Is VeriChip (NASDAQ: CHIP) ready for a massive breakout? I sure think so. Put aside for a moment the vast and potentially divisive implications of the technology and look at it in a strictly business sense. VeriChip offers technology that is absolutely bursting with potential. The chip, implanted just beneath the skin on a subject's arm, is dormant until scanned using a reader to extract the contained data. The chip costs about $200 to install, plus between $20 and $80 annually, depending on the amount of information on it.

Pets and farm animals are already being chipped as a means of loss prevention and for quick identification. Now volunteer Alzheimer's patients can elect to be chipped to facilitate location, identification and provision of medical information in the event that they wander off or are otherwise separated from guardians or loved ones. Patients with certain chronic life threatening diseases are being solicited as subjects for the device and there are rumors afloat in the UK that soon parents will be solicited to offer up their children to the technology. Yet to be approved by insurance companies as a covered procedure, the concept is still relatively new for use in people but based on the ongoing push by the company and its placement of chip readers in the hands of doctors, insurance company approval is strictly a matter of time.

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VeriChip: Ready for a breakout? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 24 May 2007 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.