Introducing GemOS

There are four simple things that will lead America out of the Obamacare box. These clues are hidden in the old English folk rhyme about the charms for a bride to wear on her wedding day to bring good luck: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.”

Do Republican legislators wish to be able to again attend town hall meetings without meeting torch-and-pitchfork wielding constituents? Does President Trump wish to secure his re-election prospects? If so, take heed.

As pressure mounts on Republicans to overhaul the Affordable Care Act (ACA), blockchain advocates are hoping bullish modifications to the law could provide a springboard for the adoption of distributed ledger tech.

Since the 2009 passage of the ACA – colloquially known as ‘Obamacare‘ – the US healthcare system has continued to grapple with the escalating spending, inefficiencies and antiquated systems that prompted calls for reform in the first place.

Across the healthcare ecosystem, IT leaders at patient care organizations are still grappling with the critical issues of seamlessly exchanging health data across systems and also being able to properly secure it. Indeed, although the healthcare industry is behind most other sectors when it comes to interoperability and security, newfound optimism has emerged in the form of a technology that potentially can help solve both of these challenges—blockchain.

Capital One worked with Gem (a company whose tagline is to make complex data sharing simple) in late 2016 to deliver a successful prototype of the full life cycle of a medical claim on the blockchain. “We believe this technology – combined with our client-centric approach to understanding our clients’ needs – will not only help healthcare providers and payers more efficiently and securely manage healthcare claims, but also could be applied to other aspects of the healthcare revenue cycle to overcome system interoperability challenges that have been an industry pain point for decades.” Patrick Moore, Executive Vice President and Head of Capital One’s Treasury Management’s Product Management group.

Every year at Frost & Sullivan, the Transformational Health team brainstorm top predictions for the New Year to come. 2017 will definitely continue to be a year of tumultuous uncertainty and turbulence, but amidst this uncertainty we know for a fact that technology will continue to flourish and will have unprecedented impact on healthcare in terms of building some of the foundation blocks towards a connected home and healthcare ecosystem.

Bitcoin, digital currency and blockchain technology experienced another explosive year in 2016. While bitcoin breached the all-time high in USD market cap, several new digital currencies claimed a place in the spotlights as well, while the blockchain buzz arguably peaked it all.

Today we are showcasing why you should want to work for Gem – a company that builds blockchain operating systems with projects in healthcare, supply chain management, and insurance.

The seed of FinTech innovation often comes from a desire to do things differently. In B2B payments, that can mean discontent in the way traditional banks and FIs do business or a need for disruptive technologies to come to market faster than banks can offer.

Gem CEO Micah Winkelspecht explains.

Capital One announced this week it is partnering with blockchain startup Gem to use the digital ledger technology to track claims for medical patients. I mention this not because it’s the most important story of the day, but because the notion of banks using the blockchain to address the nightmare that is our health payments system is just another sign of how quickly technology is changing the fundamentals of modern business.