In this episode of the HIPAA Vault Show, we explore the groundbreaking potential of Bitcoin micropayments in healthcare. We dive into:
– The basics of Satoshis and the Lightning Network
– Current challenges in healthcare payments
– Innovative applications of micropayments in medical services
– Benefits and obstacles to implementation
Discover how this cutting-edge technology could streamline co-payments, incentivize healthy behaviors, and even transform medical research funding. Whether you’re a healthcare professional, tech enthusiast, or simply curious about the future of medical transactions, this episode offers valuable insights into a potentially game-changing innovation.
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Transcript:
Adam
Hello, and welcome to the HIPAA vault show, where we discuss all things HIPAA compliance and cloud technology. I’m your host, Adam, and with me is Gil, our CTO and the founder of HIPAA Vault. And today we’re diving into an exciting topic, micropayments using bitcoin, and specifically, Satoshi’s in healthcare.
Gil
Hey, that’s right, Adam. Good to see you again. So, yeah, today we’re going to be exploring how this new technology, micropayments, could potentially transform financial transactions in the healthcare ecosystems and in other places as well. On the Internet.
Adam
Yeah. So let’s start with the basics, if you would, Gail. I mean, our audience has heard and we talked about bitcoin in the past. Could you explain a little bit, maybe, about micro payments and what satoshis are?
Gil
I. Yeah. Okay, so micro payments is what you would imagine by the word micro. They’re very small payments. So normally, when you think of paying someone, you know, you pay your bills every month, you write a check for your electricity for $30. But micro payments would be like a very small payment. It could be less, a fraction of one penny. Now, in the US, you can’t pay anything less than a penny, but that’s the beauty of digital. So, bitcoin, one bitcoin, which in today’s market value is worth about $60,000 for bitcoin. But each bitcoin can be divided by 100 million satoshis. So just like a dollar bill can divide it into 100 cents, one bitcoin could be divided into 100 million satoshis, and that’s the smallest unit you could have.
Adam
So it’s like the way a penny is a yemenite, 100 pennies or a dollar, 100 million satoshis or a bitcoin. That’s incredibly small. How do these tiny payments work efficiently? Because there’s probably going to be a cost associated with them. Right.
Gil
Yeah. And that’s a technical challenge that’s been around for a while. In fact, that was one of the biggest complaints about bitcoin back in the early days, where these crypto programmers and developers are saying, oh, bitcoin is not good because you have a transaction fee and it can only send a big chunk. You know, what if you wanted to send a small payment for a piece of chewing gum or something, you know, you have to pay a dollar fee to make the payment, but the chewing gum only cost $0.50. Doesn’t make sense. So this new technology came around called the Lightning network, and it’s a layer on top of bitcoin. It allows for very fast and low transaction costs. So they kind of solve that problem. And that makes micropayments practical.
Adam
Interesting. How would the healthcare industry need this, and what are the current payment challenges in that industry?
Gil
Well, the micropayments, first, let me give you an example how micropayments can be used, and then we can talk about how it could work with healthcare. So micropayment could be where you could say to somebody who reads your blog, on your website, say, hey, if you like my blog and you want to contribute so I can keep writing more blogs, you can make a payment. And the person says, you know, well, they could pay whatever they want, but let’s suppose, you know, they just want to make a micro payment. They want to send you 500 satoshis. Now, 500 satoshis might sound like a lot, but it, you know, it might be a, I haven’t done the math, but let’s say that’s a quarter penny.
Gil
Well, that’s not very much, but basically you have millions of people on the Internet, and if everyone’s paying you, just as a tip, saying, I’ll pay you a quarter penny, you know, at the end of the month, maybe you’re getting $100, you know, so you’re like, well, that’s $1,200 a year. All of a sudden you’re getting paid to write some content. Now, that’s great for content writing, it’s a good example. But for healthcare, you know, going to the doctor or something costs a lot of money. So that’s not going to be practical there. But it could be used innovative ways where you could have an app that helps diagnose problems. So an app might help you diagnose some kind of lower back pain you have in that app.
Gil
Might require that when you use the app to help identify where my, where’s my back pain and what exercises that I can do to relieve that. Could be on an app, could be on the website that it might require a small micropayment. You say, well, I have to make a payment of 500 satoshis. You’re paying still very tiny amount, but now you’re paying it through bitcoin.
Adam
That’s fascinating. What other applications do you see for it?
Gil
There are several other potential applications. You could have something where you pay per use for medical equipment. So you could go to a website, say, hey, I need to, you know, borrow or rent some kind of a foot compressor because I have a twisted foot or a boot or something. So you could use it for that. You could use it to incentivize healthy behaviors. So let’s say you’re one of these diet plans, and when you say you met your goal, you stayed within your caloric intake for the day. Next thing you know, you’re getting deposited. So many satoshis, and that has been proven to be very motivating for people.
Gil
That releases some dopamine in the brain, and you’re all happy that you made that goal, your dietary goal, or whatever the healthcare goal is, and then you continue to modify your behavior in a positive way. And these satoshis, even though it’s a small fraction money, you’re still motivated. It’s more of an emotional reward than it is, you know, trying to make money off satoshis.
Adam
Interesting. Are there any other applications for it within healthcare?
Gil
I think another idea would be to streamline co payment. Co payments, making them insane and reducing the administrative costs that is required now to process co payments. Another idea would be international medical tourism by simplifying cross border payments. So cross border payments is the thing that can happen. I know, for example, having lived in San Diego for years, many people cross the border to go get their dental treatments or to go to the chiropractor. It’s a lot less expensive. And so. Yeah, right.
Adam
Like, there’s millions and millions every year that go across whether Texas.
Gil
Right. And the actual transaction fees, when you’re paying in pesos, you’re converting pesos, dollars or dollars pesos. It’s not insignificant. It actually costs a decent amount. And so it could help alleviate some of those fees where it’s like, well, I’m going to pay the doctor down there, the dentist or whatever, you pay them the full amount minus a very small, almost inconsequential transaction fee. So that’s another method that could, another thing that could be done to take advantage of micropayments.
Adam
No, that’s very cool. So those all sound very promising as potential applications. If you could summarize the benefits across them, what main benefits would we see from these?
Gil
Well, yeah, the main benefits is to have reduced costs. It can increase your efficiency and potentially improve access to healthcare. And also what we talked about earlier, motivating people, where you’re actually paying patients for certain behaviors or outcomes, you’re rewarding them with Satoshi. So that’s another way to do that.
Adam
Well, we talk about the applications and the benefits there. What about the challenges, any challenges we should be aware of?
Gil
You know, this is just ideas infancy. If you look on the Internet, you’ll find a few companies trying some of these things. I know micro strategy has some micro payments they’ve embraced, but it’s very new. And as you know, healthcare is heavily regulated, so there could be some challenges there. And also, cryptocurrency has been known to be volatile, so the value changes, it could swing up and down a lot. So that would be a potential challenge as well.
Adam
Well, it looks like this technology certainly has the potential to shake up things in healthcare at the very least, and healthcare finance. Any final thoughts, Gil?
Gil
Well, there are some challenges to overcome, but micropayments are already being used, so it’s not going away. It’s really a matter of how can this micropayments be incorporated into healthcare? Where could it be? Where it’s going to happen? Someone’s going to pursue it. So we want the audience to just have this filed in back of their brain as they go about their normal workday. And some of you might come up with a novel idea and be able to implement that using micropayments.
Adam
Amazing. Well, thanks, Gil, and thank you, listeners and viewers, for tuning in to the HIPAA vault show. Hope you find this interesting. If you did, don’t forget to subscribe. And until next time, stay safe and stay secure.