It was recently reported that Ant Financial, a subsidary of Alibaba, working in conjunction with Aisino, is trialing the use of blockchain technology in the printing of electronic medical bills. This service is not only more convenient for patients, but also eliminates the problem of repeat reimbursements. Since August 2nd, there have been close to 600,000 blockchain e-bills printed and issued to patients.

Hospital patients in Hangzhou, Taizhou and Jinhua who use AliPay to pay for registration, outpatient service and overnight stays will have their bill sent directly to their AliPay account. Those using cash, a hospital app, Medicare card to pay need only scan the QR code on their examination record and they, too, will receive one of these innovative blockchaine e-bills. Deputy Administrator of Taizhou’s Central Hospital, Hu Fuyu, said that the e-bills represented a major upgrade in the patient experience, saving patients an average of 1.5 hours during their visit.

The Advantages of Using a Blockchain E-Bill

In addition, Ant Financial’s blockchain services expert, Yang Xueqing, reported that eliminating repeat reimbursements was the greatest functional value of blockchain technology in this arena. Thanks to blockchain’s innate ability to deny tampering, and allow absolute traceability, a blockchain e-bill will, at every stage, receive the required “seal of approval.” With this in place, once an e-bill has been reimbursed, it becomes impossible to do it a second time. This was an unattainable guarantee with paper bills or common e-bills.

Industry experts believe that electronic receipts and bills are part of the natural direction of blockchain application because it is these very sectors that have the most need.

Information revealed by Ant Financial tells us that there are already active plans in the near future to expand the number of sectors making use of this technology. Before now, Ant Financial Chairman, Jing Xiandong, has expressed on multiple occasions that the company will only be pursuing applications of blockchain that have the most value to society.