Privately held Epic in Wisconsin, the home state of my youngest childhood memories, continues to expand its dominance over the healthcare information software market.
Epic Systems, a Verona-based health care software company that employs around 13,000 people, is developing plans for a sixth campus, and recently received city approval for a 2,050-vehicle underground parking structure to serve that campus.
https://www.wpr.org/more-jobs-verona-dane-county-area-epic-systems-planning-another-expansion
It was a mature, slow-moving market that was kicked into high gear by the HITECH Act, a piece of legislation promoted by Obama and passed by Congress in 2009 as the Great Recession took hold of the economy. This obviously conservative anti-Obama columnist had a point:
That’s in no small part due to the cronyism embedded in the federal stimulus “incentives” — a massive chunk of which the White House doled out to behemoth EMR company Epic Systems, headed by Obama crony Judith Faulkner.
https://nypost.com/2015/10/23/team-obamas-electronic-medical-records-mandate-is-a-disaster/
The move to electronic medical records was already underway, but the HITECH Act not only accelerated that progress, it distorted the outcome by giving physicians more of a say in hospital purchasing decisions.
Before HITECH, Epic was the top software sold to physician practices, but it wasn’t especially popular within hospitals. Doctors were able to use their newfound influence so that hospital C-Suite executives, knowing they would be reimbursed with taxpayer money regardless of the cost, bought Epic.
Epic Systems is, by far, the most expensive vendor selling software to automate hospitals. On the order of $100 million vs. $20 million for a comparable installation from a competitor.
Pigs must be flying, because I agree with this Heritage Foundation commentary. It’s from 2011, when the fix was in and Epic’s competitors could see it was too late to stop Judy and company.
A federal committee that includes a major donor to President Obama and whose company stands to profit from the panel’s recommendations holds in its hands the future of health information technology policy.
Then-VP Joe Biden, to his credit, was more doubtful of Judy and her underlying interests. The two of them reportedly “had words,” and if Biden is re-elected he should consider seeing what can be done to put a check on Epic’s near-monopoly influence.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/07/joe-biden-vs-judy-faulkner-epic-systems-ceo-its-complicated.html
Full disclosure: I worked for an Epic competitor, and I was affected financially by Epic’s rapid HITECH-fueled takeover of the HIS/EHR/EMR market, as were friends of mine. A member of my family is about to be made redundant at work by an Epic installation, with the acknowledgement that “improving workflow” is what software systems should do.
