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New Black-Owned Cryptocurrency Works Around Medical Insurance, Lets Patients Pay Doctors Directly

New Black-Owned Cryptocurrency Works Around Medical Insurance, Lets Patients Pay Doctors Directly

Written by Dana Sanchez

Aug 24, 2018

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Teledactyl Blockchain, a health tech blockchain and crypto company, launched an initial coin offering on Aug. 11 at the 116th Annual National Medical Association Convention.

The Wyoming-based tech firm wants to take on the redundancy of the healthcare system using blockchain personal health records.

Co-founders Alan E. Bottorff and Dr. Seth Crapp created a platform that securely stores medical records and correspondence between patients and physicians through encrypted transmissions. The technology also incorporates the teledactyl token (TDCL), a digital asset that lets patients pay doctors directly for medical services either in place of insurance or as a complement to it, the company said in a press release.

Teledactyl officers said they’re different from the competition because of a “unique secure cryptocurrency payment option.”

Alan E. Bottorff and Dr. Seth Crapp, the founders of Teledactyl. Photo: Black News

Atlanta-based cybersecurity healthcare startup Patientory raised $7.2 million in three days in a June 2017 token sale. One of the few Black female founders in technology, Patientory CEO Chrissa McFarlane has inspired others to take the leap and start their own companies.

Patientory received a grant, announced in August 2017, to fund the integration of a public blockchain with Patientory’s own private one — a first in healthcare interoperability between digital distributed ledger networks.

While similar blockchain systems often use ‘utility tokens’, Teledactyl has its own cryptocurrency payment network, the company said. This method provides a “P2P” payment system from patient to provider. It increases healthcare per dollar and reimburses providers instantaneously after services are offered. Patients don’t have to rely on third-party insurers or payors; the power lies with them. Further, a controlled blockchain payment network allows a fully transparent, permanent and immutable record of all transactions in the teledactyl token.

Any data that is added, changed or deleted by a health professional using Teledactyl is automatically recorded in the user’s blockchain in the form of a ledger, providing security and transparency, Healthcare Informatics reported. The blockchain system is also compatible with multiple applications.

Teledactyl tokens can be bought, traded and exchanged through the Waves platform mobile app which can be found on the iTunes App Store or Google Play store or downloaded for PC at https://wavesplatform.com/get-waves.

Physicians are being recruited nationwide to opt-in to accept teledactyl tokens as a form of payment.

“The U.S. healthcare system is in dire need of an efficient method to preserve and protect personal health information, reduce healthcare costs, increase provider access and improve methods of payment—all while bettering patient outcomes,” said Seth Crapp, M.D., the company’s co-founder and chief medical officer. in a prepared statement. “We want to eliminate the discrepancies in our healthcare system that disrupt patient and provider relationships. Everyone should have immediate access to their health records,” said Seth Crapp, M.D., the company’s co-founder and chief medical officer.

 

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