The authority noted that the child’s fingerprint will be captured at a SHA-contracted healthcare provider during the child’s treatment visit.
“The child’s fingerprint will be captured at a SHA-contracted healthcare provider when the child visits for treatment. It will be used to identify the child and confirm that the correct beneficiary is receiving care,” it added.
Where fingerprint verification is not possible, SHA said the hospital may use the contributor’s identification number and a one-time password (OTP) for verification.
The authority reassured members that the drive will be handled securely in accordance with the Data Protection Act, ruling out any possibility of a privacy invasion.
The move is expected to strengthen beneficiary identification and help ensure healthcare services are accessed by the rightful beneficiaries, after widespread allegations of fraud under the scheme.
The government, through the Digital Health Agency (DHA), has already deployed over 8,000 biometric scanners to public health facilities nationwide.
Forcing physical fingerprint authentication makes it nearly impossible to fabricate medical claims without the child physically being at the facility.
According to SHA officials, one of the authority’s biggest challenges has been that many registered members fail to log into the system to update their personal and dependent information.
The biometric registration exercise is expected to address this gap by shifting from a self-reported digital system to a physically verified database.
