How much Epic, Cerner, other vendors spent to lobby Congress

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In July, Rep. Phil Gingrey, MD (R-Ga.) blasted electronic health record giant Epic during a hearing on technology and healthcare hosted by the Subcommittees on Communications and Technology and Health, saying the platform is not interoperable. He was soon joined by other lawmakers questioning the EHR vendors' data-sharing abilities.

To improve the company's image on Capitol Hill, Epic retained Card & Associates in August to lobby on Epic's behalf. "There's been a lot of interest in asking questions and being able to get real answers because there's been an awful lot of misinformation out in the press," said Card & Associates CEO Brad Card, according to a report in Politico. "I think it's been a very good and reasonable dialogue."

So far, Epic has spent about $24,000 on its lobbying efforts. However, some of its competitors have spent more. Here's how much four major EHR vendors have spent on lobbyists, according to Politco:

  • Cerner: $50,000 between July and September
  • Siemens: $40,000 between July and September
  • McKesson: $425,000 during the first quarter and $250,000 during the second quarter
  • Allscripts: $100,000 so far this year

 

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