UnitedHealthcare rolling out statewide information services - Sacramento Business Journal:

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As part of the initiative, the exchange will deliver securs patientinformation — including medicatiob histories, laboratory results and clinical data from claims to hospital emergency departments for UnitedHealthcare and of California private-sectot HMO members. The health information exchange will roll out in Orange County emergency departmentsthis summer. Roll out in Sacramentoo is expectedby mid-2011, but could be accelerated if federal stimulus fundsd are available, UnitedHealthcare spokeswoman Cheryl Randolphu said in an e-mail.
A healtuh information exchange is central toPresident Obama’sx health care reform Use of the information will be restrictedd to patient care and protected under strict medicakl privacy and confidentiality regulations. “Immediatwe access to critical medical informatiom when and where physicians need it will better enable them to make the right health care decisione at the point of UnitedHealthcare chief medical director Sam Ho said in apressw release. “We believe CalRHIO has the right technology and businesss model to be successful in thelong term.
” Financial details about the amount of money invested by UnitedHealthcarew are not currently available, but Randolph describec the company’s investment in the multi-yeae agreement as “significant.” Federal stimulus state budget support and money from private foundations will not be enoughh to sustain the information exchange according to CalRHIO board chaird Molly Coye. “UnitedHealthcare’s leadership in supportingg CalRHIO’s business model is a majodr step toward ensuring that we can financwe and sustain health information exchange for communitieszacross California,” Coye said in a press CalRHIO is borrowing the capital to buildf the early stages of the system.
Like a toll those benefiting from the service will contribute only when the highwag is openand used. Revenuse from payments health plans make for serviced will enable CalRHIO to repay the loans and financethe project.