Could covering your next medical bill be based on the bitcoin market? Are you excited at the possibility of blowing your investment gains on some fake abs and a new Angelina pout? The healthcare industry is behind in bitcoin and should be stepping up.
Some private clinics do accept bitcoin, but not many. And not all of their clients are aware that they could be paying in electronic currency. There are a million reason that healthcare should adopt e-currency as a payment option. Not only can it be cheaper, but it can help introduce blockchain to the medical field, which is desperately needed as financial and medical information becomes easier for hackers to harvest.
Discounts
Accepting bitcoin is more economical than accepting credit cards. Credit card processors usually collect 2-3 per cent, while bitcoin is usually at .5-1 per cent for processing. When the average American spends $10,000 on medical expenses a year, that difference between .5 per cent and 3 per cent is $250. That’s nothing to turn up your nose at.
Not only would bitcoin offer some savings but it would also offer an intro to blockchain technology for the healthcare industry — which could be a huge step towards improving patient privacy.
Better security, not just bitcoin
Accepting bitcoin in the healthcare field is a great way to start recruiting talented tech professionals to the healthcare field. While there are definite financial benefits to accepting bitcoin, beginning to implement blockchain technology would be a giant leap forward in protecting patient’s financial records. The healthcare industry is ripe for hacking since it contains fragile patient information that has a very high black market value. Bitcoin is a step toward protecting financial records, and the technology behind it, blockchain, can help protect patient records.
Telehealth improvements
Telehealth is a growing industry. 16 per cent of Americans live more than 30 miles away from a hospital and with a large number rural hospitals closing, telehealth has become an increasingly attractive option. Unfortunately, telehealth requires the transfer of sensitive patient data, which opens patient data up to being hacked. Implementing bitcoin’s sister technology, blockchain, can help isolate potential breaks in security while still offering the benefits of connected devices. As healthcare moves out of the hospital setting, electronic records and appropriate access is vital to maintaining the public’s health.
In-house still needs security
While blockchain would be very helpful for decentralized record keeping that is necessary to telehealth, it can be vital to maintaining the integrity of in-house hospital records.
Hackers love healthcare. It has high-value data and often doesn’t have the protection of other high-value data systems since there is low industry competition and transparency when it comes to patient data loss. It’s vital, in our electronic world, with all the electronic health records, for hospitals to move forward and protect their patient privacy.
Bitcoin is a great way to reduce financial loss in the medical field, as it offers lower transaction fees. The big benefit of implementing bitcoin in the medical field is that introduces the industry to technology that reduces data loss. Blockchain would be a big step forward for the healthcare industry. Why not take the leap?
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