Without a doubt, the biggest news last week was the Department of Justice’s $155 million settlement with EHR vendor eClinicalWorks. The settlement of a False Claims Act lawsuit makes it easier for the providers to make the switch to the electronic health records system of other vendors.
eClinicalworks Settlement Scandal
The electronic health records system vendor was hit with a fine of $155 million to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit. The alleged charges are pretty damning. To summarize eClinicalWorks:
- Falsely certified that the EHR met all government criteria
- Failed to adequately test software before release
- Failed to correct critical and urgent problems and bugs for an extended period of time
- Failed to ensure data portability and audit log requirements
- Failed to reliably record lab and diagnostic imaging orders
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False Claims Act Filed By IT Staff Worker
The lawsuit was first filed in Vermont by whistleblower Brendan Delaney, a New York City government employee that was implementing the EHR software at Rikers Island. The Department of Justice later intervened in the case. The law suit was filed under the False Claims Act, this is a federal law which allows non-government affiliate people to file actions against federal contractors claiming fraud against the government.
eClinicalWorks Did Not Admit Guilt For The Underlying Charges
While agreeing to the settlement, eClinicalWorks denied any wrongdoing. They said that they fully cooperated with the Department of Justice civil investigation. This settlement is the first of its kind for a healthcare information technology company facing formal charges that its systems failed to help the providers attain objectives of the Meaningful Use program. Executives of eClinicalWorks were unavailable to for any immediate commenting on the lawsuit or on the possibilities of their customers switching to other vendors’ products.
Settlement Makes It Simpler For eClinicalworks Customers To Change EHRs
The settlement with the federal Department of Justice includes many provisions, one of them is which requires eClinicalworks to assist its customers in making the switch to the products of other competitors. The point to note here is that this shift would happen at no charge.
Erik Bermudez, a senior research director with KLAS says this would make providers’ decisions to opt out of eClinicalWorks products much easier. Earlier the charge to leave eClinicalWorks in the middle of the contract was high, but now customers can get an updated version of their software free of charge. On any such request, eClinicalWorks is required to transfer customers’ data to another EHR vendor without any penalties or service charges.
KLAS Research
KLAS plans to survey eClinicalWorks customers in the next few weeks to determine the extent to which the settlement may influence their decisions to change EHRs. The answers from this survey would help to determine how well the company has managed this incident and how big the impact is on its business, says Bermudez.
Bermudez believes that some of eClinicalWorks customers would remain satisfied with the performance and services they receive. But he isn’t quite sure if the same would hold the vendor’s market together. Providers that are on the fence and deciding to leave will find the process eased because of the crippling sanctions in the settlement. But again, switching EHRs would continue to be a time taking and painful procedure.
Date: June 6, 2017