Thanks, appreciate these insights. I've been contemplating VA's Oracle / Cerner implementation and wondered if implementing the same systems across…
Monday Morning Update 4/1/24
Top News
Atlanta-based teleradiology vendor The Radiology Group pays $3.1 million to settle False Claims Act charges that its US-based radiologists rubber stamped draft image interpretations that were performed by India-based contractors who are not licensed in the US.
Highlighted in the complaint is Radiologist A, who signed more than 10,000 reports in a single month, approved drafts in as little as 16 seconds, and did not check the “critical” tag when it was indicated.
The company notes on its technology page that all of its software is powered by AI.
Reader Comments
From Bollinger’s Band: “Re: Oracle Health. You mentioned Larry’s age and his cheerleading for the former Cerner. They may be re-architecting the former Cerner offering and that will let them come roaring back.” I don’t see that happening, for these reasons:
- A key reason that Cerner was getting kicked out of hospitals was fallout over its deficient RCM product and its “solution” of rolling out a spiffed-up Soarian offering.
- I don’t think that most hospitals that moved to Epic did so because of Cerner’s architecture, so Oracle’s whiz-bang technology may not prove to be competitive differentiator.
- Epic is so far ahead of Cerner in customer KLAS rankings that Oracle Health will never catch up. I don’t see Oracle making the huge investment that would be needed to make their product more competitive.
- Layoffs and attrition has likely caused a big loss of industry knowledge at Oracle Health, and putting a bunch of hotshot technologists in charge of a complicated, industry-specific critical application has never worked that I can remember.
- They’re not getting all those former customers back from Epic, so there’s nobody left to sell to. The only potential greenfield is outside the US, and product localization is always a challenge even for more focused vendors.
- The DoD business isn’t as lucrative as it sounds since Cerner wasn’t the prime contractor, and the VA may or may not ever get widely enough implemented to unleash the gravy train.
- Oracle paid way too much for Cerner and expresses near-embarrassment about its latest jewel in every earnings call. Customers were already sprinting for the Epic door, and raising prices or lowering costs to increase margins to “Oracle standards” will only hasten the exodus.
- Oracle Health is lucky that the company is printing money overall from its cloud business and that Larry Ellison is still enamored with it. At some point, Safra is going to get tired of making excuses for Larry’s plaything, at which time Oracle could strangle it financially or sell it for parts, such as the government business. The Larry-funded Project Ronin had noble aspirations, but was shut down without notice in early March.
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Interesting comment about Oracle coming back and your comments about KLAS. Never been a favor of KLAS ratings when you have to pay for being graded. If you were to ask the line level users Epic is really not that superior and that said there are organizations that have been very successful at running Cerner’s Rev Cycle solution. But never the less everyone has their opinion.
Whether one likes KLAS or not, why do people insist on repeating the lie that “you have to pay to be graded”?
Pretty staggering that David Feinberg having made millions & bought a super expensive mansion in LA after joining & selling Cerner to Oracle is still there. Hard to see anything other than an all Epic future to American health tech, depressing though that is. Larry Ellison remains a joke, like many of the billionaires we indulge because they got lucky once or twice (or in Musk’s case 3 tines!)
Suggesting that Larry (who I’m no big fan of) or Musk got lucky is one of the most ignorant things I’ve ever read on this blog. Do you not have an appreciation for what it takes for an entrepreneur have the vision for a product/service that the market either demands (or in some cases doesn’t even know it demands; Amazon, Uber, Salesforce, etc.) then have the discipline and tenacity to execute in to a multi-billiion dollar organization? Both of those men have created great companies that have employed thousands of people and have a vendor ecosystem spawned from them that has had an immeasurable impact on our economy and individual families. I’m embarrassed for you, especially considering you used your real name for the very small world of HIT to see.
Almost completely agree with you Mr HISTALK. Other than the Soarian Financials part. If Cerner didn’t have the “we’re better than you back east” mindset, they could have integrated SF pretty well. Only after KC figured out that they were really awful at rev cycle and were losing clients, that they did anything. But, quite too late. That happens when you get rid of any folks that have real knowledge. Now, with Larry’s gang in charge, they really don’t have any idea at all about anything in the healthcare space. Sad.