Allscripts Joins Race for DOD EHR Contract as $11B Offer Looms

Allscripts, CSC, and Hewlett-Packard have announced that they are teaming up against Epic and IBM to bid for a massive Department of Defense EHR overhaul, it looks like new battle lines are being drawn in the quest to secure up to $11 billion from the ten to fifteen year contract to revamp the ailing health IT infrastructure of one of the most complex healthcare systems in the world.

The DOD expects between four and six teams to eventually compete for the contract, slated to officially come on offer in September.  The DOD is also still considering adopting a variant of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ VistA system, said Chris Miller, Program Executive Officer for Defense Healthcare Management Systems at an industry fair held this week, but may be leaning towards a commercial solution.

Hundreds of vendors were in attendance at the industry day, but the two giants who have already announced their intentions to compete for the contract may not be very surprising.  Epic has already proven its mettle in hospitals across the country, and Allscripts is consistently ranked among the best EHR products despite a dip in its fortunes throughout 2012 and 2013...