The five-year old California Regional Health Information Organization (CAlRHIO) looks to be closing shop following a failed attempt to have itself be designated as California's governance entity for health information exchange services in the state.
California issued a request for information last year to find an organization to oversee the millions of dollars in stimulus funding that the state would receive to establish HIEs under the American Recovery and Investment Act (ARRA).
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Seven organizations apparently responded to the RFI and two " CalRHIO and the California eHealth Collaborative (CAeHC) " were chosen as the finalists. The state in December asked the two to amend their proposals and negotiate to come up with a joint plan for the governance entity.
However, those talks apparently came to nothing. CalRHIO recently announced publicly on its Web site that the two organizations were unable to reach an agreement.
The State of California Health and Human Services Agency has decided now to form an entirely new governance entity for California HIE.
The CAlRHIO board of directors said it was honoring its commitment to the state not to compete with the new governance entity. It said it will be an active partner with the state in working towards a successful conclusion for the governance of California HIE services.
"We are pleased that CalRHIO's concept of offering core HIE services to accelerate adoption is being adopted by the state," said CalRHIO board chairman Duane Dauner, in a statement.
"CalRHIO believes that the governance entity should provide an early launch of core services, and that these services are essential for the rapid deployment and long-term sustainability of HIE in California."
Molly Coye, CalRHIO's chief executive, said many of the CalRHIO staff will continue to be active in HIE services in California and elsewhere, "building on their years of experience working with stakeholders to develop sustainable and effective models of HIE."
Coye herself is reportedly taking several months off for personal reasons and to work with various federal government and private advisory groups.
For its part, the CAeHC said it will continue to work with the state to create shared HIE services, and will assist the eHealth Technical Advisory Committee and Technical Working Group to come up with a definition of shared services in time to coordinate an RFI or request for proposals for those services by March.
Meanwhile, CalRHIO last year began the first formal rollout of its services in Orange County emergency departments in the summer of 2009. There's no word yet on how that has been affected by recent events.
