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60 CIO / HEALTH IT 50 Things to Know About athenahealth, Cerner, Epic, McKesson & Meditech By Jessica Kim Cohen and Erin Dietsche F rom an organization founded in 1997 to one that has been around for nearly two centuries, the major EHR vendors come in all shapes and sizes. Here are 50 things to know about five of the market's dominant EHR vendors. Note: e vendors are arranged alphabetically. athenahealth 1. Jonathan Bush — nephew of U.S. President George H.W. Bush and cousin of President George W. Bush — and Todd Park founded the Watertown, Mass.-based company in 1997. Today, Mr. Bush serves as CEO, president and chairman of the board of directors; Mr. Park, who no longer holds a position at athen- ahealth, went on to serve as U.S. chief technol- ogy officer during the Obama administration. 2. ere are roughly 88,000 providers and 86 million patients on athenahealth's network. A few recent contracts include Tandigm Health — a value-based healthcare company supporting primary care physicians — im- plementing athenahealth's population health management tool and East Lansing-based Michigan State University HealthTeam — the multispecialty faculty group practice of the university — implementing athenahealth's suite of services. 3. In 2016, athenahealth reported total reve- nue of $1.08 billion — a 17 percent increase compared to the $924.7 million it reported in 2015. In a list of health technology vendors ranked by highest revenues, IDC Health In- sights named athenahealth the eighth highest earner compared to other companies that derive more than one-third of their revenue from healthcare payers and providers. 4. For three years running, athenahealth has ranked as the top vendor in user satisfaction among physician groups with 6 to 10 physi- cians and groups with 11 to 25 physicians, according to a Black Book poll. In the 2016 Black Book Inpatient EHR Surveys, athen- ahealth clients were also identified as "most loyal," meaning the company's clients intend to maintain their business relationship and have a positive attitude toward the vendor. 5. Only 22 of the 4,474 hospitals participating in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program use athenahealth's EHR technology, according to ONC data from July 2016, making it tied for the 36th most-used certified health IT vendor hospitals report for the program. However, ONC also notes that only 10 vendors, includ- ing athenahealth, supply 98 percent of hospi- tals with their certified IT technology, based on HHS' 2014 Edition Health Information Technology Certification Criteria. 6. In July 2016, the company announced its MIPS Guarantee program, which reimburses clients who face a downward payment adjust- ment under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. e program is meant to help clients using the athenaOne services suite perform at or above the national performance threshold set by CMS, therefore avoiding any payment penal- ties on their Medicare Part B fee schedule. 7. One of athenahealth's core initiatives is its "More Disruption Please" program, which connects startups with the opportunity to sell to athenahealth clients. e program has collaborated with companies like Relaymed, which connects point-of-care devices to EHRs, and SnapMD, a telemedicine provider. 8. Another one of the company's primary focuses is interoperability. e company is a founding member of the CommonWell Health Alliance, a nonprofit and indepen- dent organization focused on developing and deploying interoperability solutions. Athen- ahealth, along with other major IT vendors like Epic and Cerner, also committed to the Interoperability Pledge, which HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced during HIMSS16 in February 2016. 9. In June 2013, athenahealth said it would move the majority of its Georgia operations from Alpharetta to Atlanta, and at the start of 2017, the company announced plans to ex- pand its workforce in Atlanta to almost 1,000 employees by 2018. With this new expan- sion, athenahealth — which currently utilizes 98,000 square feet of space at Ponce City Mar- ket in Atlanta — will tack on an extra 40,000 square feet of space to its offices. 10. Athenahealth's CEO and co-founder, Mr. Bush, has made headlines for his outspoken views on both national politics and health- care management. In a speech to Massachu- setts Republicans in June 2016, he publicly stated he would not vote for Donald Trump, who has since won the national election. In an April 2016 interview with Bloomberg, he voiced that — although he is critical of the ACA — he credits some of athenahealth's growth to the ACA. Cerner 11. Neal Patterson, Cliff Illig and Paul Gorup founded Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner in 1979. e company's name, according to the Cerner website, is derived from a Latin word meaning "to discern." Today, Mr. Patterson serves as chairman of the board and CEO, while Mr. Illig serves as vice chairman of the board. Mr. Gorup, who le Cerner in 1987 but returned in 1999, was named to Epiq's board of directors last year. Cerner employs more than 24,000 people worldwide. 12. e company's technologies are licensed at more than 25,000 facilities in more than 35 countries. A few recent contracts include Lynchburg, Va.-based Centra Health selecting Cerner for its five hospitals, more than 50 am- bulatory and long-term care facilities and health plan, and the Department of Defense awarding a $74 million data hosting contract to Leidos, Cerner and Accenture for the DOD's EHR. 13. Cerner is currently building its seventh campus. Dubbed the Innovations Campus, the development is projected to reach $4.5 billion and will house 16,000 Cerner employ- ees. Each of the 15 streets on the Kansas City- based campus' road system will be named aer a healthcare or technology leader. 14. Cerner came in No. 2 on IDC Health Insights' 2016 HealthTech Rankings, which highlight companies that derive more than one-third of their revenue from healthcare payers and providers. Cerner also claims the largest market share in the EMR industry, according to a Kalorama Information report. 15. In the third quarter of fiscal year 2016, Cerner reported revenue of $1.185 billion — a 5 percent decrease compared to the $1.28 billion it reported in the third quarter of FY 2015. More recently, Cerner reported full- year 2016 revenue of $4.8 billion, which is 8 percent higher than its 2015 reported revenue of $4.43 billion. Speaking of the revenue cycle business: In Sep- tember 2016, Cerner appointed Jeff Hurst as the first-ever senior vice president of revenue cycle management and president for RevWorks, Cerner's revenue management services unit. 16. Cerner's loyalty rankings increased from 88 percent in 2015 to 96 percent in 2016, and 95 percent of its clients advocate for peers to purchase Cerner products, according to the 2016 Black Book Inpatient EHR Surveys.