Method for Patients to Sign Digitally Medical Bill before Submission to Insurer

A method for preventing a healthcare provider from submitting a bill to an insurer for a good or service that was not delivered to a patient, which comprises:

• providing a patient with a smart card, said smart card including a private key of the patient;
• associating a PIN number with said private key;
• providing a public key associated with said private key to a healthcare insurer;
• providing a healthcare good or service to the patient;
• preparing a bill for said healthcare good or service with a computer;
• requesting the patient to review the bill;
• generating a provider hash value based on said bill;
• inputting said smart card into a smart card reader;
• inputting said provider hash value in said smart card reader;
• entering a patient-entered PIN number of the patient by said patient;
• generating an encrypted message with said smart card from said private key and said provider hash value when said patient-entered PIN matches said PIN associated with said private key;
• transmitting said bill and said encrypted message to said healthcare insurer;
• generating a payor hash value from said bill received by said healthcare insurer;
• decrypting said encrypted message received by said healthcare insure into said provider hash value by using said public key;
• and
• paying said bill when said payor hash value matches said provider hash value.