The Health IT Transition Group sent out a press release this week announcing their annual RHIO survey. Though they estimate that their survey only touched less than 25% of RHIOs today, if their methodology is robust, such a sample size should suffice to characterize the overall market.

Some key numbers from their survey:

• Only 24% of respondents state that they are “live and in production.” The remainder are either in transition (another 24%) or still in development stage. Of those that are “live” only 13% were characterized as mature.
• Over 80% of RHIOs state that they will need to continue to rely on Grant funding for the foreseeable future. Of those that are in production and claim to be self-sufficient, 60% will still rely on Grants. Not sure how one can be self-sufficient and still rely on Grants – puzzling.
• Healthcare IT Transition Group estimates that total IT spending by RHIOs in 2007 was $128.6M, modest single digit growth over 2006.

Reading between the lines it looks like…

• RHIOs still haven’t figured out a sustaining business model.
• Despite all the hype, very little is actually being spent and growth is anemic.
• We have a long way to go as most RHIOs are still very much in the development.

Stay tuned, someone is going to figure this one out eventually and a lot of different models are being tested.