Coin Rivet: Tell us about Solve.Care.
PG: Solve.Care is a global healthcare platform which aims to redefine care coordination, improve access to care, empower the consumer with information, reduce benefit administration costs, as well as eliminate fraud and waste from healthcare and benefit administration around the world.
It is the first company to utilise digital currency and blockchain technology in healthcare for value-based payments. This allows for the configuration of patient-centric care administration networks that allow participation based on disease conditions, economic and social needs, employment, and other eligibility criteria.
Coin Rivet: What has been the industry reaction thus far?
PG: The industry reaction to Solve.Care and the work we are doing has been overwhelmingly positive. Over the last 12 months, we have hit some important milestones — most notably our first-of-its-kind blockchain and ridesharing service integration with Lyft, as well as our partnership with leading pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim to launch a care network for patients with diabetes.
Solve.Care was also granted the Most Innovative Blockchain Project Award at the Blockchain Life 2019 Forum recently.
“There is no doubt that the blockchain and crypto industry has taken its time to emerge from the shadow of Silk Road. However, it is important to remember that despite its whirlwind decade, blockchain is still a nascent and emerging technology that has worked hard over the past ten years to reverse this global perception”
Coin Rivet: How can blockchain technology help redefine the healthcare industry?
PG: Although still in its infancy, blockchain technology has the potential to redefine the healthcare industry and enable a new, more effective, accessible, and affordable system. Solve.Care aims to reduce healthcare administration costs by providing a peer-to-peer payment platform which cuts out the middleman.
As a payment and coordination platform it also aims to give the power of payment to individuals and empowering payers regarding cost control and oversight. Individuals, doctors, insurers, employers, and government agencies can all benefit from the platform.
We have started doing just this through our work with the Arizona Care Network (ACN) and their implementation of Solve.Care’s Care.Wallet for Physicians within their base of 5,500 healthcare providers. This allows ACN to deliver real-time information to physicians, which in turn improves care for every patient the physician sees.
Based on these improvements, the physicians are rewarded in real time. Earlier this year ACN won a National Association of Accountable Care Organisations (NAACOS) Innovation Award for their implementation of the Solve.Care Care.Wallet for Physicians at the 2019 NAACOS Spring Conference in April.
Coin Rivet: What have been your biggest challenges in launching and establishing Solve.Care?
PG: One of the most challenging aspects of launching and establishing a company in the blockchain space is the rate at which things evolve. Everything moves at lightning speed and what might be true today may not be true in just a month or two, and what was true a month or two ago might not be true today.
The lack of regulatory certainty is an ongoing challenge in this space. However, Solve.Care is committed to building ourselves for the long game and we are optimistic that legislators will enforce a clear and stringent framework sooner rather than later.
Coin Rivet: The blockchain/crypto space has many supporters, but also its fair share of critics. The latter argue that it is all hype, no substance, and that too many scammers etc are muddying the waters. How do you respond to that?
PG: There is no doubt that the blockchain and crypto industry has taken its time to emerge from the shadow of Silk Road and shake off the negativity associated with Bitcoin’s most notorious marketplace. However, it is important to remember that despite its whirlwind decade, blockchain is still a nascent and emerging technology that has worked hard over the past ten years to reverse this global perception.
The prolonged crypto winter put to bed the argument that blockchain is all hype and no substance and also served to weed out the bad actors in the space. This, combined with increased regulation, and traditional financial institutions such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs dipping their toes in the crypto waters so to speak, is a positive inclination that blockchain is here to stay.
Coin Rivet: What can we expect to see from Solve.Care over the next 12 months?
PG: Our mission is to simplify access to healthcare, reduce administrative steps, and speed up payments to healthcare providers by leveraging blockchain technology and we are committed to fostering this through notable partnerships and milestones over the next 12 months.
We are also focused on continuing to develop our Asian expansion plan, increasing the adoption of our platform, and the number of Care.Wallet users. There is so much to come, so stay tuned!
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. We do not give advice on financial products.