“Its funny,” Sheila Schweitzer, Chair/CEO of CareMedic chuckles, “I can plan a whole wedding online but trying to work with my insurer to fix my eye problem was something I just couldn’t do. I finally just picked up the phone.” Sheila, a highly influential player in bringing healthcare online, invited me to lunch at a restaurant in Vero Beach, FL. Dockside Grill is nestled on a beautiful enclave where the Atlantic sends waves of clear blue water into estuaries lined with sailing vessels. “Yea,” she says, “this is a great place to live.”

CareMedic, a key player in revenue cycle management that helps providers to manage cash flow, has a simple motto: “get paid”. Its as simple and direct as Sheila is. When I ask her how we can bring healthcare online she counters “well, what does online mean? It almost sounds like ‘meaningful use’!” She’s referring to A.R.R.A., a bill signed into law by President Obama that earmarks some $20 billion for health IT. It has spawned a hot topic in conferences around the country that will examine, over and over again, the intent and meaning of those two words – “meaningful use.” If a technology company fits into that mold they could have a shot at some of that money, so this will continue to be a big issue in bringing healthcare online (whether that’s good or bad).

Even though Shiela jokes about the definition of the term, she has a good idea of what bringing healthcare online means. CareMedic serves over 1500 hospitals, 1000 ancillary facilities (MRIs, outpatient surgery centers, dialysis centers, etc) and over 155 large clinics. She has a long history of digitizing healthcare transactions, from running the EDI area of a large insurance company in Kentucky to working for Envoy Corporation around the time it scooped up N.E.I.C., the 800 pound gorilla that enabled critical mass for electronic claims processing. Sheila oversaw other acquisitions too – point solutions that enable things like online eligibility and automated remittance management. She understands many of the challenges of moving healthcare online.

I try to get a personal snapshot by asking about her hobbies. “I love walking my golden retriever on the beach…and golfing! That’s about it!” When I try to explain why I think her leadership in medical banking is important she looks down and says, “well John, I don’t know about that.” I’ve told her that before and always get the same reaction, so I move on, pressing for her views about our ‘point and click generation.’

“Consumers want convenience”, she says. “If its not convenient its just not valuable.” I ask her if CareMedic, primarily a provider of business tools, will help consumers digitize their healthcare experience. “Yes,” she says, “we’re looking at the payment process, tools that finance healthcare and other areas.” She believes we’ll see a major shift in how we pay for care and conjectures that we might be a generation away from true consumer-driven healthcare.

She then points to one of the major hurdles for moving healthcare online. “Healthcare is filled with point-centered solutions that aren’t enterprise-oriented. We need to connect silos to see the true picture. That means linking the fragmented IT areas of lab, radiology, doctor’s notes and other key areas. Point solutions tend to solve an issue, not a problem. We need to re-orient technology to provide the comprehensive picture, especially when you talk about the consumer.” Consumers want access to their information…and as quickly as possible (thank you). Sheila says we need to address key areas like identity management (that validates rights to a record like we have in online banking); standards harmonization among information technology vendors and evolution of payment programs that create incentives that steer the market.

Sheila, who started our talk trying to finish an important teleconference, is off to the next. Her blue tooth receiver is flickering as she adjusts her blackberry. As I wave good bye its clear to me she holds a key for ‘point and click’– maybe via consumer-authorized tethering of her technology platform with banks so consumers can gain much needed visibility into payments and other health records. Until next post…