AT&T, Covisint and Microsoft plan to expand health network nationwide

AT&T, Microsoft and Compuware subsidiary Covisint have announced plans to create a nationwide health information exchange which expands on a smaller network already in place state-wide in Tennessee. In Tennessee, the MidSouth eHealth Alliance and the Governor's eHealth Council had already been running an electronic health network for doctors across the state, running on Covisint's On-Demand Healthcare Platform.

The broader eHealth network will use Covisint's platform and run over AT&T's MPLS network. The new network will give consumers access to records based on Microsoft's HealthVault PHR technology, while giving them the ability to share that information with all providers who connect to AT&T's Healthcare Community Online. The Healthcare Community Online is a virtual private networking-based portal which allows electronic health data exchange between existing systems used by providers and physicians, including large files such as X-ray images, MRIs and CT scans. The AT&T network allows doctors, hospitals, labs, pharmacies and patients to access test results, prescription records and medical histories. It also offers physicians the ability to use e-prescribing functions.

What's interesting here is that the parties involved don't mention what their services will cost, or even what pricing model they'll use (a connectivity charge, a flat fee, a fee per transaction, some other option?). I wonder if this model will be any more affordable than the costly, largely unsustainable RHIOs/HIEs not-for-profit groups and governments have attempted to bring together.

To learn more about plans for the network:
- read this Microsoft press release

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