This is an opinion editorial by Frankie Wallace, a freelance writer from the Pacific Northwest.
Bitcoin is transforming the world of health insurance. Case in point: the use of bitcoin to crowdsource healthcare coverage.
There is a strong correlation between bitcoin and crowdsourced health insurance. A clear understanding of this relationship is key for those who want to use bitcoin and want to pursue all of the healthcare options at their disposal.
Bitcoin And Crowdsourcing Increase Access To Healthcare Coverage
Crowdsourcing is helping people pay their medical bills. To understand how crowdsourcing works and its relationship to bitcoin, let's consider an example.
You can get a costly medical bill for a procedure used to address a life-threatening condition. The bill puts a big dent in your budget to the point where you're forced to make significant cutbacks to pay it down.
With crowdsourcing, you can ask others for help with your medical bill. You can set up a web page on GoFundMe or a similar crowdsourcing website and share it with people you know. From here, you can get money to help you cover the cost of your medical bill.
To date, at least 50 million Americans have helped someone crowdsource a medical bill. On top of that, people are more prone than ever before to use crowdsourcing to get the medical care they need, exactly when they need it.
Bitcoin is a difference-maker in terms of increasing access to healthcare coverage. It makes it easy for people to contribute to crowdsourced health insurance. It can also drive the growth of a new healthcare system that makes healthcare affordable and equitable to all. Bitcoin offers incentives for patient-centered care across America, making this a viable option across the industry.
Why Health Insurance Companies Need Bitcoin And Crowdsourcing
Health insurers want to get paid on time. At the same time, they want clients to get the best healthcare coverage. Thanks to bitcoin, health insurance companies can enjoy the best of both worlds.
Bitcoin is quickly becoming a must-have for insurance companies since it opens the door to better relationships with clients. For instance, insurance companies can accept bitcoin payments from clients who use crowdsourcing to secure money for their medical bills. This gives clients the ability to submit payments via bitcoin and other methods. It helps insurance companies stand out from their competitors, too.
Letting clients pay with bitcoin can help insurance companies guard against cyberattacks and data breaches as well.
Health insurance companies are among the biggest targets for cybercriminals. With bitcoin, these companies can track any payments that come their way. The companies can verify these payments are submitted securely. They can ensure that credit chargebacks and other fraudulent means are not used to steal their money.
Bitcoin And Crowdsourcing Drive Health Literacy
People want to get the most value out of their health insurance plans. Meanwhile, health insurers want to teach their clients about their coverage and what it offers. Together, bitcoin and crowdsourcing increase health literacy at a personal and professional level.
In a crowdsourcing campaign, people can learn why someone is looking for help with their medical bills. They can get insights into various medical conditions and the costs associated with them. From here, people can decide if they want to contribute to a crowdsourcing campaign. If so, they can use bitcoin to quickly and easily do so.
Health insurers can use crowdsourcing campaigns to understand their clients' coverage needs. If a health insurance company finds clients frequently use crowdsourcing to get financial help with certain medical costs, it can look to revamp its plans accordingly. Or, if a health insurer discovers clients use crowdsourcing for medical bills covered under their plans, it can reach out to these individuals as needed.
How To Get Started With Bitcoin And Crowdsourcing For Medical Bills
In many ways, bitcoin fixes crowdsourcing, for medical bills and for other uses. Bitcoin allows people to seamlessly and securely contribute to crowdsourcing campaigns for these bills. That way, people can use bitcoin payments to help those in need of financial assistance pay their medical costs. They can also ensure that people around the globe can get the medical help they need.
If you have medical bills that compromise your budget, a crowdsourcing campaign can be a viable option. By accepting bitcoin as part of your campaign, you are well-equipped to get financial aid from a wide range of individuals.
Learn as much as you can about crowdsourcing before setting up a campaign for financial aid for a medical bill. If you move forward with a crowdsourcing campaign, be honest with people. Provide relevant information about why you are seeking funding. You can then offer the option to submit bitcoin payments.
It can be beneficial to reach out to your health insurance company about accepting bitcoin payments as well. As bitcoin adoption increases, many health insurers and their clients can reap the benefits. Look into companies paving the way for bitcoin-based crowdsourced health insurance, like CrowdHealth.
Bitcoin enables health insurers to minimize cyber risk and offer greater flexibility to their clientele. As health insurance companies see the benefits of bitcoin and its use in crowdsourcing campaigns for medical bills, they may be more inclined to adopt bitcoin. Over time, this can lead health insurers to integrate bitcoin into their daily operations.
This is a guest post by Frankie Wallace. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.