With three major health-care blockchain collaborations announced
since November, the technology is heating up, experts tell AIS Health.
Only 12 to 18 months ago, blockchain work "was being done
internally," but now "it's coming out of the lab and people are
starting to talk about it publicly," says Kevin McMahon, executive
director of emerging technology at SPR.
Michael Yetter, an advisory managing director in KPMG's health
care and government solutions practice, says health care is "earlier on
the adoption curve" than industries such as financial services. He says
established blockchain initiatives in health care are expanding, "and the
new ones are in my view more significant in their initial scale." Among
them:
✦ CVS
Health Corp.'s Aetna business unit, along with Anthem, Inc., Health Care
Service Corp. and PNC Bank, are teaming up with IBM on a blockchain network for
multiple purposes. Members of the collaboration "intend to use blockchain
to address a range of industry challenges, including promoting efficient claims
and payment processing, to enable secure and frictionless healthcare
information exchanges, and to maintain current and accurate provider
directories," the companies said in a press release.
✦ In
December, Aetna and Ascension said they had joined the Synaptic Health
Alliance's pilot project on blockchain. The project aims to apply the
technology to improve data quality and reduce administrative costs associated
with changes to provider demographic data.
✦ In
November, WellCare Health Plans, Inc. and Spectrum Health joined a new
blockchain initiative aimed at simplifying professional credentialing.
From Health Plan Weekly
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