Blockchain: A Natural Fit To Manage Health Insurance Benefit Accumulators

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (July 16, 2018) – Acero Health Technologies, a leading enterprise software solution provider for national and regional health insurance companies, announces new innovative use of Blockchain technology within its existing XpandACC™ product.

XpandACC is a proven, in-production solution that serves as a single source of accumulator truth for multiple adjudication systems (e.g., a data hub for shared deductibles, out-of-pocket limits or other accumulator limits). XpandACC supports shared accumulators across medical, pharmacy, behavioral health, vision or dental benefits. The blockchain-enhanced version will now leverage the distributed ledger benefits of security, availability, and transparency.

Acero clients using Acero’s XpandACC product have an option to now deploy and use Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 to support a shared ledger for tracking digital “chain” assets with common smart contracts. Adding blockchain to what was already a true “real-time” solution adds localized availability and more transparency for partner systems.

Hyperledger Fabric is an open-source blockchain framework implementation hosted by The Linux Foundation. Hyperledger Fabric is also a token-less framework that allows for permissioned ledgers; appropriate for an industry with sensitive data and complex partner relationships.

Blockchain distributed ledgers are an ideal fit for the healthcare industry in general; shared accumulators in particular. The distributed nature of the technology removes single points of failure and ultimately leads to more efficient system interactions between industry parties. Multiple parties may read, write and share information about a member’s patient responsibility progress via the “chain”. Blockchain also ensures that accumulator progress is transparent, localized and accurately used based on event-driven, on-demand processes visible via blockchain smart contracts available to all permissioned parties.

XpandACC eliminates the need for daily or weekly batch files while also eliminating the demand for staff to research and handle all of the manual processes (e.g. claim adjustments) commonly associated with over-accumulation issues due to timing delays or rule misapplication. This true, real-time approach improves accuracy and reduces operating costs by eliminating many of the claim processing errors that commonly occur due to timing or rule synchronization issues.

“We’re excited to be leading the way using blockchain within healthcare enterprise applications,” says Acero CIO, Nick Larocca. Nick recently presented Acero’s blockchain experience at the 2nd Annual Healthcare Blockchain Summit in Boston and he also participates in the Hyperledger Healthcare Working Group.

Nick adds, “Our software processes millions of transactions so we understand blockchain’s promise and the current obstacles in healthcare. Blockchain represents a unique industry opportunity to rethink how various industry stakeholders interact and collaborate when sharing data. Sharing accumulators via a distributed ledger is the first step toward improving the industry’s administrative efficiency.”

For more information about XpandACC, go to http://www.acerohealth.com/products/xpandACC, or to speak with someone from our sales team about an online demonstration, please e-mail our marketing team.

About Acero Health Technologies
Acero Health Technologies, an innovative information technology company, offers robust transactional software solutions to health insurance issuers. Acero’s solutions provide issuers with the means to leverage existing systems in solving for new business and regulatory challenges. The Acero team has significant insurance and technical experience developing sophisticated, enterprise software solutions for benefits administrators. Acero’s PlanXpand® engine powers several technology solutions including XpandACC, XpandCDH™, a powerful tool for issuer-administered consumer-driven health plans, and XpandHCR™ an application that helps payers calculate and reconcile federal cost-sharing subsidies.

Media Contact:
press@acerohealth.com