Intermountain, Cerner Collaborate On Defense Health IT Bid

Cerner Corp., one of several major electronic health-record system vendors competing for a multibillion-dollar contract to replace the Military Health System's EHR, has entered what it terms a “strategic agreement” on its bid with Intermountain Healthcare.  Intermountain, a Salt Lake City-based integrated delivery system that offers “decades of clinical experience and research,” will work with Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner “to meet the military's specific research requirements to modernize its electronic health-record process,” according to a Cerner statement.

In June, Cerner announced it was joining with defense and national security contractor Leidos, and consultant and systems integrator Accenture to bid on the contract to replace a hodgepodge of existing health information technology systems used by the Military Health System. The 10-year contract is estimated to be worth $11 billion.  Leidos is a Reston, Va., spinoff from defense and national intelligence service contractor Science Applications International Corp.

SAIC has a long history with the Military Health System. It developed the military's first comprehensive EHR called the Composite Health Care System, a clone of the Veterans Affairs Department's EHR, at an initial cost of $1 billion. CHCS is still being used in military hospitals.  At least four groups of IT companies are bidding on the project...