MediSmart Card Improves Health Care Service Delivery for Patients and Providers

Based on South African government estimates, there is an emerging market of 13 million managed care patients in its private sector. CareCross Health is the leading primary healthcare provider in South Africa contracting the first 150,000 members and a network of over 1,000 contracted healthcare or service providers. Through its network of healthcare professionals, CareCross provides affordable and quality services to members of health care plans that serve individuals and families who cannot afford traditional private insurance coverage. During MediSmarts eight month pilot program, use of the MediSmart solution reduced CareCross call center calls by 95% resulting in tremendous savings in both treatment time and call center costs. The first MediSmart cards will be issued to chronic care patients or patients that utilize long-term treatments and medications. The initial hardware installations in healthcare facilities are scheduled to begin early in the second quarter and card distribution will begin thereafter. The OTI MediSmart solution is part of OTIs SmartID product family and provides verification of patient, physician and health care benefits. The OTI MediSmart product includes: - A personal identification, biometric authentication and additional personal data sections which are secured via biometric verification without the need for a mainframe or database of any kind. - A medical benefit, risk and management data section, which are only accessible by healthcare professionals, for better management. In addition, to facilitate better communication between healthcare professionals MediSmart holds files for referrals, medical certificates and messages. - A payment portion, that enables e-purse and credit and debit payments. OTI generates revenues on MediSmart hardware, software and licensing fees.