The announcement by McKesson, Cerner, athenahealth and Allscripts that they have formed an alliance to advance the exchange of patient information with two other health IT companies was greeted with a mixture of optimism, bemusement and skepticism from an industry accustomed to the spectacle of splashy announcements at the annual healthcare IT conference HIMSS.
The goal of the CommonWell Health Alliance, which also includes Greenway and RelayHealth, is to take what these electronic medical record vendors are doing in different parts of the country and bring it to a national level. It sets out to help developers and providers link and match patients as they move through the healthcare system. It will also get patients’ permissions to share data in and adhere to HIPAA requirements.
Although it has yet to be pilot tested, the alliance was a bit of a feel-good move reflected by the amiable tenor of the press conference with CEOs volleying jocular insults at each other in a nod to their competitiveness. It comes as the industry faces the reality that interoperability is a lot tougher to achieve on a national level given the disparate electronic medical record systems that exist from one hospital to the next.
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One panelist made the keen observation that healthcare never has had to deal with the consumer — just the opposite. On the other hand, historically it hasn’t been in vendors (competitive) interests to cooperate. In a reference to the industry leader’s absence from the alliance announcement, Jonathan Bush, athenahealth CEO, said glibly: “Even a vendor of epic proportions will be invited. … It’s in everyone’s interest to climb on board.”
McKesson CEO John Hammergren said: “The idea is that we can connect to the extent that we can have a strategy that helps us move beyond our borders.” He acknowledged that the group made a choice between waiting until everyone agreed to join or to just get a structure established.
Consumers would agree to submit identifying information such as a driver’s license or cell number that would allow providers to track them and know each time they had a healthcare encounter. That information would be centralized.
The announcement was an acknowledgement that the aspirations of healthcare reform to make interoperability seamless and nationwide is not currently a practical reality. The concept of what makes a successful health information exchange needs to be tempered according to the types of providers charged with implementing it. The alliance’s goals seem a sensible compromise and underscore that even an objective that seems scaled back is still an ambitious challenge.
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“I think the government goofed a little,” said Bush. “And that’s why we’re here.”
One healthcare vendor observed that until the concept was proved it didn’t do much, “although it does help to elevate the discussion [about interoperability.] Anything that moves the needle forward is a good thing.”
