California RHIO backed by high-powered employer

April 28, 2008 — 5:59am ET

As regular readers know, I regularly lambaste RHIOs/HIEs, most of which appear to have little chance of financial survival. However, when it comes to a RHIO that attracts the support of a giant like the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), I think we're looking at a breakthrough. This week, CalPERS said that it would support the statewide RHIO being developed by the California Regional Health Information Organization (CalRHIO). CalPERS, which serves 1.2 million state and local public employees, retirees and dependants, has asked its health insurers to establish contracts with CalRHIO. These include Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente. Now, there's no way to tell just how much money the payers will shell out--and how long the deals will last--but it's definitely a start. I'll be keeping my eye on this one. Any RHIO that has a big employer's backing has a much better chance of success.

To learn more about this deal:
- read this Health Data Management article

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