Apr 18, 2018
by Ken Doyle
he health insurance industry is under extreme pressure to regulate costs while providing quality care. A saving grace may come in the form of a new technology that all started with Bitcoin. In fact, Blockchain is the underlying technology that makes Bitcoin work as a cryptocurrency. It’s a decentralized and encrypted way of distributing, sharing, and storing information. New information can be added to a record, but the previous information, stored in blocks, cannot be changed.
For industries that require collaboration among stakeholders, a private Blockchain can remove the manual administration that underpins any major contract. Blockchain could offer a common database of health information for patients, insurers, and providers to access, higher security and privacy, less time for doctors to spend on paperwork, and faster and more accurate claims processing. It could even replace our whole system of healthcare payment and delivery as we know it.
Recently, five leading health care organizations, including Humana, MultiPlan, Quest Diagnostics and UnitedHealth Group's Optum and UnitedHealthcare, launched a Blockchain pilot program to improve the quality of healthcare provider data. It could have huge cost-saving benefits since the health care industry spends $2.1 billion every year on maintaining provider data. But there is much more potential to Blockchain than having accurate provider directories. Blockchain networks like Iris are developing the capability to record personal healthcare information into an unalterable, time-stamped ledger. Patients would have a log of their healthcare information to share with care providers as they see fit.
Even when switching providers, patients would have easy access to their complete medical histories. Researchers could gain access to unprecedented amounts of confidential mass health data, which could accelerate new drug and treatment therapies. Blockchain could drastically reduce the time and money that insurers devote to claims processing. By having a complete historical record, insurers would have a digital repository to verify the authenticity of customers, policies and claims. Insurers could identify duplicate transactions or those involving suspicious parties, according to a report by Earnst & Young.
Insurers may need to dive, head first, into Blockchain to dramatically reduce administrative costs since new competitors are on the horizon. Universal Health Coin (UHC) is a public benefit corporation in the throes of launching a token-based healthcare system that uses Blockchain and cryptocurrency to create a direct relationship between the UHC member and their provider. The healthcare consumer would create a UHC wallet and fund it with monthly contributions to pay for health services. Providers would be paid at a negotiated cash price that's built into a Blockchain smart contract.
The UHC healthcare finance system would be automated, private and secure with the cost of administration and security built into the value of the healthcare dollar. UHC’s aim is to re-establish the trusted personal relationship between doctor and patient using advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence.
As the Senior Vice President of Sales at LISI, Ken Doyle oversees statewide sales. He has over three decades of experience in sales and marketing. Ken began his career in the early 1980s at Blue Cross of California in Operations. He was regional Sales Manager for 12 years as well as manager of Broker Services. Additionally, he assumed other leadership roles during his tenure there. In 1996, Ken transitioned to corporate WellPoint Health Networks where he was responsible for brand management, event marketing and marketing programs nationwide. In 2004, he transitioned into the general agency segment. In 2011, he joined LISI. He is past President of LAAHU and past Region VIII NAHU Membership Chair. He has also been a Chairman of the Board for the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce and Foundation, as well as a member of Westlake Rotary. Ken and his wife Christal reside in Thousand Oaks, California.
