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Surescripts: New Network May Catalyze National Sharing of Health Records

By Ken Terry

Updated on: October 27, 2010 / 9:08 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

Up to now, the inability of providers to exchange electronic patient information has been a major stumbling block to realizing the potential of health IT. Neither the National Health Information Network (NHIN) -- still caught in the weeds of government bureaucracy -- nor the recent federal grants to states to start up health information exchanges (HIEs) promises to overcome this obstacle anytime soon. But a new commercial venture involving the nation's largest commercial health information network might provide the catalyst for a breakthrough.

Surescripts, which connects physician offices and pharmacies online, has partnered with Kryptiq, which supplies connectivity services to healthcare providers, to offer what it calls a "clinical interoperability" network that can link disparate electronic health records across a community or across the country.

The reason this is important is that Surescripts -- which was formed by two pharmacy trade associations -- already has data connections with about 200,000 clinicians, including physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. So its network is much bigger than that of any EHR vendor or health information exchange. Surescripts is buying an equity stake in Kryptiq, which has interfaces to many EHRs as well as a secure web portal that can be used to exchange patient data.

Surescripts stuck its toe into this pond in 2008, when it began working with CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic chain to send clinical summaries from the retail clinics to primary care physicians who were caring for the same patients. Today, Surescripts is linked to 500 MinuteClinics in 26 states.

Surescript's new subscription-based services, two of which will be available in December (the third in January), incorporate three products:

A network that will enable EHR vendors' user networks, "enterprise" hospital systems, and community health information exchanges to exchange data with providers outside of those systems;
A secure messaging system that allows providers to exchange information across enterprises and EHRs;
A clinical messaging web portal for physicians who don't have EHRs but want to send information securely to other providers.

Surescripts emphasizes the ability of its new services to send information from one provider to another in some other part of the country. But that capability is of minor importance compared to the ability to exchange data within a particular healthcare community or service area, which is where most patients' providers are located.

Aside from the ability to help physicians and hospitals show "meaningful use" of EHRs to garner government incentives, the Surescripts interoperability program could also step into the breach in many communities where providers are interested in starting patient-centered medical homes or accountable care organizations. With functioning health information exchanges still many years away in most areas, this could be a real boon to those who want to participate in these kinds of initiatives.

Meanwhile, as Chilmark Research points out, the Surescripts-Kryptiq venture will undoubtedly rock the world of the myriad connectivity vendors trying to carve niches for themselves. Since these vendors depend on revenue from writing interfaces and creating portals, this new competitor will hurt some of them. On the other hand, Chilmark notes, EHR vendors -- which are not in competition with Surescripts -- could use its broadened connectivity solution as a platform on which to create additional modules or applications.

In any case, what's notable about this development is that the private sector has come up with a promising approach that is miles ahead of the NHIN and state-run or funded HIEs. Even if you're a liberal, you've got to love it.

Image supplied courtesy of texample.net.
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