“In health care, theseinefficiencies are in clinical areas and in administrative areas –or just friction that happens in the system which leads to badcustomer experience,” says IBM's Barbara Hayes. (Photo:Shutterstock)
Titans of tech, finance and health care are teaming up todevelop a blockchain network that they believe will make thehealth care payment system more efficient.
|The collaboration involves IBM, Aetna, Anthem, Health CareServices Corporation and PNC Bank. IBM described the effort as aparadigm-shifting attempt by competitors to work together toreduce costs.
|“It's so important because you do have competitors side by sidewho are going after tremendous amounts of waste that is in thehealth care system; 40 cents, 50 cents on the dollar,” says IBM'sBarbara Hayes, who oversees the company's relationships withinsurers, in an interview with CoinDesk.
|Related: On tap for 2019: 5 advances in health systems'business models
|Another IBM leader tells Fierce Healthcare that IBM's blockchainplatform is available for members of the initiative to experimenton. Says Bill LaFontaine, general manager of IBM's intellectualproperty division:
|“We're going to start enabling our members, probably by Monday,to be able to go and take a solution they have already built andstart to port it to the platform, then they can decide who theywant to experiment with. One of the beauties of blockchain is, notonly is it a platform for innovation, it's also a platform forcollaboration,” LaFontaine said. “This is a platform where ourmembers can begin to test out what they are doing, and I thinkthat's going to accelerate innovation.”
|The members of the initiative hope that new platform'spredictive analytics will enable the companies to spotinefficiencies in the payment system, from improperly coded claimsto unnecessary or duplicative services.
|“In health care, these inefficiencies are in clinical areas andin administrative areas – or just friction that happens in thesystem which leads to bad customer experience,” says Hayes.
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