The health information exchange Coordinated Care Oklahoma (CCO), said this week it will go out of business because a large, unnamed health insurer had mandated that its providers work with another HIE.

“Our board recognizes that one of the largest payers in Oklahoma has mandated its contracted providers must submit data to another HIE platform for their use in value-based contracting programs,” CCO chairman Roger Neal said in a statement. “That decision creates a hardship on many of Oklahoma’s providers and hospitals and has resulted in duplicative HIE costs for many who were members of CCO.”

The CCO said such duplicative costs, especially in a climate with cost burdens associated with reimbursement cuts, and existing limitations on data-sharing options, would mean essentially that health systems in Oklahoma would pay two HIE fees, which would be unsustainable.

The CCO board, as such, voted unanimously to dissolve the organization effective June 30, 2017.

CCO said it tried several times unsuccessfully to discuss options with the payer for providing the data needed for these programs.

“Our understanding is that no connection or option outside direct data submission would give CCO’s participants the opportunity to continue in the payer's value-based programs,” Neal said. “With the growing rate at which Oklahoma providers and hospitals are having reimbursements cut, we felt the best thing for Oklahoma was for CCO to exit the HIE market to help decrease the cost of healthcare as it pertains to HIE service within the state.”