WASHINGTON - Citing runaway healthcare costs and its negative impact on the ability to compete globally, five major companies have banded together to offer their employees a portable, private, life-long personal health record.

“It’s time for a systemic transformation, and U.S. employers must lead,” said Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel Corp., of the initiative.

Intel, Wal-Mart, Pitney Bowes, British Petroleum America Inc. and Applied Materials will finance and roll out portable, private, lifetime personal health records to approximately 2.5 million employees, their families and retirees by mid next year.

The rollout goal is to “start small and move fast,” according to Barrett, who hopes to announce the additional participation of other companies in 2007.

A key element of the health record initiative is that individuals control the information in their own health records. They can opt-in and share whatever healthcare information they choose.

Another critical piece is that the records will be held by an independent, not-for-profit organization. Omnimedix Institute, a Portland, Ore.-based organization, is developing the health record technology, called Dossia.

Omnimedix has borrowed from best practices of the banking industry and its “zero tolerance” for security violation, and designed its technology and policy principles on the Markle Foundation’s Connecting for Health Common Framework, according to JD Kleinke, chairman and CEO.

Linda Dillman, executive vice president at Wal-Mart, noted that the initiative is an opportunity to engage employers and help develop healthier lifestyles for workers.

Michael Critelli, chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes, said that the initiative enables the company to address the “runaway cost of healthcare” and to maintain its culture as a good employer.

Patricia Miller, senior vice president of human resources for British Petroleum America Inc., said that as a major purchaser of healthcare it was a “business imperative” to find an innovative approach for employees to manage their healthcare.

While this is a major announcement by employers to drive the adoption of personal health records, it is by no means the first one.

Several Kansas City, Mo.-based companies are gearing up to roll out their opt-in personal health record pilot program under their employer-based regional health information organization, called Healthe Mid-America. Sprint Nextel, J.E. Dunn and Cerner, which is donating the Web-based technology and storage for Healthe, will go live in the first quarter of 2007.