Modernizing the Health Insurance Industry Using Blockchain and Smart Contracts

Abstract

The Indian health insurance industry is expanding at a rapid rate and presently is the second-largest benefactor to the extensive insurance industry (after Automobile).It has seen a meteoric rise in the past decade, and the projections forecast that in a developing nation like India,the health insurance sector should percolate to each and every rural and urban household. This sector includes multiple stakeholders – hospitals,insurance organizations,third-party insurers,beneficiaries,pharmacies,insurance start-ups, and the government. To ameliorate the cross-pollinated and distributed insurance industry which relies heavily on passing of data between its stakeholders, we must look at blockchain infrastructure as a solution. It is imperative to develop a central and trustworthy blockchain network that wouldboost the exchange of important healthcare data between different nodes with security,completeness, and integrity. Blockchain technology provides a consummate way to store and execute data through all the different insurance industry participants and aid in the further penetration of health insurance in the country. Blockchain is a distributed,decentralized public ledger that records transactions after proper validation through the consensus algorithm. It can automate the process of collecting health data of the customer,outline the policy terms,negotiate tariffs and other required information, and then apply smart contracts based on predefined user agreed business rules in a pellucid and non-debatable manner. Blockchain systems have gained public advocacy in being deployed as a healthcare solution in many countries around the world. Adopting such a technology could revitalize and revolutionize our health insurance industry.