Hashed Health teams up with Illinois

Blockchain healthcare innovation firm Hashed Health announced in a press release it sent to CoinReport a partnership with the Illinois Blockchain Initiative to leverage distributed ledger/blockchain technologies.

The pilot program will identify opportunities to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the medical credentialing process in the state of Illinois. The concept will utilize a blockchain-based registry to streamline the sharing of smart contracts and medical credential data to automate workflow associated with interstate and multistate licensure.

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) Secretary Bryan Schneider stated in the press release we received, “IDFPR’s active participation in efforts such as the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact and the Illinois Competitiveness Council shows our commitment to improving license portability for healthcare professionals. In the short-term we anticipate this pilot will show how distributed ledger technology can help reduce the complexity of interstate licensing processes in Illinois. In the long-term, we see this as a secure, privacy-enhancing way in which state licensure boards can efficiently manage credentialing at national scale, while also presenting health payers and provider networks a ‘single source-of-truth’ to improve the veracity of provider directories and claims adjudication processes.”

Jennifer O’Rourke, blockchain business liaison for the Illinois Blockchain Initiative, commented, “Illinois is committed to moving beyond the much-discussed promise of distributed ledger technologies. With this pilot we plan to bring tangible solutions that solve real problems.

“We are excited to explore how distributed ledger technology can improve current bottlenecks in the medical licensing process and hope to share our learnings with other state boards and entities interested in collaborating on this project going forward.”

Providers can be identified in a secure, verifiable and scalable way through the utilization of the blockchain framework. Certifications can be viewed and eventually attested to by credentialing bodies reliably, a single record can be verified and maintained by providers and the central record can be trusted as valid, authenticated and unique by all interacting bodies.

Hashed Health CEO John Bass said, “Blockchain and distributed ledger technology have the potential to revolutionize the delivery of public and private services, redefine the relationship between government and the citizen in terms of data transparency and trust, and make a leading contribution to Illinois’ efforts towards digital transformation.

“As partners, Hashed Health and the State of Illinois have embarked on a journey to create blockchain healthcare solutions that demonstrate the value of this new technology and form the foundation of future related solutions.”

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation licenses over 1.1 million individuals in approximately 100 industries in Illinois between its four divisions: Banking, Financial Institutions, Professional Regulation and Real Estate.

The Illinois Blockchain Initiative, a consortium of Illinois state and county agencies, was formed in November last year by Illinois to explore how innovations presented by blockchains and distributed ledger technology can be leveraged to create more efficient, integrated and trusted state services while providing a welcoming environment for the blockchain community.

Hashed Health logo via a previous press release on Business Wire