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By Kyle Murphy, PhD
– Not long after closing the agreement that was acquired by CVS Health, the health payer Aetna signed to pilot the use of blockchain technology as part of the Synaptic Health Alliance.
In a statement with the new Ascension colleagues, the insurer indicated his intention to apply the technology to improve data quality and reduce administrative costs related to provider demographics.
Launched in April, the group aims to "explore how blockchain technology can help ensure that the most up-to-date health care provider information is available in health care providers' directories, providing consumers seeking assistance with the most accurate information when they need it ".
With a coverage of 22 million lives, the subsidiary CVS Health is on a wide range of data to help the health-care blockchain pilot gain momentum and reach size. Aetna joins Human, MultiPlan and UnitedHealthcare as another main participant. For its part, the participation of Ascension provides information from accurate supplier directories, a fundamental piece of the puzzle.
"Keeping health care providers' directories up-to-date is a critical, complex and challenging issue facing organizations across the healthcare system," he said. "Federal and state laws require health plans to maintain directories containing basic information about physicians and other health care providers. Industry estimates indicate that $ 2.1 billion is spent each year through the healthcare system that acquires and maintains supplier data. "
In an accompanying white paper, the alliance has detailed how its collaborative approach to the use of an authorized blockchain increases the accuracy of provider data:
The Alliance plans to hit the ground with a pilot project that explores how blockchain technology can be used to ensure that the provider directories contain the most current and accurate information possible. Through what defines the "supplier data exchange" (PDX), Alliance members would be able to actively share data in order to show potential savings on administrative costs for payers and suppliers, demonstrably improving the quality of the provider's demographic data and the assistance experience for healthcare consumers.
As the authors of the document note, the elimination of redundancy is the name of the game.
"On average, suppliers are affiliated to 20 healthcare plans3 and often have to make updates with each health plan individually," they write. "However, health care plans typically maintain their own supplier data sets and rarely collaborate in the daunting activities of provider data management, while maintaining high administrative costs."
Blockchain, the technology responsible for enhancing the rapid growth of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, has the potential to safeguard accurate data from manipulation:
Blockchain technology enables efficient creation of a synchronized and shared source of high quality provider data through a decentralized ledger distributed over a peer-to-peer network. The transactions are recorded chronologically in a cooperative manner and resistant to tampering and updates posted anywhere in their records are replicated almost immediately on all copies of the other parties. When updates to a transaction are entered and accepted, these updates modify, rather than change, these transactions. All transactions and updates remain visible and unchanged, providing a real-time audit trail and ensuring data integrity.
According to the Synaptic Health Alliance, manual labor and costs for data management and reconciliation can be substantially reduced, with savings spread across the entire network of participants. Furthermore, automation can play an important role in the elimination of human intervention and redundant processes.
"Blockchain is the driving force behind us," said Opthan's Distinguished Engineer Mike Jacobs, "but our real goal is to work together to solve the widespread health problems." We anticipate the possibility of making large-scale changes, contributing to to make the health system work better for everyone ".
The proposed solution will allow members to "view, enter, validate, update and control data from non-proprietary suppliers within the network". The next goal is to bring a profitable product to the market, a fundamental part of the process that has yet to occur despite the constant buzz around the blockchain.
While the internal mechanisms of the blockchain may be difficult to grasp for many non-technologists, the appeal of blockchain derives from its decentralized approach and the immutability of data in the chain (ie the blocks). Technology has many fans and critics in the health sector, an industry in which skepticism often wins.
