Problem statement

Need to improve data quality and reduce administrative costs tied to provider demographics. According to an estimate, the industry spends around US$2.1 billion annually in acquiring and maintaining provider data.

Approach

The alliance is planning to come up with ‘provider data exchange’ (PDX) - in which the members will be actively sharing the data with an objective of showing potential administrative cost savings while demonstrably improving provider demographic data quality and the experience of consumers.

Technical details

Blockchain enables an efficient creation of a synchronized, shared source of high-quality provider data through a decentralized, distributed ledger across a peer-to-peer network. Transactions will be recorded chronologically in a tamper-resistant manner, and updates entered by any party on their record are replicated almost immediately across all the other parties’ copies. When updates to a transaction are entered and accepted, those updates amend, rather than alter, those transactions. All transactions and updates remain visible and unchanged, providing a real-time audit trail and ensuring data integrity.

In the end of 2018, Aetna and Ascension announced plans to join the Synaptic Health Alliance’s pilot blockchain project. The roster involved in the effort now consists of Aetna, Ascension, Humana, MultiPlan, Quest Diagnostics, and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum and UnitedHealthcare.