NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Change Healthcare announced that it has acquired intellectual property (IP) and other key assets from PokitDok Inc., a platform-as-a-service company for health care. With this advanced software, IP and the PokitDok team, Change Healthcare further extends the capabilities and technology leadership of the Change Healthcare Intelligent Healthcare Network for payers, providers, and independent software vendors (ISVs), according to the company’s recent announcement. The details of the acquisition were not disclosed. The integration of key PokitDok APIs [application program interface] into the network will add new capabilities for digital health, telemedicine, and other new, disruptive care models that support value-based, patient-centric health care, the announcement noted.

In May, VSP Global announced it had made an investment in PokitDok, as VMAIL reported. VSP Global did not specify the amount of the investment, but noted that this partnership joins a separate collaboration already underway between PokitDok and VSP’s innovation lab, The Shop, to explore and test solutions using PokitDok’s HIPAA-compliant blockchain solution, DokChain.

Kris Joshi, executive vice president and president, Network Solutions, Change Healthcare, said in the recent announcement that the acquisition is about “practical innovation to create a more connected, transparent and efficient health care system where patients control their own information.” Joshi added, “As the leader in blockchain for health care and with one of the most extensive open API marketplaces available, with PokitDok we are bringing together synergistic assets and technical expertise for delivering additional capabilities to our customers and accelerated value to digital health markets.”

In 2017, Change Healthcare became the first health care IT company to deploy blockchain at enterprise scale, addressing the administrative claims management transparency process. More recently, the company announced an agreement with TIBCO to develop the first blockchain “smart contract” system for health care, according to the company. Change Healthcare said it now expects to leverage PokitDok’s blockchain use cases as well as DokChain technology, expertise and toolsets to provide even more advanced blockchain capabilities in the Change Healthcare Intelligent Healthcare Network.

The Change Healthcare Intelligent Healthcare Network reaches approximately 2,200 government and commercial payer connections, 5,500 hospitals, 900,000 physicians, and 33,000 pharmacies according to the company. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, Change Healthcare said it facilitated nearly 14 billion health care transactions and $1.0 trillion in annual health care expenditures.