Anthem – top 2 health insurance heavyweight in the US market – is reportedly considering employing a blockchain-based solution to secure medical data of its 40 million customers, within a 3-year span. 

Reported by Forbes on December 12, Anthem looks to employ a blockchain-based tool to make medical data accessible to patients, in a secured manner, and at the same time provide them the power to share that data however they wish to. 

“What blockchain potentially gives us the opportunity to do is not worry about those trust issues. We have an opportunity now to share data that people can make their own decisions on.” Anthem CEO Gail Boudreaux revealed plans for the initiative at the 8th Annual Forbes Healthcare Summit in New York. 

At the moment, the firm is piloting a new tool on different customer groups. The pilot includes a scannable QR code based on mobile devices, which will then make the customers’ medica data briefly accessible to doctors. 

“We think it’s a pretty transformative thing for health […] We’re essentially creating a permission-based system that would allow consumers to own their healthcare data, and then make it available to providers as appropriate.” Anthem chief digital officer Rajeev Ronanki remarked. 

Anthem looks to introduce the new blockchain-powered solution in different phases starting next year.