UnitedHealth Group's Optum, Humana and three other healthcare organizations announced their intent to launch a pilot program using blockchain technology to improve data quality and reduce administrative costs associated with updating and maintaining provider data April 2.
The goal of the pilot program is to explore how blockchain technology can help consolidate provider demographic data, which costs healthcare systems roughly $2.1 billion annually to maintain, according to industry estimates.
The organizations involved in the pilot program are UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiary, Optum; Humana; Secaucus, N.J.-based Quest Diagnostics; and MultiPlan.
The pilot program will run during the course of the summer. The companies expect to report their findings in the fall, according to Forbes.