Soon the medical histories and records of Californians will be accessible to doctors in the state with the simple click of a button thanks to California Integrated Data Exchange or Cal Index.

Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross, the two biggest insurers in the state, are collaborating on what may perhaps become the largest health information network in the U.S. as the move to digitize health records of Californians takes shape. The companies announced their plans on Tuesday, August 5.

"Although Blue Shield and Anthem Blue Cross are fierce market competitors, we knew we needed to work together to bring health care into the digital age," noted Paul Markovich, chief executive officer of San Francisco-based Blue Shield.

Cal Index will persevere to collate electronic medical data from several doctors and hospitals, as well as integrate it with claims data, which will in turn aid health professionals to share data via the secure system.

Advocates of the initiative opine that this will enable patients in getting medical attention faster, as well as decrease the risk associated with errors that are caused when doctors are not able to get access to necessary information. Moreover, the Cal Index will also reduce costs that arise because of repetition of tests.

Cal Index will imbibe the health records of nearly 9 million patients of both Blue Shield and Anthem Blue Cross. The network is anticipated to be active by end 2014 and will likely include 30 major medical providers in the next three years.

The financing for the Cal Index is via $80 million from 2014 to 2017. Post this period, the network will be funded via subscription fees from the medical providers who are expected to come on board and insurers.

However, concerns over privacy of medical details are being raised. Moreover, the nitty gritties of connecting several thousand networks of medical data is a massive task and may be an obstacle.

To overcome the issue of privacy compromise, Cal Index organizers have made provisions for patients to opt out of the network if they so choose. Apparently, doctors will have records of only their patients. The customers will also be protected by federal and state privacy laws.

"We've spent a lot of time assessing the challenges," said Mark Morgan, president of Anthem Blue Cross. "We feel, frankly, quite confident we've got a solid foundation."

The organizers are looking to grow Cal Index by joining hands with more regional networks and doctors over the next few years.