Epic’s growing market share raises concern over U.S. EHR competition
VERONA, WISCONSIN — Amid Epic’s growing market share in the electronic health record (EHR) industry, there are growing concerns about the company’s methods in achieving its dominant stature.
While Epic’s market share is below the 50% monopoly threshold as per case law, a report by Forbes highlights several practices by Epic, that verge on monopolistic behavior:
- Artificially increasing third-party costs
- Non-competes and web of non-solicitation
- Raising fees to unsustainable and anticompetitive levels
- Bundling, tying, and pricing practices
- The appearance of picking winners and losers
- Vertical manipulation
- Chilling the market with new products
Data from KLAS Research shows that Epic has a 35.9% market share in the EHR segment. This is followed by Oracle Cerner (29.9%), Meditech (16.3%), CPSI (8.2%), Others (7.9%), Altera Digital Health (3.7%), Medhost (2.5%), and Azalea Health (0.4%).
From 2017 to 2022, Epic gained 79% of the reported net new hospital EHR deals. It’s hospital bed count also increased by 94,656 while its competitors did not realize a net gain in this time period.
In addition, with 231 hospitals in its portfolio, Epic controlled nearly 60% of the academic medical center market in 2022.
The firm was the only EHR vendor to pick up any academic hospitals in 2022, with four, according to Becker’s. Oracle Cerner, Meditech and Altera Digital Health each lost one.
In 2016, Epic was awarded $940 million in damages in a secret trade lawsuit against information technology firm Tata Consultancy.
Epic sued Tata Consultancy in 2014 for illegally downloading software documentation it had been hired to help install at Kaiser Permanente.
Epic accused Tata Consultancy of “brazenly stealing” confidential information to help Med Mantra, a healthcare software provider.
The jury in federal court in Wisconsin ruled in Epic’s favor on seven claims, including breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition and unfair enrichment.
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