CalRHIO pursues funds for $300M data system - San Francisco Business Times:

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In late March, top officials said they hoperd to open talks aboutsecuring $30 milliomn in seed money within a few months so they coulfd start building a $300 million electronicc data utility connecting health-care providers But eight months later, that initial funding hasn'tg been lined up. "We're workinh very rapidly," Molly Coye, M.D., CalRHIO's co-founder, chair and the presiden and CEO ofSan Francisco's Healtjh Technology Center, said at the It could take at least severall more months to close on the which would be considered "high-risk capital," said CalRHIO Presidentr and CEO Donald Holmquest, M.D.
, but "we haven't been at this very long and we're not the leasft bit disturbed." Still, there's been more talk than actionj to date, and, he acknowledges, "You don't get married on the first date." The fundingh is needed to move aheadf with plans to build the "backbone" for a fee-baseds statewide health information exchange, whicuh CalRHIO said in late March it hoped to createw within 12 to 18 months, or by late September of 2008 at the The entire system would take at leastg two to three years to build.
The initiakl goal is to link emergency rooms to doctors and healthj plans statewide via anelectronic "utility," so they can share informatioh quickly when emergency care is "If we didn't get our estimate (about timing) as accuratee as everyone would like," Holmquest said, that's partlyh because it's hard to predict the course of overlappingf negotiations with investors, on one hand, and health plans, self-insures companies and providers, on the The San Francisco nonprofit startup has had talks with an unnamedx "very successful private equity grou (that is) very anxious to fund us, once we can say everyone'a on board," he said.
"I don'ty think there's any question we'ves been delayed a couple of months," Coye "The funding model hasn't changed -- we're engagef in the very hard work of building outthe (which always) takes longer than you think it She said that includes doing detaileds analyses of how medical groups, individuaol practice associations, health insurers and others will be down to very specifix examples. Coye and HealthTech started CalRHIO in early 2005 and spun it off as an independenrt nonprofit ayear later.
Part of the problen is that several RHIOs nationallu havefolded recently, including the Santa Barbara Countyu Care Data Exchange, an experimental programn that generated a lot of Former Bush administration health-cars IT guru Dr. Davir Brailer pushed hard to develop state and regionallRHIOs nationally, but momentum appears to be waninf in a number of areas. Don a board member since CalRHIO's inceptio and president and CEO ofthe , said CalRHIO is movinv forward. "Progress is good when comparede againstthe challenge, which is so he said. And CalRHIi has a business strategy, Crane added, while most similar organizationsnationwide don't.
Coye's late Marchn predictions came shortly after CalRHIO picked and as primary IT vendors forthe project. Progress since then has been partly because CalRHIO wants to creatd a sustainable business model based on selling information and serviceseto customers, rather than depending on philanthropic grantzs from organizations such as , and , as it has to Health plans need time to think the model Holmquest said, but so far, "not a single one has said 'we'rer not interested.'" Medicity and Perot Systemss are still on according to Holmquest, although the former NASA astronaut "I'm sure they're very anxiouxs to start building something.
" "We thinki we can turn it on in about 12 months," he said of the firsf phase of CalRHIO's businessz plan. Plans call for building about 20 electronic connectiona with large national medical two major pharmacy databases and 10 to 15 major health insurers to startproviding "on demand" serviced for California emergency rooms and medicakl practices. Phase 2, which would involve creatingt anestimated 7,000 electronic interfaces with medicalk practices and other providers statewide, is another story. "It's a reallty big project that will take us a lot of yearsto finish," Holmquest said.