When Big Tech and EHR worlds collide

The Cerner acquisition by Oracle highlights a deeply concentrated industry

Image by Thobar BIGS Design from Pixabay

On December 20, Oracle announced it has agreed to purchase Cerner for a staggering $28.3 billion (its biggest acquisition to date). This should come as no surprise…

In an increasingly digital world, electronic health records (EHRs) have truly become the backbone of hospital systems.

They’re also a highly concentrated industry.

Case in point: according to the KLAS U.S. Hospital EMR Market Share 2019 report, Cerner and its nemesis Epic Systems (more on them later) hold 54% of the acute care hospital EHR market.

1. Epic: 28 %

2. Cerner: 26 %

3. Meditech: 16 %

4. CPSI: 9 %

5. Allscripts: 6 %

6. Medhost: 4 %

7. athenahealth: 2 %

8. None/other: 9 %

Epic and Meditech are privately held companies, whereas smaller players CPSI and Allscripts are publicly listed on the NASDAQ.

There is definitely an element of pride and independence in Epic and Meditech’s corporate status. In February 2019, the emblematic CEO of Epic Judy Faulkner (bluntly) commented on Apple potentially buying the company: “We’re not going to do that.” I think that says it all…

For a Big Tech company like Oracle the temptation to acquire a major EHR vendor was simply too strong (despite the enormous price tag).

Don’t be surprised if other Big Techs attempt to gobble up smaller players this upcoming year.