Oct 24, 2023
At The Commons Project (TCP), we strive to build technology that makes a difference in people’s lives. One common problem is decoding health insurance as a patient – what are your options in providers? What is covered and what is not? TCP is currently working on a project that will solve many of these issues: digital insurance cards.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Commons Project and the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI) worked with a diverse set of stakeholders to promote the adoption of the newly created SMART Health Cards standard. Our effort was massively successful with SMART Health Cards being available to over 500 million people worldwide. TCP, the CARIN Alliance, and SMART Health IT are now leading an initiative aiming to enable every provider, payor, and insurance beneficiary in the United States to use a free and open-standards based digital insurance card.
The SMART Health Insurance Card will allow individuals to carry their health insurance cards in their digital wallets or print them out, and easily share insurance information with health care providers at check-in. Our technology is based on the SMART Health Cards specification and the HL7 CARIN Digital Insurance Card, developed by insurance companies and providers to document all needed insurance information. SMART Health Digital Insurance Cards will be supported by our own CommonHealth app and all major digital wallets.
We expect the standards work and early adopter testing to continue throughout 2023, with production implementation and cards in people’s hands (or phones!) beginning in early 2024. We are proud to lead the charge in integrating technology with healthcare while keeping people at the center of this transformation. As we embrace this new era, we hope you will join us in promoting a more efficient, accessible, and people-centric health ecosystem. For more information, visit our site here.