The discussion about corporate wellness is often one of initiatives: Generously sponsored walks, runs, conferences and attempts to increase awareness about a specific individual, who may also be the benefactor and namesake of a featured cause, or raise attention concerning a particular medical condition.
These efforts are noble in their intentions, prominent in their visibility, effective by their results and strong by virtue of their respective treasuries - an overflow of dollars directed towards the eradication of breast cancer or the fight against juvenile diabetes or the battle with rheumatoid arthritis, to cite just some of these campaigns.
For employees who participate in these events, and for those with an emotional investment in the success of these programs, I offer my congratulations. I would also like to make a contribution, in digital dollars, to add financial value to the promotion of personal health and corporate wellness.
Specifically, the use of Bitcoin, a virtual, peer-to-peer currency, can be the means for a revolution in how we underwrite, pay for and accept remuneration from all manner of forces involving health care, including insurance premiums and fee-based medicine to charitable donations and pharmaceutical research.
I offer these words as someone who is an advocate of Bitcoin, based on its global credibility - top retailers and independent merchants already process millions of transactions with this currency - and its clear legitimacy; there is a mathematically complex, and verifiable, formula for the exact amount of Bitcoin currently in circulation, as well as the remaining quantity to be "mined."
The point is that Bitcoin possesses both perceived value and actual worth because of its scientific merits, in addition to its actual usage among consumers, business owners, traders, bankers and the very readers of this magazine.
It is the flexibility of this currency - its success as an alternative source of payment - that highlights the one thing effective health care represents, the reducible essence of everything medicine symbolizes and patient care seeks to achieve: Options! Indeed, there is no greater option in the catalog of progress than the freedom to choose.
That liberty enables companies that may otherwise be unable to afford the wellness plans its employees deserve, all because of the arbitrary thievery of inflation, to not only pay for these programs (in Bitcoin), but to broaden their options to include even more policies and procedures.
That freedom, for which there are some noteworthy organizations (more about below) at the forefront of making Bitcoin a permanent part of the financial firmament, has several practical - and quite positive - implications for educating workers about nutrition, fitness, disease management and proactive patient care.
Think of Bitcoin, then, as the collective answer to what we mean with regard to health care reform; because any such reform, whether we assign a political label to it, making it one party's pendant of pride or another's electoral albatross, or whether we attach an economic figure to its debut and implementation, it all comes back to the same thing: Money.With that money, businesses can buy more; they can invest in the in-house dietitians, personal trainers, psychologists and counselors, who make wellness a companywide reality.
By planting these seeds - and Seedcoin (http://www.seedco.in), a virtual incubator for Bitcoin startups, is the ideal illustration of this concept - corporate wellness can advance with great strides. In fact, Seedcoin's portfolio of investments includes companies that make this 'payment revolution' fast and easy.
That convenience, which is another form of personal freedom, extends to electronic commerce in general and health care in particular. This same revolution can give companies new ways to negotiate with insurers, purchase (directly or through individual employees) prescription medication, create health care savings accounts with a more valuable currency, and exercise greater leverage with hospitals and various state-run or privately managed health care exchanges.
A Wallet to Wellness: Making the Theoretical Real
This discussion is about shared goals, achievable by different means, for the good of all. Or: Let the doctors and researchers be the agents of change - let them be the authors of our cumulative progress, the interpreters of ribonucleic acid - while we, the recipients of their Apollonian efforts, liberate ourselves from disease and pestilence.
Our interest should be one of ability, not will, as we find a way to afford these rewards. And, in making this transition from the theoretical world of genetic manipulation to the very practical realm of compensation, I want to remind readers that the 'wallet to wellness,' so to speak, is here - now. For example: Hive illustrates the simplicity and security of this point because of its novel way to send and receive Bitcoin.
This digital wallet is just that: The online equivalent of an actual wallet - strike that: a physical wallet is vulnerable to theft and misplacement, in contrast to an encrypted and effective web-based alternative - that makes paying for goods and services a proverbial no-brainer.
I return, therefore, to my original assertion about Bitcoin, that it can be a catalyst for a more comprehensive brand of corporate wellness. That version is the result of global communications and sound economics, delivered to us in a user-friendly design.
With this powerful combination, we can elevate our standards and expectations about our own personal health. We can finance a new road to wellness. We can invest in the things we need, to improve the services we want, for the outcome we all desire: Better health and vitality.
About the Author
Hayden Gill is the Founder of Buzzdron Media, an innovative digital marketing and design agency. An expert concerning the use of Bitcoins for online transactions and ecommerce, Hayden can be reached at hg@buzzdron.com.
