Blockchain Use Cases for Insurance Companies

• Toshendra Kumar Sharma
• January 27, 2018

The use cases address improvements in blockchain and therefore insurance company’s operational functions as well as dealings with providers, intermediaries, and policyholders, thereby improving the customer experience, enhancing product value, and laying the groundwork for greater consumer choice in the market. The end game is to decrease costs, improve operational effectiveness, and strengthen relationships with the insured. The following are the use cases presented in this report:

The use cases for Insurance Companies:

1. Moving towards interoperable, comprehensive health records
   The added security and ability to establish trust between entities are two reasons why this technology can help solve the interoperability problem better than today’s existing technologies.
2. Supporting administrative and strategic imperatives with smart contracts
   Blockchain could automatically collect records of agreements, transactions, and other valuable information sets, then link together the information and act on the data using smart contracts.
3. Detecting fraud more effectively
   When fraudulent information is submitted to a life or health insurer via false claims, falsified applications, or other channels, smart contracts can help determine if the submission is indeed valid.
4. Improving provider directory accuracy
   Unique provider directories could leverage the technology’s decentralized consensus protocols to allow providers and insurers to update listings more quickly and easily.
5. Simplifying the application process by making it more client-centric
   Providing an easier-to-access, more comprehensive set of medical records on a blockchain could infuse comfort and peace of mind into what, for many, is now an intrusive and often discouraging application process.
6. Facilitating a dynamic insurer/client relationship
   Electronic health records securely stored on a smart contract could be the foundation for integrating a wide variety of wellness-related behaviors into the insurer/client dynamic.

Health and life insurers should be bold when it comes to the blockchain. The greatest opportunities may extend beyond making incremental improvements in current business models to harnessing blockchain’s unique attributes to create entirely new types of interactive policies and launch innovative services that add value and grow the business.