Dive Brief:
- Cerner has been awarded a five-year, $16.3-billion contract with the U.S. Army for its pathology lab software (CoPathPlus LIS), which was received in May.
- Along with Epic Systems, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions and others, the company is still vying for the big 10-year Defense Healthcare Management Systems Modernization project (DHMSM) contract, estimated to be worth $11 billion.
- The new EHR system would replace what currently exists at 56 military hospitals and 300 clinics worldwide.
Dive Insight:
In other words, don't get too excited yet. The DOD contract is expected to be awarded later this summer. As Cerner president Zane Burke said in a call with investors and analysts in May, "Obviously it's in the government's hands. Our understanding is they're looking to make a decision on the first phase of that work at the end of our second quarter."
Competing groups include a partnership between EMR vendor Epic Systems and IBM; a team including defense contractor and systems integrator Computer Sciences Corp., Hewlett Packard and EMR vendor Allscripts; and the Cerner group, which also includes government systems integrator Leidos and Accenture Federal.
Want to read more? You may enjoy this story about how the DOD's choice of EHR will impact providers.