STAT News reports that Bitcoins have become accepted currency in a small number of physician practices, principally on the West Coast in high tech areas. However, even for the practices accepting such payment, there are few takers. Is this the next wave in payment, or just a marketing gimmick?
Bitcoin, or what is called cryptocurrency us a specially encrypted computer code shared through the network of uses. People using Bitcoins store them on their computer or smartphone in an electronic wallet, and then can send this electronic currency to other users for good and services, Cryptocurrency has no government oversight or regulations which has caused it to be associated with unsavory activities. However, it is a mark of status if you’re a techie and doing business with other techies in Bitcoins.
One of the hallmarks of money, US greenbacks is that they are a “storing value over time, with inflation and exchange rates, however stable currencies such as the US dollar have an expected value daily. As sexy as Bitcoins are, their wild ride up in value, hitting a high of $19,000+ to the US Dollar on December 12, 2017, excited many who rapidly entered the Bitcoin market, only to see the valuations drop to $7600 e of value”. Not that currency does not fluctuate Hoer dollar as of February 5, 2018. This is not a store of value, this is speculation.
Coninmap.org, which tracks businesses the business acceptance of Bitcoins, in February, identified about 200 medical businesses among the 10,000 brick and mortar businesses that are accepting them.
According to coinmap.org, a website that tracks businesses accepting bitcoin, around 10,000 brick-and-mortar businesses accepts bitcoin. Of those, around 200 are businesses that appear to be in the medical industry.
STAT News spoke with a couple of the practices that are accepting bitcoin, which not surprisingly are located high tech communities. The motivations of the practices appear more marketing driven than the expectation of business volume. If their practices attracted tech investors, then they saw a desire to show their patients an affinity with the tech community. However, on practice pointed out that only 2% of their patients had used Bitcoin to pay for services, and the other offers to take Bitcoin, but as of yet, none have.
While Bitcoin is the best known of the cryptocurrencies, it is not the only one. There are no regulations in this world of cryptocurrency, no reference value, or backing by any government, and it is not tied to gold or anything else of value. Pricing is what buyers and sellers agree to value it on a continuous and fluid basis.
If cryptocurrency had stability in value, and a sufficiently broad level of acceptance, such that you could use it to purchase what you need, there are actually some benefits for a medical practice to accept cryptocurrency. In a tech tech-heavy units, a certain segment of patients lives on their phones, no credit cards, no checkbook, and none of that dirty cash. For these patients, it is always better to get paid at the time the of service from these cashless techies, keeping receivables from growing.
Ann transfer costs, that is transaction fees to move your cryptocurrency around to make purchases is less costly than transaction fees on credit cards, reportedly about half as much.
As for downsides, besides the fact that if you charge based on today’s bitcoin cryptocurrency holdings into US dollars. This turns the process into first an effort, and second a speculative process, hold, or sell to maximize your return on Bitcoin acceptance.
In generations past, physicians would take produce and chickens from farmers for their services, these had certain value variability due to spoilage, and converting them into cash took an effort. Bitcoin and its cousin cryptocurrency might be looked at in the same way.
Author Bio:
Alex Tate has served in various positions at leading health IT organizations for the past twenty years. Most recently Mr. Tate served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer at a leading cloud-based EHR organization. He currently oversees the product management and revenue cycle management division spanning the entire continuum of care. Mr. Tate oversaw the development and commercialization of many emerging products and held various leadership roles related to health-technology strategy, operations, service organization development, delivery and served as various leadership positions. His ongoing collaboration with startups and academic research centers are paying the way for the development and commercialization of groundbreaking technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented reality and cutting-edge initiatives that are setting the standards for a future that offers the promise for evolving healthcare through technology in the world.
