Sep 12 : Epic Retains Lobbyists To Improve Its Interoperability Image

EHR juggernaut Epic Systems has hired lobbyists Card & Associates to improve its reputation of not being interoperable with other EHR systems on Capitol Hill, Modern Healthcare reports.  According to the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act database, Epic retained the firm in August to “educate members of Congress on the interoperability of Epic’s healthcare information technology.” In a recent July hearing, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) claimed Epic’s System were “closed records” utilizing a RAND Corp. report (Tahir/Modern Healthcare/9/10/14).

“We have engaged government relations support to help educate legislators on what is happening with healthcare IT and in particular, on advancing EHRs and interoperability,” said an Epic’s spokesman.

In a recent July hearing, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) stated that Epic’s EHR were “closed records” asking “Is the government getting its money’s worth?” He also argued that HITECH act was intended to push interoperability.  “It may be time for the (Energy and Commerce) committee to take a closer look at the practices of vendor companies in this space, given the possibility that fraud may be perpetrated on the American taxpayer.”

In an interview with Bradford Card, the CEO of Card & Associates stated, “there have been stories that they’re not interoperable when in fact they are.”

Epic and IBM recently partnered to compete for the Department of Defense Healthcare Management Systems Modernization (DHMSM) contract worth potentially $11 billion dollars. IBM and Epic will propose a solution to transform the MHS leveraging Epic’s high performance, interoperable and secure EHR software