I think many in the EHR community are keeping a close eye on what’s happening with the Department of Defense (DoD) EHR bidding war that’s happening right now. Considering the DoD is planning to spend $11 billion on the EHR contract, that’s going to have a huge impact on the EHR world and particularly the EHR consultant world.
For those keeping track at home, it seems like these are the major EHR companies and consulting companies that have paired up to bid for the DoD EHR contract:
- Epic and IBM
- Cerner, Leidos, Accenture
- CSC, Allscripts, HP
I’m sure I’m missing a few. I’ve heard Vista and possibly even the VA itself will be bidding. However, most people believe that it’s really a race between Epic and Cerner with Epic being the likely selection. Although, when it comes to government contracts, I would never put money down on any prediction.
If you’re an EHR consultant, you’re going to want to keep a close eye on what happens with this contract. No doubt a huge portion of the DoD EHR contract will go to pay for EHR consultants. However, I’d suggest that the even greater opportunity out there could be for the EHR company that loses the DoD EHR contract. Here’s an excerpt from a post on Hospital EMR and EHR that covers why:
It’s a very likely reality that whoever gets the DoD contract will lose some potential clients due to concerns about capacity. If Epic or Cerner get the DoD contract, then it’s possible that these capacity concerns will move them down a notch in people’s EHR selection process.
We’ll see how the DoD contract plays out, but it’s going to have a huge impact on the EHR consulting industry. I think overall it will be a great thing for those with EHR expertise.
What impacts do you think the DoD EHR contract will have on the industry? What are you doing to prepare for it?
Although this contract may be a home run for the winning vendor having all their eggs in one basket will effect their performance with current clients and capacity issues and of course you are now going to have to deal with the bureaucracy of the government, but then again its $11B, which is a pretty good trade off. The race is on.