Credify’s MedPass: Healthcare in the hands of the consumer
This article was written by Caitlin Taher, an intern at Credify in Summer 2020
Healthcare. A vital industry that underpins the human race yet is riddled with a number of crippling issues. These issues, to name a few, include lack of accessibility with 400 million people not having access to essential health services in 2015 (source), labour shortages with, for example, Indonesia having just 4.27 doctors per 10,000 people in 2017 (source), and an inconsistency in the standard of care received by patients.
Credify’s MedPass is a digital medical passport that allows users to control their medical data and demographic information, addressing the issue of lack of accessibility whilst ensuring confidentiality and privacy as patients have control over which information is shared with medical service providers.
In the majority of countries, the cost of healthcare is not only great but the process of applying for health insurance is both complicated and time-consuming. As healthcare services are becoming increasingly digital, more opportunities open up for companies to stage data-driven interventions that can hopefully revitalize our fragmented healthcare networks. The main goal of implementing FinTech within the healthcare system is to streamline the flow of information and money between patients and providers — and in doing so, increasing efficiency and improving data security.
Southeast Asia
In Southeast Asia, access to affordable healthcare and health insurance are at a critical point. In a recent study by the World Health Organization, South East Asia was found to have the highest healthcare “out of pocket” spending by individuals in the world, driving the household incomes of over 65-million South East Asian people below the poverty line, impoverishing millions more each year.
Credify’s MedPass would provide those who cannot afford healthcare with greater access to Patient Support Programs (PSPs), offering an incentive for pharmaceutical companies as a way to drive differentiation and strengthen patient and healthcare professional relationships. However, there is a risk of siloed information being retained by PSP-providing companies, thus reducing healthy market competition, and users not being in control of their sensitive health data.
Whilst many corporates are yet to embrace the importance of having users/clients own their own data, Credify’s MedPass offers an incentive to PSP-providing companies, such as pharmaceuticals and insurance providers, to buy into the technology by making their process easier, faster, more reliable as well as more cost-effective whilst yielding more potential customers.
Insurance and Data Sharing
Insurance fraud is one of the greatest issues that MedPass can provide a solution to and, by doing so, offering an incentive to the healthcare industry. Fraud within the healthcare sector, either insurance fraud or prescription fraud, has a major impact on the industry’s financial costs. For instance, prescription fraud costs the NHS in the UK an estimated £256 million in 2018 (source). A digital medical passport would prevent patients and/or institutions from providing false or misleading information to insurance companies in an attempt to have them pay unauthorized benefits in cases of insurance fraud but also prevent fraudulent use of prescription forms as the entire process is digitized. The implementation of MedPass reduces the likelihood of issues of fraud arising as all transactions occur through Credify’s ecosystem and require the sharing of a patient’s digital passport. As all parties, from patients and insurers to health care providers and pharmaceutical companies, are involved within the communication channel, it limits any false information and data that can be distributed whilst also providing the best opportunities for the patient.
The NHS is yet another failing healthcare system that MedPass has the potential to support, with data sharing being a major barrier to efficiency. Data transmission within the NHS is limited i.e. between hospitals and General Practitioners’ practices, due to the increasing number of data protection guidelines in place. A user-controlled app where the patient is entirely in control of their own medical record would massively improve efficiency and patient treatment. This suggests that a solution is needed not only in privatized healthcare but also in the public sector where insurance companies are not as rife.
About Credify
Credify is a Singapore based software development company offering Universal Identity and Trust System solutions to e-commerce and financial services companies. Credify’s patent pending protocol and services are built on secure distributed ledger technology. For more information on Credify please see: https://credify.one/
