Orion Health bolstered by Supreme Court's Obamacare decision

Auckland-based Orion Health is reporting positive cash flows ahead of internal forcasts as it continues to build its global customer base and reinvent its technology.

The company is also taking heart from a new level of certainty around healthcare subsidies in the wake of the US Supreme Court decision in King v Burwell last month.

"From an industry perspective, the recent US Supreme Court ruling in King v Burwell that upheld insurance subsidies provided under Obamacare is significant," Orion told investors today.

"It upholds a principle that is a key tenet of Obamacare to increase access to health insurance for all US citizens and extends the current transformation of the US healthcare system. This new level of certainty is a positive outcome for Orion Health as we continue to serve major US customers as they invest in new models of care."

As at 30 June, Orion Health had cash and short-term deposits of NZ$96 million. Operating cash flow in Q1 was NZ$0.2 million following Q4 2015 cash flow of NZ$0.8 million.

Orion Health reiterated it is in investment mode shifting to a software as a service model.

"We anticipate negative cash flow in the short to medium term as we continue to grow capability," it said.

Orion said the size of its opportunities continues to increase.

"In some instances we are working with customers that are bigger than the entire New Zealand health system. This puts us in a strong position for future growth."

In the US the company secured a number of new contracts in the quarter, including a partnership with eHealth Technologies to enable North Dakota Health Information Network to provide medical images to healthcare providers as a part of the state's Health Information Exchange.

Orion continued work with California health information exchange Cal INDEX, providing further software and agreeing an on-boarding program for new health insurance and provider groups.

In Australia, the Federal Government announced A$485 million of additional funding for the personal My Health Record, which uses Orion software. The Australian Government also signaled a shift from an "opt in" system to an "opt out" system to drive adoption.

In the UK, Orion inked a contract to support a large care coordination project in Cambridgeshire while in Spain it won a deal to deploy its Open Platform for a public healthcare provider to more than 2.5 million people. This was the first deployment in Europe of the new technology.

In Vietnam, Orion Health was chosen to provide an in-hospital solution to the Vinmec International group of hospitals, based in Hanoi.