A voice biometric is the unique representation of the characteristics that comprises an individual's voice. Like a fingerprint where the various ridges and curves on a finger provide a method of identification, the different physical components of a human throat and mouth produce a specific sound which can be analyzed, measured and stored.

VoiceVault’s voice biometric e-signature solution was recently selected by one of the top five U.S. health insurance companies to facilitate the execution of applications for health insurance over the phone.

VoiceVault is a private voice biometric company that focuses on the development and deployment of voice biometric solutions in the financial and healthcare sectors. Biometric voice-based solutions enable business processes to enhance multifactor authentication with something your voice.

“As you are looking to reduce fraud, using voice biometrics can be used to eliminate the need to run the caller through an extensive series of questions. We focus our solutions on verifying someone quickly and accurately,” Julia Webb, VP of sales and marketing for VoiceVault, told TMCnet in an exclusive interview at SpeechTEK (News - Alert) in New York City last week.

With this announcement, VoiceVault’s leadership position is reinforced as the company is now delivering voice signature solutions to three of the top five US based health insurance organizations, which combined, cover 174.6 million lives.

VoiceVault’s voice signature solutions are positioned to make the process easier for the consumer and the insurer. This solution provides a “speak on the dotted line” capability to phone and smartphone-based transactions. Using an individual’s voice to perform the e-signature, it enables the implementation of legally binding signature under E-SIGN Section 106.

The voice signature solutions provide major benefits because the customer’s voice can be enrolled and the person can accept and sign by speaking a short utterance, creating an electronic signature on the application.

“This new solution only requires five seconds of speech for certification while meeting a very stringent security requirement and maintaining consciousness of the user experience,” explained Webb.

The results are significant as companies who have adopted voice signatures as part of the health insurance sales process have increased telephone sales closure rates by over 25 percent. Organizations are also able to adhere to ‘go green’ mandates and reduce administrative costs associated with the paper trail of hand-written signatures by up to 80 percent.

"Efficient application processes are critical as health insurers prepare for the massive consumer migration from small group to individual plans as part of healthcare reform,” said Webb.

VoiceVault's solutions use an individual’s vocal characteristics for biometric identity verification over the phone, web, or via mobile and smart device applications. They rely on the simple fact that speaking is completely natural and effortless and that no two voices are exactly the same. They enable the delivery of data and application access control; transaction authorization; identity verification; e-signature provision and out of band authentication solutions.

“We’ve made significant headways in signing up customers over the last year,” Webb said. “With the release of our new engine, comes the ability to verify people very accurately with a little amount of speech over multiple channels.”

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