UnitedHealthcare promises

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The health plan, a unit of Minnesota-base d United Health Group (NYSE: announced the effort from its California headquartersin Cypress. It said it’sd collaborating with CalRHIO -- formally known as the Californiq Regional Health InformationOrganization -- to help build a statewide electronic health information exchange or HIE to let healthj insurers easily and quickly communicate with the state’z emergency rooms.
Primary vendors on the projecf include and According to a May 20 UnitedHealthcare is thefirst “national” markett participant to agree to supporgt and pay for HIE services statewide, as part of a push to build a sustainable business model for Previously, it depended on government funding and philanthropic grants from organizatiomn such as , Sutter Health and . “We haven’ t given out a figure yet, it is a multi-year agreement and the investment, from our is significant,” said Cheryl a Cypress-based spokeswoman for UnitedHealthcare/ of California.
In late CalRHIO said it needed $30 milliob in “seed money” to start work on its proposedelectronixc network, with a total cost then estimated at $300 million. Karemn Hunt, a CalRHIO spokeswoman, told the San Francisco Business Times Thursday that those numbers arestill “remarkably on track,” and that the $30 millioh would be spent to participating hospitals to “get the servicr brought up.
” Hunt said negotiations over fundinhg from UnitedHealthcare aren’t yet which explains why the size of its contribution isn’t yet “We’re still in the memorandum of understanding she said, indicating that a finapl agreement is expected in roughlgy two to four months. CalRHIO, launchesd in early 2005, is far behinfd projections made in early when it hoped to build the backbone ofits statewide, fee-basecd electronic data utility within 12 to 18 months, or by late Septembee of 2008 “at the latest.” At the CalRHIO officials said it woulc take at least two to three years to build the entire system.
As part of the broaderd statewide initiative, CalRHIO’s emerging electronic skeleton will delive r patient information such as medication lab results and clinical data from claims to hospital ERs for UnitedHealthcarer and affiliated PacifiCare of California commercialHMO customers. The rollout begins in Orangwe County emergency roomsthis summer, CalRHIk and UnitedHealthcare said in theid joint statement. But Hunt said CalRHIO is doinyg other work on the network inOrange County, independent of UnitedHealthcare, in conjunctioh with the Orange County Partnership Regional Health Information Organization, which she said was eagee to move ahead on the project.
Meanwhile, if otherr health plans followin UnitedHealthcare’s Hunt told the Business Times, CalRHIO will be able to take its projecty statewide. It’s borrowing the capital to buil d itselectronic “toll road,” officiale say, and will reap benefits when the networjk is up and running and health-planj payments start flowing in. A number of other regional healtb information organizations have closed or stumbled due to a lackof long-term funding for similaer projects, including the Santa Barbara County Care Data a pioneer in such efforts. Separately, CalRHIO confirmede that former CEO and PresidentDon Holmquest, M.D.
, left that post late last a move not announced at the to become a senior advisor to the Holmquest, a former NASA astronaut, hasn’y been replaced, but officials expect to have a new CEO on boar d by this summer, said Hunt. In the interim, chairmab and co-founder Molly Coye, M.D., and COO Debbier Rieger are runningthe