Health

Frustrated by the red tape of the U.S. healthcare system, blockchain startups founded to improve the sharing of patient data are looking abroad to prove their use cases.

The moves by Gem, which has partnered with a Scandinavian company, and IncentHealth.io, which is scouting opportunities in Canada, underscore the challenges blockchain technology faces in any heavily regulated market with powerful incumbents and resistance to change.

On May 22 at Consensus 2017, panelists from Microsoft, uPort, Gem, Evernym, Blockstack, and Tierion announced the formation of the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF).

The DIF is comprised of a multitude of competitive companies across industries with the singular unifying focus to create a universal decentralized state of data that can be accessed by institutions and individuals to verify identity.

Los Angeles-based startup Gem has developed the first blockchain product for health claims management, which is being demonstrated at Consensus 2017, the main industry meet-up.

The Gem health claims solution takes aim at three of the toughest issues confronting the healthcare industry, said a release. The first is the lack of real-time transparency into health claims transactions involving providers and payers; then there is the amount of time it takes for providers to get paid for their service. Thirdly is the slow rate of provider reimbursements because of the time it takes to generate and deliver the patient’s Explanation of Benefits.

We’ve tried to keep an eye out regarding the blockchain — a much-hyped data-storage technology — in health care here at Morning eHealth. Toward that end, we attended a Hill session held by the Chamber of Digital Commerce, featuring Micah Winkelspecht, CEO of blockchain startup Gem.

Winkelspecht noted that the health care data system is a bit bifurcated: either you have a jungle of different data-holders on one hand, or an “oligopoly” of data holders. (Such as, for example, claims data — where an unidentified company holds 70 percent of all claims data.)

Today we are talking about healthcare transformation, data and regulation with Micah Winkelspecht, CEO & Founder of Gem, ahead of a presentation later today which is being hosted by the Chamber of Digital Commerce in conjunction with the Congressional Blockchain Caucus:

Hi Micah – Welcome to Chain Reaction. So, blockchain technology is perhaps not the easiest thing to explain to newcomers. As a regular public speaker, how do you go about explaining it to a non-technical audience and which types of arguments and examples do you find to be the most effective?

There are four simple things that will lead America out of the Obamacare box. These clues are hidden in the old English folk rhyme about the charms for a bride to wear on her wedding day to bring good luck: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.”

Do Republican legislators wish to be able to again attend town hall meetings without meeting torch-and-pitchfork wielding constituents? Does President Trump wish to secure his re-election prospects? If so, take heed.

As pressure mounts on Republicans to overhaul the Affordable Care Act (ACA), blockchain advocates are hoping bullish modifications to the law could provide a springboard for the adoption of distributed ledger tech.

Since the 2009 passage of the ACA – colloquially known as ‘Obamacare‘ – the US healthcare system has continued to grapple with the escalating spending, inefficiencies and antiquated systems that prompted calls for reform in the first place.

Across the healthcare ecosystem, IT leaders at patient care organizations are still grappling with the critical issues of seamlessly exchanging health data across systems and also being able to properly secure it. Indeed, although the healthcare industry is behind most other sectors when it comes to interoperability and security, newfound optimism has emerged in the form of a technology that potentially can help solve both of these challenges—blockchain.

Capital One worked with Gem (a company whose tagline is to make complex data sharing simple) in late 2016 to deliver a successful prototype of the full life cycle of a medical claim on the blockchain. “We believe this technology – combined with our client-centric approach to understanding our clients’ needs – will not only help healthcare providers and payers more efficiently and securely manage healthcare claims, but also could be applied to other aspects of the healthcare revenue cycle to overcome system interoperability challenges that have been an industry pain point for decades.” Patrick Moore, Executive Vice President and Head of Capital One’s Treasury Management’s Product Management group.

Every year at Frost & Sullivan, the Transformational Health team brainstorm top predictions for the New Year to come. 2017 will definitely continue to be a year of tumultuous uncertainty and turbulence, but amidst this uncertainty we know for a fact that technology will continue to flourish and will have unprecedented impact on healthcare in terms of building some of the foundation blocks towards a connected home and healthcare ecosystem.