Alibaba’s payment arm, Ant Financial, joins forces with information security solutions company Aisino Corporation in experimenting blockchain solution in the area of electronic medical bills. And roughly 600,000 blockchain e-bills have been printed and issued to patients over the past two weeks, according to Sina.com.

Patients in 3 cities of China’s eastern Zhejiang province— Hangzhou, Taizhou and Jihua– who pay for registration, outpatient service and overnight stays with Alipay will have their bills sent directly to their Alipay account. Those using cash, a hospital APP, or a medical card to pay the bill can just scan the QR code on the examination record and receive a blockchain e-bill. This initiative helps save patients tons of time by freeing them from a lot of troubles such as queuing up for invoicing.

In this use case, hospitals, local finance bureau, social security administration, and Alipay serve as the node of the consortium blockchain. Ant Financial’s blockchain expert Yang Xueqing said the true value of blockchain medical e-bill lies in eliminating repeat reimbursements. Different from ordinary e-bill, blockchain-based one can keep a ledger of medical records which are trackable, irreversible and tamper proof. Therefore, blockchain e-bill is most suitable for invoices and tickets with high reimbursement frequency.

It is worth mentioning that Jing Xiandong, Ant Financial CEO, has expressed the company’s strong interest in blockchain-based solutions at multiple occasions. He said Ant Financial’s blockchain solutions expand across several sectors, including tracing and tracking of charity donations ,insurance claims, goods,housing leases, cross-border payment, etc.

Ant Financial has taken a step towards speeding up international payments by using blockchain technology. In June, AlipayHK announced that it will help hundreds of thousands of Filipinos working in Hong Kong to collectively transfer about HK$4.4 billion (US$561 million) a year to family and friends back home using blockchain-based payment solutions, a move to reduce the cost of money remittance service while improving the efficiency.