Yesterday, research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan awarded Change Healthcare the 2019 North American Enabling Technology Leadership Award for its blockchain-based healthcare billing and claims solution. Change Healthcare serves as a clearinghouse for insurance claims servicing both healthcare providers and insurers.
Nashville-based Change Healthcare launched the blockchain-powered Intelligent Healthcare Network for claims processing and reducing administrative costs. It connects all stakeholders, such as healthcare providers and insurers on a single platform for better communication and data exchange for claims management.
“In 2018, it (Change) commercially deployed the first enterprise-scale blockchain network for healthcare. The network, designed to improve claims lifecycle management, exhibits industry-leading transparency, process integrity, and efficiency for better auditability and traceability around the claims management process,” said Kamaljit Behera, Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst.
The company’s core systems process 14 billion healthcare transactions every year and more than a trillion in value.
In mid-2016 the company was formed from the merger of the original Blackstone-owned Change Healthcare and McKesson’s IT activities. Last year the company had an IPO and McKesson has now divested its 70% stake.
The blockchain solution aims to expedite the medical billing process through better communication and real-time exchange of data, cutting down costs for insurers and providers. Traditionally, it takes about 7 to 14 days to check insurance eligibility, which can be reduced to a few minutes using blockchain. Payments are expedited with faster claims processing, allowing healthcare providers to collect payments at the point of care.
“The company’s (Change) move to further integrate blockchain with RCM (revenue cycle management), clinical data exchange, and patient and caregiver engagement use-cases can enhance market adoption and endow it with a unique competitive advantage,” added Behera.
Change’s solution is built on Hyperledger Fabric and is capable of processing 50 million transactions per day, with up to 550 transactions per second.
We last spoke to Change Healthcare a year ago, when it could process up to 30 million transactions a day. At that stage, the network was running in parallel to the core system, logging transactions. The firm was planning to onboard outside service providers, and to enable this, it has now migrated the network from internal systems to the AWS cloud.
Last year, Change acquired PokitDok’s assets, including software and IP, to integrate the latter’s solutions with its own platform. PokitDok describes itself as “an API platform built to streamline healthcare transactions & power the business of health”.
