Ant Financial’s Alipay has just launched a new blockchain-based invoicing system that permits the processing of insurance claims in a matter of mere seconds.
According to a report from the state-owned Securities Daily the system permits application for the reimbursement of medical treatment claims via the Alipay-app, and has already been successfully deployed in the Zhejiang-province coastal city of Taizhou.
A Mr. Wu received a medical consultation at the Taizhou Central Hospital, and subsequently obtained authorisation to use Alipay’s “Invoice Manager” (发票管家) to retain the consultation receipts and submit a claims application.
Within five seconds of submitting the claims application Mr. Wu received 97 yuan in reimbursement via his Alipay account.
Alipay achieves this rapid processing speed using blockchain-based electronic invoicing technology that was independently developed by Ant Financial.
According to Securities Daily the technology is a “financial-grade consortium blockchain” that focuses on privacy protection and can effectively prevent the issuance of fake invoices.
Hu Fuyu (胡富宇), vice head of the Taizhou Central Hospital, said that patients can send e-invoices for consultations and hospital stays to Alipay’s “Invoice Manager” instantly and enjoy ” one button submissions” and “claims processing in seconds,” avoiding the need to repeatedly queue up or wait in line.
While China launched a crackdown on cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICO) in September of last year, the Chinese government has continued drive research and development of new blockchain technologies and their application across a range of areas.
The “2018 China Blockchain Sector White Paper” released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that “the distributed and encrypted nature [of blockchains]…can ensure the veracity and reliability of data and effective tracking, providing a forceful technological guarantee for the prevention of insurance fraud.”
