The iChip mobile app, due out in April.

LifeNexus is launching its smartcard-based (and soon to be mobile app-based) iChip system with its first partner, Medicaid plan Amerigroup Nevada.

The card (or app) contains both clinical and administrative information, so it speeds up check-in and serves as a mobile, tethered PHR for patients. Patients can check their own information on an online portal. At the doctor's office, they slide their card in a specially placed reader to transfer all the data to their provider, who can print it out, access it on a mobile device, or feed it into their own EHR.

"There's all this data -- there's health information exchanges, patient portals, data registries, EMRs, practice management systems," LifeNexus CEO David Strand told MobiHealthNews. "What everybody's doing is trying to get that in the hands of consumers and doctors at the right time. We've put it in the hands of patients and they walk it in, so they and the doctor have it and then they can have a conversation about health needs and the type of care that would be useful to improve their health."

Amerigroup Nevada has about 100,000 covered members, and, according to Strand, it's the first of six customers the company will be launching with in the near future, two more of which are also in Nevada, which he described as "a very good consumer test market." Strand also implied that more than one customer is a Medicaid plan. He said Medicaid plans are particularly interested in the technology because it can help out with raising a plan's HEDIS scores.

HEDIS, or Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, scores are a metric by which Medicaid measures specific population health outcomes like number of prenatal visits or number of flu shots at a facility.

"Typically, when Medicaid health plans contract with the states, they're obligated to improve the HEDIS scores for that Medicaid population," Strand said. "Our technology assists a great deal with that. We provide care reminders to both the consumer and the doctor about needed care that's missing in their members. That's delivered to the member in reminder form, and then it's delivered to the doctor when the person arrives at the exam room."

LifeNexus raised $4 million last summer to develop and scale iChip. At that point the company was in the pilot phase, working with a handful of Blues and one Medicaid payor. Strand said last year that the company would have the mobile app version of iChip, for iOS and Android, out by the first quarter of 2014. The company is now planning that launch for April.

It will not be available for Amerigroup members, Strand said, because the payor opted not to offer it.

"We're not using this with this first Amerigroup population because it's Medicaid members. [There are] not as many smartphone users, it's not as consistent. They really thought the best way was to start with the insurance card based technology, because everyone already carries an insurance card," Strand said. "Interestingly, in some other states we've talked to the other health plans, and they say they think that the one thing their Medicaid members seem to have is a [smart]phone. So it's very possible for Medicaid populations in other states to start with the smartphone."

The mobile application will work just like the card but it won't require a specialized reader. Instead, it will use QR codes to transmit the data. The app will also allow patients to access their own records directly from the app rather that having to use an online portal.