Change Healthcare rolls out enterprise blockchain for hospitals, payers
Using the Linux Foundation's open source HyperLedger Fabric will enable Change's customers to work on analytics, revenue cycle and other services.
Change Healthcare on Monday announced that its healthcare network will adopt the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 for blockchain application design and development.
Blockchain has been getting considerable attention in healthcare for potential use cases that address ongoing security and interoperability issues and, most recently for the promise to transform electronic health records platforms.
Adding blockchain capabilities to Change's Intelligent Healthcare Network, the company said, will enable customers to focus on analytics, revenue cycle and new services without having to write code or build additional interfaces.
"Blockchain technology has potential to increase payment accuracy and revenue velocity, which will benefit payers, providers, and consumers themselves," Hyperledger's Executive Director Brian Behlendorf said.
The Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 is an open source framework facilitated by the Linux Foundation, which Change joined in May. The collaborative includes members from banking, finance, supply chain, manufacturing, Internet of Things and IT as well as healthcare. Using the Hyperledger Fabric and being a member of the Linux Foundation means Change and others will also contribute code for blockchain applications back to the open source community.
Neil de Crescenzo, CEO of Change, said that creating a distributed ledger makes claims processing and payment transactions more efficient.
"As today's healthcare system becomes more value-based, it's essential that we aggressively and pervasively introduce new technologies into healthcare at scale -- whether they leverage blockchain, artificial intelligence, or other emerging capabilities with the potential to improve outcomes and efficiencies," de Crescenzo added.
Change said its network, which processes some 12 billion transactions worth more than $2 trillion in claims annually, will support the blockchain technology by year's end.
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