Hallym University Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital

Hallym University Medical Center (HUMC) launched nation’s first blockchain-based health insurance claim system and began to utilize it for inpatients at its Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospial on January 31.

When submitting a claim, patients had to get various certificates issued such as bills and medical certificates, and send them to insurance companies via e-mail, fax or mobile apps.

This conventional process caused inconvenience, since there were numerous kind of certificates. Oftentimes patients had to wait for a long time to get their certificates issued. When they lost their certificates, they had to visit a hospital again.

Fortunately, it's time to say goodbye to any inconvenience. Thanks to HUMC's new service, patients can verify themselves using KakaoTalk, select items that they want to claim, and send those to insurance companies. It's easy, and there's no need to install any mobile app.

HUMC is in partnership with KB Insurance Co., Ltd., and is planning to expand its partnership with additional insurance companies.

The blockchain-based health insurance claim service will become available to outpatients as well in the near future. HUMC is aiming to introduce this new system to all five of its hospitals: Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, and Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital.

"We successfully transformed our hospitals into 'smart hospitals' last year. Since then, we have been leading the country's healthcare information technology," said Yun-Sik Kang, manager of DRG Information Team. "We will establish a system that enables the exchange of medical information among other hospitals through blockchain technology in the future," he added.

By Chul Kwon, Int’l Cooperation Team, HUMC (chris@hallym.or.kr)