Jun
30
Private vendors may be the HIE solution
Filed Under Health IT
I’m very skeptical that non-profit healthcare information exchanges or RHIOs can sustain themselves. In fact, I’ve argued vigorously that such entities are unlikely to keep their doors open, given that no one seems to have found a financial model that works for everyone involved. Neither government projects, not-for-profits nor partnerships between the two seem to have what it takes to create workable HIE businesses.
But now, looking one item in today’s newsletter, I find myself wondering if I’ve been missing the obvious. The story, which describes how AT&T, Microsoft and Compuware subsidiary Covisint are building out a national health information exchange, reminded me that private vendors may have compelling reasons of their own to build out HIEs. And it makes sense that they should quarterback such a large network-development effort.
If you look back in history, after all, few industries have been able to spontaneously create networks of their own. The automobile and retail industry, for example, put an electronic data exchanges in place many years ago, but they relied on value-added network vendors to do much of the data carriage and establish connectivity.
And even with their VAN taken care of, those retailers and automakers took a while to get rolling, though they had much better business cases for data sharing. After all, industry officials had clear-cut supply-chain savings they could demonstrate from building out new networks–or in the case of retailers, increased sales through just-in-time distribution of hot products.
Healthcare officials, on the other hand, aren’t going to jump-start HIE efforts easily by attempting to make a financial case for them. While everyone’s pretty sure that outcomes can be improved by better access to patient medical records, it’s just not that easy to pin down HIEs’ dollars-and-cents benefits over the short term.
Now, it’s possible that AT&T, Microsoft and Covisint’s services will be too pricey for some providers (perhaps even most). However, even if big players like these don’t end up being the commercial entities leading the private HIE development industry, I’m confident some vendors in the networking and enterprise software space will find a way to deliver up such networks at a price point and on a basis that makes sense. Why am I so sure? Because there’s just too much money to be made on hooking up health data exchanges if the right solution comes along.
Don’t get me wrong, I know there are plenty of issues that can come up with an ad-hoc network of private HIEs. Questions of who owns the data, how one network connects to another and how providers switch if they’re not pleased with their current HIE are just the tip of the iceberg. But that being said, if this is an instance in which private commercial interests can move more quickly than non-profits, I say, “More power to them.” Perhaps profit-driven vendors, at long last, can get this job done.
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