How data is catapulting health care innovation in California

Hidden behind the Bay Area’s blossoming data-driven health care startup arena is a rapidly enlarging pool of digital health records.

In just over two years, California’s health information exchange (HIE), Manifest MedEx, has swelled to 17 million medical records, about 40 percent of people living in the state. To date, 70 hospitals and five health plans have joined, including heavyweights like insurers Blue Shield, Anthem and Health Net, as well as providers Hill Physicians and Stanford Health Care. Smaller community clinics, medical groups and most recently the state’s emergency services round out the network.

“We are the information backbone that supports value-based care to improve care and decrease costs,” said Claudia Williams, CEO of the Emeryville-based nonprofit network. Williams previously helped lead President Barack Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

As a membership-based organization, both hospitals and insurers pay to be part of the exchange which syndicates both claims and clinical data. Right now, it’s offering an incentive of $60,000 for hospitals that join the network by the end of May in order to help offset the technical support needed. Earlier this month, Manifest MedEx received $4.9 million from the Emergency Medical Services Association to loop in California’s ambulances and emergency departments.

Read full article published in the San Francisco Business Times.