The Medical Society of Delaware (MSD), in collaboration with healthcare services company Medscient, is going to develop a blockchain solution to address the challenges that prior authorization requirements pose to patients and healthcare providers.

According to the official announcement, the solution will use Symbiont’s distributed ledger technology (DLT). Symbiont is the State of Delaware’s technology partner in the Delaware Blockchain Initiative.

MSD Vice President Andrew Dahlke explained that DLT and smart contracts will execute rules agreed upon by caregivers and insurers to automate the pre-authorization process. This would reduce the need for phone calls, faxes, and lengthy turnaround times that generate added expense for providers and insurers, along with delaying badly-needed patient care.

“The entire healthcare community agrees that pre-authorization processes need improvement,” Dahlke said. “We are confident that this Proof of Concept will not only address this particular pain point, but will lay the groundwork for streamlining other healthcare administrative issues as well.”

Medscient is currently working with the MSD to document existing pre-authorization landscape and capture use cases. This will be followed by modeling the future state of pre-authorization – to envision what an automated environment will look like and how it will impact the involved parties.

The proof of concept of the solution will be presented by the MSD and Medscient at the Medicaid Enterprise Systems Conference on August 18 in Baltimore.

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