Five healthcare organizations launching a pilot program using blockchain technology includes Humana www.humana.com, MultiPlan http://multiplan.com, Optum www.optum.com, Quest Diagnostics www.QuestDiagnostics.com, and UnitedHealthcare www.uhc.com. The pilot will apply blockchain technology to improve data quality and reduce administrative costs.
Blockchain technology stores blocks of identical information across the network which enables all documents to be shared instead of transferring the data back and forth. The administrative costs associated with changes needed to update healthcare provider demographic data, is a critical, complex, and difficult issue facing organizations across the healthcare system.
Managed care organizations, health systems, physicians, diagnostic information service providers, and other healthcare stakeholders typically maintain separate copies of healthcare provider data, which can result in a time intensive and expensive reconciliation processes when differences arise.
The healthcare companies will explore how blockchain technology can help ensure that the most current healthcare provider information is available in health plan provider directories. The pilot will examine how to provide consumers with accurate up-to-date information and how to share the data at the same time across healthcare organizations.
The pilot will also address the high cost of healthcare provider data management and test the premise that administrative costs and data quality can be improved by sharing provider data inputs and changes made by different parties utilizing blockchain technology.