Digital Health Asset Token for Healthcare Debt Financing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The rising cost of healthcare and the increasing number of uninsured or underinsured individuals lead to challenges in accessing affordable medical services, with patients facing significant financial burdens and difficulty in obtaining further medical services due to unpaid bills, necessitating a mechanism for finding discounted services and efficient payment systems.
Innovation Solution
A method for providing a bundled set of individually redeemable healthcare services, using a digital health asset token to represent user debt, which can be traded or used to finance medical expenses, and an Independent Dispute Resolution process for resolving disputes under the No Surprises Act, within a marketplace system that facilitates buying, selling, or trading these services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If patients pay cash for medical services, then they can access necessary healthcare, but their financial burden increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a blockchain-based token as an intermediary between patients and healthcare providers. The token represents a claim on future payment or reimbursement, allowing patients to receive services immediately while deferring actual payment. This mediator resolves the contradiction by enabling access to care without immediate full payment, reducing the harmful financial burden while maintaining reliable access.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-funding or pre-arranging payment mechanisms through insurance claims, government reimbursement programs, or third-party payers. Patients receive services based on pre-authorized payment arrangements, allowing them to access care before actual payment is made, thus reducing the immediate financial burden while ensuring reliable access.
2Reliability
If patients accumulate unpaid medical bills, then they can access necessary services, but their ability to obtain further medical services decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain token serves as a portable intermediary that travels with the patient across different healthcare providers and systems. Instead of accumulating unpaid bills that block future care, the token represents a standardized claim that can be redeemed at any participating provider or through automated reimbursement processes, maintaining both access to services and adaptability to obtain further care.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal payment token that functions across multiple healthcare providers, insurance systems, and reimbursement programs. This multi-functional token can be used to pay for services, transfer to third parties, or redeem through various payment sources, ensuring patients maintain the ability to obtain further medical services regardless of which provider they visit.
3Power
If healthcare costs continue to rise, then provider reimbursement rates may improve, but patient insurance premiums increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the traditional mechanical payment system with a blockchain-based digital token system. This substitution enables automated, transparent tracking of healthcare costs, services rendered, and reimbursement claims. The system can automatically execute payment transactions when predefined conditions are met, reducing administrative overhead and enabling more efficient cost management that can help control premium increases while maintaining adequate provider reimbursement.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for providing a bundled set of individually redeemable healthcare services in a purchase data record, determining a Good Faith Estimate for the at least one healthcare service of the bundled set, associating the purchase data record with user debt for purchase of the healthcare services, providing a digital health asset token representing the purchase data record identified by and with a unique confirmation number, said purchase data record comprising the associated user debt of the at least one bundled set of healthcare services, and providing marketplace access to the token to finance the debt. The marketplace may use the token for buying, selling or trading the bundled set of healthcare services to finance the debt. The token and a Good Faith Estimate (GFE) may be provided to an Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process for resolving a dispute under the No Surprises Act.