All posts by John Hickey - Senior Product Marketing Manager

Healthcare fraud isn’t just an occasional headache—it’s a $20 billion-a-year black hole draining financial institutions. And that’s just the fraud we know about. As healthcare systems become more complex, fraudsters are also getting smarter, faster, and more creative at exploiting vulnerabilities, especially in address verification. The healthcare industry is an easy target. Medical data can be more valuable than credit card numbers, billing systems are a tangled mess, and the sheer complexity of transactions creates endless opportunities for fraud to slip through unnoticed.

Address autocomplete is a powerful tool for improving form completions and ensuring users select real, deliverable addresses at entry. However, to maintain long-term data integrity and enhance address-related insights, address verification is a necessary complement. Here’s why:1. Gain up to 55 points of metadata per verified addressAutocomplete provides real-time address suggestions, while address verification appends additional metadata. Address verification enhances each address with up to 55 points of data, such as:ZIP-9 level accuracy geocoordinates (rooftop accuracy also available)ZIP+4 CodesResidential Delivery Indicator (RDI) to identify residential vs.

Let's start with a number that should make every hospital administrator do a double take: $17. 4 million. That’s how much the average hospital loses annually—just from denied claims due to patient misidentification. This isn’t from equipment costs, not from staffing shortages, and not even from insurance negotiations—just from keeping bad patient data. Surely, our forms aren’t that bad. (Yes, they are, and stop calling me Shirley. )But here’s the reality: According to the 2016 Ponemon Misidentification Report, 30% of hospital claims get denied, and over a third of those denials are caused by inaccurate or incomplete patient information.

Healthcare is experiencing a dramatic shift in how patient information is stored and managed. Electronic medical records (EMRs) and electronic health records (EHRs) have become the new standard, driven by two powerful forces: everyone has mobile devices and the increase in the human population. A growing problem with clean address data in EMRs and EHRsWhile EMRs and EHRs offer amazing accessibility and storage capabilities (way better than a filing cabinet), they've also exposed a critical weakness in many healthcare organizations: address data quality.

In any industry that’s regulated and works with PII (personally identifiable information), a simple address error can cost more than just a returned letter. With HIPAA violations ranging from $100 to $50,000 per incident and the possibility of criminal charges, getting patient addresses wrong is more than an administrative headache—it's a serious compliance risk under HIPAA, ACA, and other mailing regulations. Our new ebook explores how address data quality directly impacts regulatory compliance, patient privacy, and health equity requirements, among 12 other hot topics.

In healthcare, the havoc an inaccurate address can wreak on your financial results is significant in more ways than one, and the boost in overall profitability from maintaining a clean address database is equally worth noting. Accurate healthcare address validation improves operational efficiency, patient engagement, and compliance and builds revenue to heights that couldn’t be met without it. Here’s what we’ll be covering:Healthcare address validation pros and consCon: Increased claim denials and organizational costsPro: Reduced claim denials and reprocessing costsCon: Increasing patient match error ratesPro: Improved patient matching and data qualityCon: Complicated billing and collections processesPro: Streamlined billing and collections capabilitiesCon: Exposure to legal liabilitiesPro: Enhanced regulatory compliance and risk aversionCon: Misplaced market strategyPro: Data-driven decision-making and market insightsEpilogue: Avoiding the pain (see our summarized financial savings)Healthcare address validation pros and consThere’s a pro and a con associated with having (or not having 🫣) accurate address data in your healthcare systems.

Up until now, SmartyKey®, a persistent unique identifier for all 210+ million addresses in Smarty’s database, has only been available to customers who purchased US Master Address List or geocoding products. We’re happy to announce that, as of today, it's also available at no extra cost with US Address Verification. Yippee!But … what is SmartyKey?SmartyKey is the persistent, unique identifier of your dreams. It remains constant through address changes and is available for USPS and non-USPS addresses.

Webinar recap: In a recent webinar, we showed how address data tools help managers improve business performance in the following areas:Network PlanningAsset ManagementCustomer Acquisition and RetentionData BlendingMail and Parcel DeliveryFraud Reduction1. Network planningAccurate address data plays a critical role in overcoming network planning challenges. We presented solutions at each of the following steps in the network planning process: Clean existing address data with US Address VerificationKeep incoming data clean with US Address AutocompleteMap all addresses using our US Master Address List and hyper-accurate US Rooftop GeocodingAdd context to maps with enriched US Property DataAnalyze, get spatial insights, and make confident business decisions 2.

In the fast-paced and competitive world of telecommunications, where high customer expectations and intense rivalry prevail, the strategic use of address data intelligence, including geocoding and address verification, is increasingly essential. For professionals in the telecom sector, understanding and utilizing these tools can significantly streamline operations, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive business growth. This article delves into how Smarty's address data solutions address common pain points in the telecom industry.

Lost packages equal lost revenue. It’s a simple equation—if USPS or another delivery service can't deliver your products to the listed address, you’re likely out the cost of the item and the shipping, and you might even have to pay a return fee. However, one simple addition to your workflow can get your balance sheet back to black—address verification. Use a full address validation service that includes secondary address data like apartment unit numbers to cleanse your delivery list. Clean address data helps you reduce costs from misdeliveries, delays, lost mail, returned mail, reshipments, and change of address fees.

Did you know that something as simple as a mistyped address could open you and your customers up to potential fraud?Fraud can take a huge bite out of your profits, as well as lead to reputation damage and other risks. It takes most companies an average of 14 months to catch on to fraud happening, resulting in average losses of $8,300 a month. However, you can take steps to reduce fraud, risk, and reputation damage by implementing address verification. 4 common types of address-related fraudCommercial mail receiving agency (CMRA) scamsCriminals use Commercial Mail Receiving Agencies (CMRA) to bilk customers for purchases of misrepresented or nonexistent products and services.

What’s wrong with this picture? Your quarterly web traffic is up, but sales are down. Somewhere in your sales pipeline, friction is stopping leads from converting. Online forms and ecommerce checkout flows are a common source of friction. Did you know?The mean conversion rate for online forms is a mere 21. 5% 76 out of every 100 visitors abandon their cart when they’re unsatisfied with the experience Cart abandonment is responsible for $4. 6 trillion in lost eCommerce sales yearlyAll the work you put into planning and developing lead generation campaigns—free trial signups, gated resource downloads, etc.

Your business generates data with every digital ad you run, every purchase order, every promotional mailing, and every customer survey you do. And every time one campaign wraps up, another starts. Developing a solid database cleansing and consolidation strategy can help prevent a database full of holes and information gaps. Why does database cleansing matter? Your revenue will diminish if you rely on bad data to make strategic business decisions. In our ebook, 5 Ways Companies Use Address Verification to Improve Business Results, we discuss how to use address verification software to cleanse databases and merge datasets.

Every business executive knows that good data is critical. When you’re developing your sales strategy and talking about how to increase revenue, you probably turn to data to answer questions like these:What areas of growth can we exploit?Which products are performing well?Is mobile or desktop driving more sales? Where is traffic increasing?How do we identify the “low-hanging fruit” customers?Where can we reduce costs?But how do you know if your data is accurate? What steps do you need to take to ensure your data is actionable and driving revenue?In our free ebook, 4 Steps to Unlocking Latent Revenue and Driving ROI with Your Address Data?, we show you how to get clean address data, and then how to use that address data to unlock latent revenue and drive ROI.

Certain surprises are fun. Finding out the person in front of you at Starbucks paid for your coffee? Java-tastic! Finding out you've been shipping products to addresses that don't exist? That's a postal catastrophe. Luckily, many shipping snafus can be prevented by using address validation software. Address validation (or verification) is the process of checking a mailing address against an authoritative address database. If the address matches an address in the known database, it is marked “valid”—meaning it's real.

Typos, typoes or typo's?No matter how you spell the word, typos are a problem. Even the most accurate typist occasionally misspells a word, leaves off a letter at the end, or just types a different word than intended. Typos in a text to your friend aren't a big deal. They'll figure out what you mean using context clues. But in a business data scenario, if you're following the logic of traditional address matching, where an address is either an exact match or not a match, you can't account for different formats or misspellings.

We recently released a free ebook, 4 Steps to Unlocking Latent Revenue and Driving ROI with Your Address Data, in which we show you how to use your company’s address data to unlock latent revenue and drive ROI. In our last article, we reviewed address parsing. Today, we’ll explain address normalization and why it matters for data cleansing and analytics. Address Normalization (or making an address look normal) is the process of formatting an address so that it matches the proper address format of the national postal authority, such as the USPS for those in the United States.

Our global economy comprises many industries—healthcare, financial services, insurance, commercial development, and more. But one thing all companies have in common, no matter the industry? They’re all chasing a bigger and better return on investment (ROI). While there are many drivers of ROI, have you ever considered the role that address validation plays?Clean address data is essential for many business functions. Consider eCommerce, one rapidly growing example. Forecasting shows this retail channel will account for 22 percent of all global retail sales by 2024.

According to Smarty’s latest query of its US address database, there are 905,226 unique street names in the United States. And some of them are, well, entertaining (or disturbing). Check out a panel of Smarty address experts who joke and laugh about some of the funny, weird, Christmas, Halloween, and crazy street names and addresses they’ve encountered in our webinar: Addresses: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Watch the fun, 30-minute webinar recordingHere’s a sneak peek. Funny street namesHow would you like to live at:3A Hole Spur Alamo GA 30411Careful how you read that out loud around children, people.

Did you know that every address has loads of hidden data buried in its metadata? In this webinar, we briefly considered the value of breaking an address into its component parts. Then we looked at the different metadata available and provided definitions for each one. And finally, we went over use cases and ideas on how to leverage metadata for improved operations, business intelligence, and financial performance. There’s gold in your address metadata!Every address contains basic components that are standardized by country.

Companies purchase national master address lists to use in many ways for many reasons. Though some might assume the only reason to purchase a national address list is to blanket-mail or ship things to people not already in a company’s database, the lists are extensively used for asset location tracking, resource planning, market intelligence, operations optimization, business strategy, and decision-making. Let’s take a closer look at the first non-mailing use case: asset location tracking. Asset location trackingMany companies have physical equipment located throughout their service regions.