Insurance firms in China are implementing blockchain to handle medical claims during the coronavirus outbreak. On Feb. 9 South China Morning Post reported that this earlier this month, the Chinese online mutual aid platform Xiang Hu Bao added the coronavirus to the illnesses eligible for insurance claims up to $14,300.
How Blockchain Benefits Insurance Firms
Xiang Hu Bao, a subsidiary of Ant Financial, uses a collective claims-sharing mechanism built on top of blockchain that offers basic health plans to its 104 million clients. Most of its users are Chinese citizens from lower-tier cities and in rural areas. By utilizing blockchain technology, settlements have been made more efficient, and fraudulent claims have reportedly been reduced.
“Xiang Hu Bao has been able to process claims and make payouts to participants quicker, due to the decentralized, trust-free nature of blockchain technology. Claim applicants can submit their supporting documents as evidence while investigation firms can get immediate access to them on the blockchain. All parties involved can see the entire process,” said a firm’s spokesperson.
Also, Blue Cross Insurance, owned by the Bank of East Asia uses a medical claims application to quicken the procedures and help reduce impacts of the coronavirus outbreak. told South China Morning Post:
“Our blockchain-backed claims service has played a key role during the outbreak of the coronavirus by totally eliminating the paper process and the need for back-and-forth documents delivery to clinics. This really helps to mitigate the risk of infection from face-to-face contact,” Patrick Wan, Blue Cross’ MD, claimed.
Blue Cross Insurance boasts that its platform is capable of managing over 1,000 transactions per second without any human involvement. So far, since its launch in April 2019, the medical claims app has seen a double-digit monthly policyholder user base growth. Patients using the application can see the result of their claims within a day after the hospital visit.
Modern Problem Requires Modern Solution
The recent outbreak of the 2019-nCoV has set many Blockchain and cryptocurrency companies to advocate and utilize the tech to help combat the crisis. Blockchain-enabled applications developer, Acoer uses the distributed ledger protocol Hedera Hashgraph to develop a data visualization tool called HashLog to track the spreading of coronavirus. Moreover, blockchain startup Hyperchain announced the launch of a blockchain-based platform to fight against the coronavirus epidemic at the beginning of this month.
Read an expert’s suggestion: How Can Blockchain and AI Help Combat the Wuhan Coronavirus?
At the time of desperation and turmoil, often than not humankind will overcome the challenges we faced. Blockchain and next-gen technologies will become part of the solution and forever transform the way we cope with crises in the future.
