55 things to know about Epic, Cerner, Meditech, Allscripts and Athenahealth

The major EHR providers all made big moves over the past few years as they continue to compete for market share, invest in new technology development and enter into strategic partnerships with health systems as well as big tech companies.

Here are 55 things to know about five large EHR companies.

Epic

1. Epic celebrated its 40th anniversary in March 2019. It now has around 10,000 employees globally and generates about $2.9 billion in annual revenue. The company reports 40 percent of operating expenses are invested in research and development.

2. The EHR giant reports storing medical records for more than 250 million people. KLAS Research ranked Epic No. 1 in the overall software suite rankings in January 2020.

3. In February, Mayo reported net income of $706 million on revenue of $12.6 billion in 2018 after moving to Epic EHR. Mayo officials estimated its multiyear technology upgrade, which included the EHR implementation, encompassed $1.5 billion worth of investments.

4. Epic partnered with Humana in June to advance interoperability and transparency between them. Humana integrated its real-time benefits check tool into Epic's electronic prescribing workflow.

5. Epic has added several programs to its App Orchard, including American Well's virtual care platform. Now, Epic EHR will conduct American Well-powered telehealth appointments and providers can use American Well's telemedicine carts to digitally partner with non-Epic medical facilities.

6. Epic partnered with Connected Care in July to implement its digital health record platform. Connected Care's platform of physician-led companies provide technology, services and products to hospitals, medical groups, health plans and independent practice associations.

7. Founder and CEO of Epic Judy Faulkner unveiled a new data research initiative and software during the Epic User Group annual meeting on Aug. 27. She highlighted the Cosmos program, which is designed to mine data from millions of patient medical records to improve research into treatments. The program gathers de-identified patient data from 8 million patients at nine health systems, and 31 more organizations have signed on to participate. The company also announced new products focused on letting physicians write shorter notes and voice recognition software.

8. Ms. Faulkner also discussed the company's culture and growth strategy during The Cap Times Idea Fest in September. She said Epic is built around the "yes, if" culture instead of a "no, because" mentality. She also said her background as a computer programmer was critical to the company's success, as she has kept the company private instead of going public or making big mergers and acquisitions.

9. Epic initiated another campus expansion at its Verona, Wis.-based headquarters that would add room for about 1,200 employees. The company plans to add office space that would accommodate job growth.

10. Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., partnered with Epic to help the company address delirium in the ICU. Epic made the add-on system update available to current clients ahead of its software launch in February.

11. Epic voiced opposition to HHS' proposed interoperability rule ahead of its anticipated finalization in the next month. Ms. Faulkner sent emails to large hospitals across the nation, urging them to oppose the rule and reportedly would consider suing HHS if the rule is finalized. On Jan. 27, Epic released a statement that it felt the rule proposed risk to patient privacy.

Cerner

12. In 2018, Cerner reported $5.4 billion in revenue. It has more than 29,000 associates in 26 countries worldwide, and is contracted with more than 27,500 facilities in more than 35 countries.

13. Cerner's cumulative research and development investment is more than $7 billion.

14. In July, Cerner partnered with Amazon Web Services to increase efficiencies and modernize Cerner's platforms and software development. Cerner aimed to leverage Amazon's consumer knowledge for future generations of technology. The company plans to move HealtheIntent to AWS during the first half of 2020.

15. Cerner terminated its contract with Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health. The two initially partnered in January 2018 for Cerner RevWorks to manage the health system's revenue cycle. When the contract was terminated, 1,700 Cerner RevWorks employees became Adventist Health employees. The termination resulted in a $60 million organizational restructuring charge for Cerner.

16. In September, Simplee and Cerner announced a new relationship to improve price transparency and the billing process. Cerner added Simplee's Patient Financial Engagement Platform to its revenue cycle portfolio and integrated it into the system's consumer technology. The platform is a digital-first, self-serve technology that uses data analytics and machine learning to make personalized estimates on the cost of care as well as provides payment options.

17. On Oct. 24, Cerner reported $1.43 billion in third quarter revenue, up 7 percent year over year. The company's professional services revenue was $507.46 million and drove the third quarter increase. The company anticipates fourth quarter revenue at $1.41 billion to $1.46 billion.

18. On Oct. 28, Cerner partnered with Uber Health on non-emergency transportation services. Providers can now schedule Uber transportation through the Cerner EHR for patients.

19. Cerner partnered with Vively Health, a home-based primary care provider for patients with chronic conditions. The five-year partnership was announced on Oct. 29 and will transition Vively to Cerner's Millennium EHR.

20. On Nov. 12, Cerner reported plans to lay off 131 employees in the U.S. to increase operating margins to 20 percent by the end of the year. In 2019, the company onboarded more than 4,000 associates and planned to hire hundreds more in 2022. This round of layoffs followed a 255-employee layoff in September, as the company attempted to cut $200 million in costs through Dec. 31.

21. Cerner COO Michael Nill's departure was announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Nov. 1. Mr. Nill spent 23 years with the company and his official last day will be Jan. 10, 2020. Cerner Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer Jeff Townsend also retired Nov. 1 and serves as executive senior adviser at the company.

22. In light of the proposed HHS interoperability rule, Cerner CEO Brent Shafer tweeted his support for the rule and making the flow of information across health systems easier on Jan. 27.

Allscripts

23. Allscripts is based in Chicago and has locations in Australia, Singapore, Israel and the United Kingdom. Frost & Sullivan gave Allscripts the 2019 United States Company of the Year Award for its advanced revenue cycle management solutions.

24. Over the past three years, the company's RCM business unit has grown more than 200 percent and has more than 180,000 physician customers across all 50 states in the U.S.

25. To begin the year, Allscripts partnered with Microsoft to design a new clinical research model that would leverage EHR and other technologies clinicians use when providing treatment. The collaboration aims to speed up the development of new therapies with Microsoft's cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities.

26. Allscripts acquired ZappRx, a prescription medicine startup, in June for an undisclosed amount. ZappRx raised more than $40 million from investors, according to a CNBC report.

27. Allscripts agreed to settle Department of Justice investigations related to HIPAA and anti-kickback statute compliance with its subsidiary Practice Fusion. Allscripts acquired the company in February 2018 for $100 million, after the DOJ had begun investigations. The two reached a settlement of $145 million.

28. In August, Apple Health Records became available on Allscripts Sunrise, TouchWorks and Professional EHR. Patients can now access their medical histories on their iPhone due to the partnership.

29. Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y., announced its partnership with Allscripts in October to develop and deploy a cloud-based, voice-enabled EHR. Northwell clinicians, IT professionals and administrators will help design the new EHR, which will include artificial intelligence technology. The health system also extended its agreement to use Allscripts' Sunrise inpatient EHR through 2027.

30. During the third quarter, Allscripts reported a 3 percent revenue increase to $444 million as well as a $6 million net loss, which was down from a $36 million net loss in the third quarter of 2018. The company expects full year bookings around $1 billion, and bookings were up 19% in the third quarter.

31. On Dec. 3, Allscripts' healthcare decision analytics and budgeting business, Epsi, released a new analytics platform. The platform is designed to help hospital leaders analyze clinical, financial and operational performance; more than 1,015 hospitals use Epsi's healthcare decision analytics, budgeting and planning solutions.

32. Also in December, England-based Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reported going live with Allscripts Sunrise electronic patient record five months after signing the contract in May. The trust planned to deploy its patient record system in the summer of 2020 but accelerated its deployment to support staff during the winter months. Due to the success of the initial rollout, it aims to move up the rollout of its EPR at Cheltenham General Hospital to February.

33. KLAS Research ranked Allscripts Paragon No. 3 and Allscripts No. 5 among the top overall software suite rankings for 2020.

Athenahealth

34. Athenahealth has a network of more than 160,000 healthcare providers and locations across the globe, including India and Ireland.

35. Veritas Capital and Elliott Management-affiliated Evergreen Coast Capital completed their acquisition of Athenahealth in February for around $5.7 billion in cash. The company then went private. At that time, Veritas planned to combine Athenahealth with Virence Health, its value-based care business acquired from GE Healthcare.

36. In April, Athenahealth announced it would lay off around 4 percent of its global workforce, an estimated 200 of its around 5,000 employees. The layoffs occurred as part of the company's efforts to reorganize its resources after it went private under its new owners.

37. Luis Borgen became Athenahealth's CFO in September. Mr. Borgen previously served as CFO of Vistaprint, an e-commerce brand, and has previous experience as CFO of DaVita. He has more than 22 years of experience in finance.

38. The company also appointed former PatientKeeper CEO Paul Brient as chief product officer in September. In August, the company named Simon Mouyal as chief marketing officer and in May it named Bill Conway the chief sales officer. Mr. Conway previously served as general manager of provider solutions at American Well, and had spent 13 years before that as part of Athenahealth's leadership team.

39. On Sept. 30, The Boston Globe reported Athenahealth put its 29-acre campus in Watertown, Mass., up for sale with plans to sign a long-term lease with the building's owner. The report noted that Athenahealth could make millions of dollars by selling the 11-floor, 830,000 square-foot Arsenal on the Charles building.

40. Rhinogram, which has a cloud-based telehealth provider, partnered with Athenahealth to make its platform available on Athenahealth's EHR. It has become part of Athenahealth's marketplace to support remote healthcare visits through virtual encounters.

41. Athenahealth unveiled new strategy-related initiatives in October, at the Centricity Healthcare User Group conference. The new strategy includes launching customer success managers for its EHR products, which it hopes will improve provider workflows and enhance collaboration.

42. Athenahealth added BirdEye's customer experience platform to its EHR marketplace program in November.

43. In December, Athenahealth launched an interactive flu dashboard that could track the spread of the flu across the U.S. The company plans to compare how different state populations across the country are affected by the flu.

44. On Jan. 8, Athenahealth named Diane Bartoli general manager of its mobile decision support services, Epocrates. Ms. Bartoli previously served as director and general manager of education business at Amazon Kindle.

Meditech

45. In August, Meditech celebrated 50 years in business. It has grown to include more than 3,500 employees worldwide and 2,300 global customers. The company has a footprint in more than 20 countries and reports having 24 percent of the U.S. EHR market share.

46. Meditech focused on international growth this year as well as expansion in the U.S. Meditech UK became an accredited supplier in the U.K., showing that its solutions support National Health Service's goals and meets the Global Digital Exemplars standards. It also partnered with Aga Khan University in South Africa in September and reported that it leads the Canadian EHR market, with 47 percent market share.

47. Seven Mississippi and Alabama-based hospitals formed a group to share common goals and challenges around Meditech EHR improvements. The group, named the Mississippi Meditech CIO Collaborative, was designed to share strategies for improved patient safety and efficiency.

48. Meditech formed a new division dedicated to professional services and maximizing its Expanse EHR in April. The professional services were designed to complement Meditech's implementation program and offer on-site project management leadership, in addition to other services.

49. The EHR vendor in April expanded access to its private, cloud-based EHR solution Meditech-as-a-Service. The company launched the MaaS solution in November 2017 exclusively to critical access hospitals. The April expansion made the solution available to community-based health systems.

50. On Oct. 2, Meditech announced a collaboration with Google Cloud, making it the first company to offer its EHR through the Google Cloud Platform. The two companies also plan to develop native cloud products and application programming interfaces, Meditech CEO Howard Messing told Becker's Hospital Review.

51. People enrolled in Meditech's patient portal gained access to their health records via iPhone in October. The EHR vendor partnered with Apple, making the technology giant's Health Records feature available to Meditech Expanse and 6.0 EHR clients. 

52. Throughout the year, Meditech developed and launched various new tools for its EHR systems, including an antimicrobial stewardship toolkit and an opioid stewardship toolkit as well as labor and delivery features for prenatal and postnatal care.

53. The EHR vendor also integrated solutions from partner companies with its EHR software, including Arcadia.io's population health tools and a voice assistant from Nuance Communications.

54. Several hospitals, health systems and physician groups implemented and went live with Meditech EHR systems. For example, in April Brockton, Mass.-based Signature Healthcare, which includes more than 150 physicians and 18 locations, implemented Meditech Expanse. Then in November Pittsfield, Mass.-based Berkshire Health Systems invested $35 million to transition to Meditech EHR over three years as part of a partnership originally announced in December 2018.

55. Meditech posted $493 million in revenue for full-year 2019, a 1.2 percent increase. 

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