McKesson, Cisco to invest in RelayHealth

McKesson Corp. and Cisco Systems announced they will make "strategic investments" in RelayHealth to expand that company's online physician-patient and payer communication offerings. These include RelayHealth's webVisits service, which allows physicians to conduct online consultations and be reimbursed for their time through 10 different health plans. RelayHealth Senior Vice President Eric Zimmerman said he could not disclose the dollar amount of McKesson and Cisco's investments but said "both entities will be minority shareholders." He added that the financing would allow RelayHealth to grow both in geographic and product-line dimensions, particularly in disease and care management. -- by Andis Robeznieks