CHIME Foundation 25th Anniversary Profiles – CHANGE Healthcare
5.08.18
By Arika Lycan, Specialist, CHIME Foundation
In last month’s Insight edition, CHIME Foundation announced that 2018 marks CHIME Foundation’s 25th anniversary celebration. As a retrospective on the past 25 years of supporting healthcare IT firms of all sizes, we’re featuring our first of several articles featuring insights and voices from one of our long-term members.
This is the first of several articles in our series leading up to Fall CIO Forum, “Founding Firms: Celebrating 25 Years of Robust Partnership.” CHIME Foundation’s inaugural year ended with just 15 Foundation firms, at least six of which are still active members today.
Our first featured partner firm is CHANGE Healthcare, with input from Dan Mowery, executive director, Industry Relations and Market Intelligence. He’s been with Change Healthcare (with roles in its previous iterations at HBO & Co. and McKesson) for over 30 years.
Q: Paint us a picture (in 2-3 sentences) of Change Healthcare when you joined CHIME Foundation in 1994:
A: The Change Healthcare of today has its roots in many companies, and if we look back to 1994, we were roughly 1/10th the size we are today. Throughout all those years of evolving as a company, one thing has remained constant – the vision of technology as core to a better healthcare system.
Q: Do you know why Change Healthcare decided to join the then-newly formed CHIME Foundation?
A: At the time, we were one of the largest HIT firms in the world, and health system CIOs were our primary “customers.” We provided clinical, financial, billing, physician practice and medical records software, so becoming engaged with CHIME made total sense. Today, 25 years later, it is valuable for us as Change Healthcare, from an engagement perspective, legislative visibility and ability to capture the insights of CIOs.
Q: How has Change Healthcare’s healthcare-focused work grown and transformed in the past 25 years?
A: As with other industry participants, we have evolved, and responded to market needs, in dozens of ways. Early on, we expanded into a wide range of provider markets, then added payers to the mix, and were one of the earliest companies offering connectivity services, claims clearinghouses and financial services. Depending on what part of Change Healthcare you consider, our portfolio of capabilities/ products, and services has evolved as technology has advanced, our customer needs have changed, and legislation has brought new requirements.
Q: In what ways has CHIME Foundation been able to support those changing needs?
A: CHIME has, and continues to, provide excellent insights into the evolving role of health system CIOs, given us insights into legislative issues and provided visibility into our health systems’ largest HIT challenges and needs.
Thanks for your thoughts on the CHIME Foundation and CHANGE Healthcare’s significant partnership. Next month we will profile another long-term member. Stayed tuned for more information as we move closer to our big anniversary celebration at CHIME18!