Trac Medical Forms Processing Solution Used to Complete First Electronic CMN With Comprehensive Audit Trail

Business Wire,  August 21, 2002  

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Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

SCHENECTADY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2002

Milestone Demonstrates Potential to Significantly Reduce Forms

Processing Time; Advanced CareCert Solution Applies the Latest

Internet and Security Technologies

Trac Medical Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of AuthentiDate Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: ADAT), announced the first electronic Certificate of Medical Necessity (eCMN) to include a comprehensive, verifiable audit trail that complies with the U.S. Government's Medicare program guidelines was completed and digitally signed in Lincoln, Nebraska today.

This milestone was achieved using CareCert(TM), the Web-based forms processing offering from Trac Medical Solutions, Inc., a majority owned subsidiary of AuthentiDate Holding Corp. (AHC) (NASDAQ: ADAT). It culminated an extensive evaluation of CareCert by American HomePatient, Inc. (OTC: AHOM). The evaluation included the participation by Dr. John Trapp, a physician partner at Pulmonary Specialties PC, based in Lincoln, who completed and digitally signed the document.

"The Trac Medical solution allowed us to streamline the way we handle CMN's," Dr. Trapp said. "Before, we were spending about 15 hours per week managing this paper trail, and now we are confident that this number will be reduced significantly."

"Obtaining a CMN through the CareCert system is much faster and cleaner than our current manual process. CareCert will allow us to substantially reduce the level of effort it takes to process compliant CMNs and significantly reduce the cycle time from initial date of service to billing", added Doug Gouy, vice president of reimbursement for American HomePatient.

"By completing the first eCMN, we have cemented our leadership in migrating the healthcare industry to a better way of doing business," commented Jeffery Frankel, Trac Medical's president and chief executive officer. "By processing forms electronically and eliminating paper in their operations, we're opening a new era of speed, productivity and efficiency for all players in the healthcare system."

Replicating Paper-Intensive Processes On the Web

CareCert is the first solution to demonstrate compliance with new policy guidelines issued last September by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the government agency that administers the Medicare Program. These guidelines allow medical equipment suppliers and physicians to exchange written orders and CMN's electronically, or by fax, without archiving hard copies with original signatures and dates. Previously, Medicare allowed claims to be submitted for payment electronically, but the CMN's, written orders and other documents associated with these claims had to be processed in paper form.

To comply, any service or solution must include the following features and capabilities:

- Their electronic CMN and written order forms must contain information and formatting identical to the current paper versions.

- They must permit physicians to add or correct certain information previously entered by suppliers or themselves prior to final dating and signature.

- The forms must contain the physician's digital signature and the date entered.

- They must generate an "audit trail" for each form, which provides access to the information originally entered, as well as details on what changes were made, by whom and the dates.

CareCert meets these Medicare requirements by applying the latest security technologies in a secure, role-based environment to create a clear and irrefutable audit trail, which includes four critical features: a log for each transaction showing all parties involved and when they worked on the form; on-demand creation of a PDF document identical in appearance to the paper form; the ability to prove content authenticity at critical stages of processing, and digital certification of identities and professional credentials. All of these capabilities are accessible through a secure Web site.

Critical Security Technologies

CareCert's audit trail leverages two advanced security services. Trac Medical's MDKeyBank(TM), a roaming digital physician credentialing system, deploys technologies from Entrust, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENTU) and ChoicePoint(R) (NYSE: CPS). This application combines the Entrust True -Pass solution with ChoicePoint technology to provide simple and comprehensive identity certification and license and credential verification of healthcare professionals.

As a result, MDKeyBank(TM) confirms the identity and professional credentials of each physician in a single digital certificate. These certificates are stored and managed entirely on Trac Medical's secure Web servers, not users' personal computers. This design provides a true roaming capability - "digital signatures" can be added to medical forms from any computer, at any time or location.

The second important security technology is AuthentiDate(TM) electronic content authentication from AuthentiDate, Inc., another subsidiary of AHC. It employs a secure clock to stamp the date and time into each form at critical stages of processing, while also producing a unique mathematical signature. This "document DNA" can be compared to future versions of the form and will match only if the content is identical, thereby providing ironclad proof of authenticity and protecting against fraud and abuse.