RegTechONETM platform and SysFi.IDTM technologies anchor payments solution in MITRE Challenge
The MITRE Corporation announced yesterday that ‘Team Converus/AML Partners’ was one of four finalists in a nationwide tech-innovation challenge to improve eligibility verification for benefit payments disbursed by the U.S. Government. Twenty-nine industry and university teams entered the competition.
Applicant fraud or inadequate verification of eligibility to receive funds from many federal programs result in the improper payment of billions of dollars annually, according to Mitre. An estimated 25 percent of the nearly $141 billion in 2017 improper payments occurred because agencies did not verify with certainty that the individuals paid were eligible.
To highlight the importance of this problem, the 2018 President’s Management Agenda included “Getting Payments Right” as a cross-agency priority (CAP) goal to coordinate government efforts at overcoming this problem. This year’s MITRE Challenge was developed in support of its government sponsors to find new approaches to solving improper payments—those that should not have been made or were made in the wrong amount.
The technology solution proposed by Team Converus/AML Partners—a solution ready to deploy immediately–leverages AML Partners’ new RegTech-platform technology, cutting-edge identity-resolution methods from Acuant, Converus, and Equifax; and blockchain advancements from BlockDrive.
The Converus/AML Partners solution allows government agencies to create a shared network of applications unique to their proper-payment needs. Also, government agencies create an ecosystem of eligibility data accessible across agencies. Finally, agencies help benefits applicants create a ground-truth digital identity and benefits profile for each beneficiary that may be stored, updated, and accessed via blockchain as needed and with full certitude.
This approach to reducing improper payments maximizes cross-agency integration and sharing of data, and it leverages the Events Library central to platform automation. With the RegTech OneTM platform, agencies automate the crucial monitoring of data for error and fraud. This automates the high-volume monitoring while flagging concerns for high-value investigation by agency analysts and investigators.
The SysFi.IDTM component of the solution is a further leap in innovation in that it makes possible the creation for each beneficiary a ground-truth digital ID that stores to blockchain not only an individual’s ground-truth ID but also an evolving record of benefits eligibility.
Solutions like RegTech One and SysFi.ID can help the government not only save billions of dollars due to fraud and error, but they can help beneficiaries have a better experience with the system.
MITRE’s emphasis on getting payments right has a high priority with the U.S. government, according to the organization’s chief technology officer: “Ensuring the right person or entity receives the right payment at the right time is a high priority for government agencies because even a slight reduction in improper payments produces enormous savings,” said Jay Schnitzer, MD, MITRE’s chief technology officer.
“The MITRE Challenge allows industry and academia to think differently about some of the nation’s toughest problems and share potential solutions with federal agencies,” Schnitzer said. “We congratulate all of the participants and look forward to seeing how their recommendations advance the goal of eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government payments.”
The solution proposed by SAP garnered top honors. Finalists in addition to Converus/AML Partners included SAS and a team from Texas State University.
