CHICAGO & NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Illinois Blockchain Initiative announced today its partnership with blockchain healthcare innovation company Hashed Health, to leverage blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. The pilot program will initially explore opportunities to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the medical credentialing process in Illinois. The concept will leverage a blockchain-based registry to streamline the sharing of medical credential data and smart contracts to automate workflow related to multistate and interstate licensure.
Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) Secretary Bryan Schneider, commented, “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.”
“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,” said Jennifer O'Rourke, Blockchain Business Liaison for the Illinois Blockchain Initiative. “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.”
The blockchain framework utilized allows providers to be identified in a secure, verifiable and scalable way. Credentialing bodies can reliably view and eventually attest to certifications, providers can verify and maintain a single record, and all interacting bodies can trust that the central record is valid, authenticated, and unique.
“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,” said John Bass CEO of Hashed Health. “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.”
About Hashed Health
Hashed Health is a healthcare innovation firm leading the design, development and productive use of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies. Hashed Health partners with public and private sector clients to collaboratively develop solutions and networks that solve health delivery challenges. Hashed Health’s mission is to create new shared value systems for individuals and communities of health through a variety of enterprise and consumer-focused projects. More information can be found at http://www.hashedhealth.com/ or by emailing join@hashedhealth.com.
About the State of Illinois
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.
In November of 2016, Illinois formed a consortium of Illinois state and county agencies, known as the Illinois Blockchain Initiative, 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.
