Prospectus Summary
YOU SHOULD READ THE FOLLOWING SUMMARY TOGETHER WITH THE MORE DETAILED INFORMATION REGARDING OUR COMPANY AND THE COMMON STOCK BEING SOLD IN THIS OFFERING AND OUR FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND NOTES THERETO APPEARING ELSEWHERE IN THIS PROSPECTUS.
Healtheon is pioneering the use of the Internet to simplify workflows, decrease costs and improve the quality of patient care throughout the healthcare industry. We have designed and developed an Internet-based information and transaction platform, the "Healtheon Platform," that allows us to create Virtual Healthcare Networks, "VHNs," that facilitate and streamline interactions among the myriad participants in the healthcare industry. The Healtheon VHN solution includes a suite of services delivered through applications operating on our Internet-based platform. Our solution enables the secure exchange of information among disparate healthcare information systems and supports a broad range of healthcare transactions, including enrollment, eligibility determination, referrals and authorizations, laboratory and diagnostic test ordering, clinical data retrieval and claims processing. We provide our own applications on the Healtheon Platform and also enable third-party applications to operate on the platform. In addition to Virtual Healthcare Networks, we provide comprehensive consulting, development, implementation and network management services to enable our customers to take full advantage of the capabilities of the Healtheon Platform. To date, our revenue has been derived primarily from non-Internet network services, development and consulting services and management and operation of customers' information technology infrastructure. We have established strategic relationships with leading healthcare companies, including United HealthCare Corporation, SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories, Inc., Brown & Toland Physician Services Organization and Beech Street Corporation. We believe these relationships will enhance our application portfolio, provide us with important specialized industry expertise, increase our market penetration and generate revenue. An investment in our common stock involves risks and uncertainties, including the risks that the healthcare industry may be resistant to the adoption of new information technology due to concerns about government regulation, patient confidentiality and security. See "Risk Factors."