Epic is accelerating its push to embed AI and shape the broader healthcare data ecosystem in 2026, rolling out new tools, weighing in on federal AI policy and taking legal action tied to national interoperability networks.
From new AI tools and policy advocacy to legal action around health data exchange and continued industry recognition, here is a look at Epic Systems’ biggest moves so far in 2026, as reported by Becker’s:
- OpenAI has added an Epic EHR integration and a public health data plugin to ChatGPT for Healthcare, with San Francisco-based UCSF Health serving as a pilot partner. The Epic integration lets authorized clinicians at healthcare organizations with supported Epic environments pull together patient information — including appointment notes, lab results, medications and specialist documentation — inside ChatGPT or directly within Epic workflows.
- Epic used its 2026 Users Group Meeting to showcase dozens of new and upcoming features, with a heavy emphasis on AI agents for clinicians, patients and revenue cycle teams. The company said it now releases new software versions every three months, with its latest release containing 30% more code than a year ago and about half delivered through its Nebula cloud platform. Features range from post-discharge AI calls and autonomous coding to conversational revenue cycle tools, automated underpayment recovery and agentic scheduling, with rollouts spanning now through 2027 and beyond.
- Epic expanded the responsibilities of four executives following President Sumit Rana’s departure, according to a statement from Founder and CEO Judy Faulkner shared with Becker’s. Ms. Faulkner said Seth Howard, Mark Lipsky, Erv Walter and Garrett Adams are among a small group of internal leaders taking on broader roles, though Epic did not specify their new responsibilities.
- Epic expanded its international hospital footprint in 2025 despite one of the slowest years for global hospital EHR purchasing, according to a July 7 KLAS Research report. The firm found Epic signed new contracts with 34 hospitals representing 6,580 beds, making it one of the year’s most active EHR vendors despite an overall decline in purchasing activity.
- Epic President Sumit Rana will step down Aug. 14 after more than 25 years with the EHR company to spend more time with his family following the death of his father.
- On June 3, Epic Systems and four health systems voluntarily dismissed their claims against SelfRx in a high-profile interoperability lawsuit after SelfRx founder Martin Hensel submitted a sworn declaration disputing allegations that the company improperly accessed more than 100,000 patient records, saying SelfRx requested records for only 21 patients and received fewer than 100 records total. The broader lawsuit against Health Gorilla, Unit 387 and other defendants remains ongoing, with plaintiffs alleging nearly 300,000 patient records were improperly obtained through Carequality and TEFCA and routed to law firms under the guise of treatment-related requests.
- A KLAS report released in May found that Epic picked up 77 acute care hospitals in 2025, down from 180 in 2024 and 154 in 2023.
- On April 8, Epic rolled out Health Alerts, a tool that uses statistical models applied to real-world medical records to identify when rates of specific health conditions in a given county exceed expected levels.
- On Feb. 20, Epic submitted a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services outlining policy recommendations related to the adoption and use of AI in clinical care. The letter responds to HHS’ request for information on accelerating AI adoption in healthcare. Epic argued generative AI requires new policy support because it is probabilistic, resource-intensive and requires continuous validation. The company said AI can improve clinician productivity, reduce documentation burden and support faster clinical decision-making, but adoption requires significant and ongoing infrastructure investment.
- On Feb. 4, Epic rolled out AI Charting, a built-in tool that listens during patient visits and drafts clinicians’ notes and suggested orders in real time.
- In January, Epic, OCHIN and three health systems filed a lawsuit accusing Health Gorilla and related entities of fraudulently accessing tens of thousands of patient records through national interoperability frameworks by falsely claiming the data was needed for treatment. The plaintiffs allege the records were then used for mass tort litigation marketing, arguing the practice threatens patient privacy and could undermine trust in nationwide health information exchange networks.
Editor’s note: This article was updated Sept. 11.
