State's e-health deal with AT&T coup for two CEOs

Gov. Bredesen and AT&T President Morton gain leverage beyond healthcare

Email | Print By Milt Capps

Gov. Phil Bredesen

AT&T Tennessee and the State of Tennessee announced over the weekend a deal that will help connect the state's fledgling e-health networks.

AT&T and its Detroit-based partner Covisint will provide secure connectivity for statewide telemedicine services, patients' medical records and a host of Department of Health documentation and licensing services. The contract broadens AT&T's relationship with the administration of Gov. Phil Bredesen and reinforces the company's role as lead provider for the state's information infrastructure.

The announcement – billed as a first for the nation – provides a leg-up to AT&T CEO Gregg Morton and burnishes Bredesen's reputation for technology leadership within the state and via his e-health leadership role with the National Governors' Association.

The news also makes clear that Bredesen and e-Health Advisory Council Executive Director Antoine Agassi know how to connect the dots. As a byproduct, their progress heightens Nashville's lustre as a center of healthcare information expertise, technology and services.

Less certain is how soon, if ever, Middle Tennesseans and their physicians will get to participate in the new e-health network, which could become operational next year. Efforts to establish a Nashville-area regional health information organization, or RHIO, are moving only slowly while RHIOs are up and running elsewhere in the state and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee's SharedHealth is providing related services to the company's insureds and others.

AT&T already is the anchor for the Tennessee Information Infrastructure, which serves all state agencies, and recently entered its second year as provider of broadband connectivity for public K-12 school districts. In that role, it competes tooth and nail with Nashville-based Education Networks of America, which serves far more schools but is seeing AT&T make inroads.

The e-health announcement from Agassi may also strengthen AT&T Tennessee's hand as it presses its case for video-franchise reform in Tennessee, and may speed consolidation of the state's TNII and K-12 networks, possibly putting Education Networks at a competitive disadvantage for that business.

Gov. Phil Bredesen, as well as House and Senate leaders, have recently signaled their determination to pass legislation this year that will afford AT&T Tennessee the opportunity to launch its U-verse video services by obtaining a single statewide franchise agreement with the state, rather than negotiating local agreements with cities and counties.

Simultaneously, the State is trying again this spring to attract contractors who could meld the now separate State government and K-12 broadband and Internet-services contracts into a single operation, to be known as NetTN.