NZ-made software faces hitch in US

‘If the exchange will do so much to benefit our health care, Cal Index should make that case and ask us to opt-in.’

A UNITED STATES consumer group is calling for Californians to boycott a US$80 million (NZ$103m) computer system underpinned by software supplied by Auckland firm Orion Health.

Orion Health announced the California Integrated Data Exchange (Cal Index) had gone live on Monday, saying it was a major project for the company that would allow the medical records of million Californians to be shared between healthcare providers.

But Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit organisation based in Santa Monica, urged Californians to ‘‘opt-out’’ of the system until the health insurers that funded it answered ‘‘key questions’’ about patient privacy.

The Wall Street Journal reported in August that insurers Blue Shield and Anthem Blue Cross were spending US$80m on the exchange and on its first threeyears’ running costs.

Consumer Watchdog said unanswered questions included whether Californians would be able to see what information about them was being stored, what information would be shared with whom, whether and how they would be able to correct wrong information and what Cal Index’ privacy policy was.

The group said a comprehensive medical exchange might John Simpson Consumer Watchdog privacy project director ultimately help patients, but it needed to be transparent about its purposes before people agreed to share their medical records.

‘‘If the exchange will do so much to benefit our health care, Cal Index should make that case and ask us to ‘opt-in’,’’ Consumer Watchdog privacy project director John Simpson said.

Orion Health said Cal Index was a major project for the Auckland company and had been completed on time. The system was being delivered as a rented software service ‘‘with the majority of revenues received in the next financial year and beyond’’, it said.

Chief executive Ian McCrae could not comment on the specific criticisms of Cal Index made by Consumer Watchdog but said Blue Shield and Anthem Blue Cross were well-resourced and in his opinion would be ‘‘on top of it’’.