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Exploring Blockchain Technology in Medical Billing

Blockchain technology in medical billing comes with the potential for revolutionizing EHR interoperability and assisting in exchanging healthcare big data. Furthermore, Blockchain has tremendous applications in healthcare, especially for medical billing services.

But first, we must understand the following:

Role of Blockchain Technology in Medical Billing

Blockchain, as a term, denotes immutable data collection for chain transactions, each comprising one block. These blocks are held together through cryptographic keys/signatures – hashes.

These signatures or keys are kept in shared ledgers, joined through a mesh of nodes or processes connecting them. Each node comes with a copy of the entire chain, synchronized continuously to keep everything up-to-date.

Benefits of Blockchain Technology

The many advantages of blockchain technology include its tamper-resistant nature and its decentralized nature of keeping digital ledgers. Furthermore, the most significant advantage of the technology is the impossibility of altering a published transaction in a user community that shares a ledger.

Limitations and Concerns of Blockchain Technology in Medical Billing

The key concerns of blockchain in medical billing include the following:

Network infrastructure security for all levels
Identity authorization and verification for all participants
Consistent patterns of authorization for accessing electronic health data

Advantages of Blockchain Technology in Medical Billing

The advantages of using blockchain in medical billing vs. traditional healthcare database management systems include the following:

Unchangeable Databases
Data Provenance
Decentralized Management
Traceable Data
Robust Data
Data Availability to authorized users
Keeping data out hands of un-authorized individuals through encryption

Note: The encryption is dependent on the patient’s private key.

Applications of Blockchain Technology in Medical Billing

The use of blockchain technology for healthcare can be visualized in 5 major areas, including:

Management of EMRs (electronic medical record data)
Safeguarding all kinds of healthcare data
Managing personal health record data
EHR data management
Managing point of care genomics

Some applications of Blockchain technology in healthcare include the following:

Study and Research

Right now, the EHRs facilitate the auto-updating and sharing of healthcare information of a specific patient, all within a particular network/organization only. This limitation can be lifted if the data is organized. Doing so will facilitate researchers to access a broader spectrum of data and patterns of hundreds of thousands of patients. It will promote clinical research, in addition to reporting and identifying safety events and adverse events, and then also public health reporting.

Better, Cheaper, and Faster Avenues of Patient Care

Blockchain technology in medical billing can assist in creating a single system for storing constantly updating health records for rapid and secure retrievals through authorized users. Many mistakes can be avoided by avoiding miscommunication between healthcare professionals working with the same patient. What’s more, faster diagnosis and interventions can become a reality. Furthermore, blockchain technology in healthcare processes can offer personalized care to every patient.

Interoperable EHRs

Blockchain can offer a single transaction layer where all concerned organizations can share and submit data with a single secure system. The sharing of relevant data becomes much easier Through storing a specific set of standardized data on the chain, in addition to the private encryption links for separately stored info.

Securing and Tracing Medical Supplies

Blockchain also helps identify and secure the trail of pharma supplies with complete transparency. It also offers monitoring of the carbon emissions and labor costs for manufacturing pharmaceutical supplies.

Blockchain Technology for Health Insurance Claims

Blockchain comes with unique adaptability for claims processing. It is possible owing to its unique adaptability of presenting medical events as they take place. It removes any potential possibility of changing the data at a later time and removes any chances of fraud.

Tracing Diseases and Outbreaks

Blockchain assists with instantaneous disease reporting and exploration of disease patterns. All of these can help in the identification of its transmission parameters and origin.

Conclusion

Blockchain technology in medical billing is at its early stage. However, improved security in blockchain systems promotes synchronized transactions. Furthermore, blockchain technology in healthcare can effectively enhance the management of healthcare data.