Tackling Provider Directories: Sharing and Managing Change Across the Blockchain

Gerry Lewis, Senior VP and CIO, Ascension and CEO, Ascension Technologies, and Lorraine Frias, Senior Director Strategic Initiatives, Optum.  Billions of dollars are spent annually on provider data management, yet provider directories often contain inaccuracies that dramatically increase the cost of care while reducing its quality. This session provides an overview of why Aetna, Ascension, Humana, MultiPlan, Quest Diagnostics, Optum and UnitedHealthcare have formed an alliance (the Synaptic Health Alliance) to explore the use of blockchain technology in tackling the challenge of accurate and efficient provider data management and sharing. Gerry and Lorraine also highlight the current challenges and state of provider data exchange and the goals and approach of the initial pilot project for the alliance.