Patient ID: Is it mandatory?

Sharing the identity document, or recognition, for practicing psychology online is one of the open issues within the healthcare professions; in the field of online psychology, the issue is a deeply felt one.

What should professionals do? Should they ask for a photocopy of their ID for online services? Or is it enough to simply identify their patient in the video?

The patient’s sharing of a identity document, would tend to ensure the legal guarantee of the identity of the interlocutor, thus identifying the data subject. However, there is no clear law on this matter, and the positions taken by the various regional orders across the country differ, despite compliance with the provisions of the relevant legislation.

The Regulations

In the context of the performance of psychology  Online, the psychologist typically identifies the user, obtains authorization to process personal data, and informed consent regarding the services offered.

Regarding the Patient Identification Document, the regional psychologists’ associations are divided into two positions:
– some consider it mandatory and indispensable for the start and continuation of therapy;
– others are oriented towards a more flexible approach and therefore consider it optional.

Obviously, the territorial Orders are the reference points to refer to, depending on your membership. With reference to the National Order, the shared documentation does not cite specific regulatory titles.

Even the European Union, with the GDPR legislation, with the exception of some specific sectors, would not deem it appropriate to save the photocopy of the identity document of customers but, however, always refers to national regulations.

In Italy, the regulation is unclear and, since the GDPR came into force, there has been no further intervention by the Privacy Guarantor.

Therefore, the issue remains open, with the exception of the public sector, where the collection of identification documents is mandatory, both for remote and on-site services.

How PsyCare solves the problem

PsyCare is a platform that protects, by design, compliance with the GDPR rules and, therefore, has created procedures (for example thepatient invitation) to ensure that patients’ privacy is protected and, therefore, that professionals comply with GDPR regulations in the healthcare sector.

PsyCare, for therapists registered on the platform, has provided the possibility to choose and define during the patient invitation whether the identity document is mandatory or not in order to follow the advice of your local order. 

The therapist, in the context of Invitation to the Patient You have the option to set, by checking the dedicated field, the obligation for the patient to enter an identity document during registration on the platform, as shown in the following images:

• Identification document NON required:
  
  

• Required identification document:
  
  

However, it will always be possible to proceed with the insertion of the same by simply uploading it to the respective ‘Identity Document’ folder.

We remind you that following the invitation on the platform, the patient will be suggested, after having logged in for the first time, to complete the registration by entering other personal data (e.g. address, city, date of birth, etc.).

For further details on the Add/Invite methods available in PsyCare, please consult the relevant support section: Invite a new patient.

How to complete patient registration

In PsyCare, the patient and the therapist have the ability to decide when to complete the registration process.

The patient completes the registration independently

You can proceed by asking the patient to complete the registration process and, if requested, enter their identification document (as explained above).

In addition to entering/confirming your personal data, you will also see:

• two steps: if the identity document was not requested
  
• three steps: if you were asked for your identity document
  

The patient will find the fields pre-filled if the therapist sent them a “full invitation” and simply needs to confirm them at each step by clicking “Next.” Conversely, if they sent a “quick invitation,” the patient will need to fill out all the fields as requested.

The identity document, if requested by the therapist, can be uploaded as an attachment from your PC or, if the procedure is carried out from a mobile device, using two photographs of the front and back of the document.

The patient profile will be automatically updated.

The therapist completes the registration for the patient

The therapist who decides to enter/update the data of the new patient added/invited in PsyCare has the following view:

Each section refers to the respective information and is always accessible and editable by the therapist.