Dive Temporary:
- Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton is suing Epic, alleging the digital well being document big wields monopolistic management over sufferers’ medical knowledge.
- The lawsuit, filed in a Texas state courtroom on Wednesday, additionally accuses Epic of restraining dad and mom’ entry to their kids’s well being data. The swimsuit pointed to default settings on the corporate’s MyChart affected person portal that restrict dad or mum proxy use when a affected person turns 12 years outdated.
- The swimsuit is “flawed and misguided,” failing to grasp Epic’s enterprise mannequin and its place available in the market, an Epic spokesperson instructed Healthcare Dive.
Dive Perception:
Epic’s software program holds greater than 325 million affected person data, representing greater than 90% of U.S. residents, Texas wrote within the criticism. The well being software program agency makes use of that management to forestall hospitals from simply switching to different data distributors and stops different corporations from competing, the swimsuit alleges.
The criticism claims the EHR big improperly denies or delays entry to affected person data by suppliers who selected to not use Epic, curbing the motion of vital medical data and doubtlessly delaying affected person care. That deters suppliers from utilizing different EHR distributors, in keeping with the swimsuit.
Slowing or stopping the movement of knowledge additionally prevents different healthcare software program corporations and startups from competing, the criticism mentioned. For instance, a vendor trying to supply staffing software program would wish entry to data on what number of sufferers want companies and the kind of care.
“Epic’s pretextual denials or delays be sure that solely Epic can determine which corporations can compete, with which companies, to which clients — thereby depriving clients of a aggressive market,” the state wrote in its lawsuit.
The criticism additionally factors to noncompete agreements for Epic staff that smother different corporations’ capacity to recruit expertise. As lately as 2019, Epic’s agreements barred former staff from working at hundreds of corporations that contain well being software program throughout noncompete durations, in keeping with the swimsuit.
The lawsuit in opposition to Epic is a part of Paxton’s efforts to forestall EHR distributors from limiting dad and mom’ entry to kids’s medical data, the state mentioned in a press launch. The legal professional normal settled with a clinic earlier this yr after the supplier’s document allegedly locked dad and mom out of accounts when their kids turned 12.
In an announcement, Epic mentioned it handles greater than 725 million document exchanges every month, greater than half of that are from non-Epic programs. The EHR vendor additionally famous that selections about dad and mom’ entry are made by medical doctors and well being programs.
Nonetheless, accusations that Epic prevents the free movement of well being data should not new. The data big has lengthy been criticized for having easy knowledge sharing inside its personal Epic-branded programs, however difficulties exchanging knowledge with its rivals. In early 2020, the corporate campaigned to cease sweeping HHS rules selling interoperability, or at the very least ease their data-sharing necessities. The foundations had been later finalized.
The Texas swimsuit comes as Epic is dealing with one other antitrust criticism. In September, a federal choose allowed a swimsuit introduced by startup Particle Well being in opposition to the EHR vendor to maneuver ahead.
Rebecca Pifer contributed to this story.
