Press Release - The Osborne Group
North & Central Arizona Health Information Exchange partners with Sun Microsystems for HIE infrastructure deployment.
COTTONWOOD, ARIZONA – JULY 21, 2008
Today The Osborne Group announces the preliminary operational technology platform for the North & Central Arizona Health Information Exchange (NCAHIE). The Osborne Group has partnered with Sun Microsystems, a proven leader in secure healthcare data exchange. With an initial investment of approximately half a million dollars in infrastructure components NCAHIE is responding to the needs of healthcare providers and the community through private partnerships and financial investment to create a better healthcare environment for the Verde Valley and Rural Arizona.
The selection of an infrastructure partner was based upon many factors, most importantly – the inherent value and affordability of the technology to the healthcare providers and healthcare systems it will serve. Sun technology, via their Sun Ray platform has proven itself as the best in breed for an easily deployable and cost effective technology platform for healthcare providers and institutions.
The Osborne Group understands that the lack of affordable technology is a major hindrance to widespread adoption of Health Information Exchange by the different stakeholders in the Verde Valley. The investment announced today will make the best technology available to all members of the Health Information Exchange and provide advanced Practice Management & Medical Billing capabilities as well as robust Electronic Health Record systems for fractional cost to the healthcare providers connected to the exchange. Further, this system does not require the extensive maintenance and investment in hardware that traditional business information technology systems require, therefore the need of IT support for maintenance and troubleshooting by the end- user is eliminated and a true “plug and play” environment is achieved. The Osborne Group estimates an average decrease in costs to the provider of approximately 70% with the use of this platform as opposed to traditional healthcare technology deployment.
NCAHIE has determined that the exchange of “administrative data”, such as patient demographics, insurance eligibility information, referrals and authorizations, and other non-patient health record related data will immediately benefit the providers and simplify the process of obtaining healthcare by the patients. Therefore, with the deployment of Sun Ray technology by NCAHIE providers will be able to exchange administrative data to assist their office staff, decrease their operating costs and improve their rate of collections from insurance companies – this is called administrative simplification. Direct connections insurance payers have been initiated to begin the process of exchanging healthcare data from one central point, NCAHIE, and to ensure the information is accurate and useful for the end-healthcare provider.
The technology selection is open architecture, meaning it is compatible with any systems currently in place at hospitals and provider offices that serve the community and can be connected to a plethora of different data sources in the local healthcare system and beyond. The extensive planning that went into this selection ensures that no one is excluded from the benefits of health information exchange.
The Osborne Group is currently in the process of reviewing requests for deployment test sites which will be announced in August of 2008.
For a brief summary of the proven efficacy of the Sun Ray technology selected, please read the following White Paper, Denver Health System. In addition to the benefits realized by this healthcare system NCAHIE will provide the ability to exchange the data which will further our goal of administrative simplication in healthcare thereby reducing costs and returning those financial resources to healthcare providers and patients.
Contact: Casey Osborne, cosborne@osbornegroup.org