most secure digital identities available today. We also liked the option of having IdenTrust manage the identity proofing and issuance, as it provides the greatest benefits and security assurances to our clients.”
Each individual IGC PKI certificate provides two-factor authentication for identity authentication and digital signing, as well as a certificate for encryption. IGC PKI credential holders can use their certificate to authenticate to systems and applications, send digitally signed EPCS messages, and establish non-repudiation with digital signatures on other documents and transactions.
