Here are three collaborative groups of health systems, payers and technology giants leading major blockchain projects in the healthcare industry:
1. Aetna, Anthem, Health Care Service Corp., PNC Bank and IBM. These five companies unveiled their unnamed blockchain collaboration in January with a mission to promote healthcare interoperability. Working together, they plan to create a network on which healthcare organizations can build, share and deploy their own blockchain solutions, with an emphasis on claims processing, data exchange and provider directories.
2. Synaptic Health Alliance. In April 2018, five healthcare giants — Humana, MultiPlan, Quest Diagnostics, UnitedHealth Group and UnitedHealth Group's subsidiary Optum — launched Synaptic Health Alliance, a pilot program using blockchain to ensure health plan provider directors include up-to-date physician information. Aetna and St. Louis-based Ascension, the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., joined the project in December 2018.
3. Hashed Health Blockchain Consortium. Led by blockchain startup Hashed Health, the Hashed Health Blockchain Consortium comprises organizations like consulting firm Accenture, revenue cycle management company Change Healthcare and Nashville, Tenn.-based Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy. The consortium aims to identify and develop blockchain networks for specific industry uses, such as facilitating the exchange of medical claims, records or payments.