What You Should Know:
– Particle Health, a company specializing in aggregating and delivering actionable patient data, has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Epic Systems Corporation.
– The lawsuit accuses Epic of abusing its dominant position in the electronic health records (EHR) market to hinder competition in the burgeoning payer platform market.
Epic’s Alleged Anti-Competitive Practices
Particle’s complaint alleges that Epic is actively thwarting the development of a market that aims to modernize healthcare data analysis and improve patient care. The payer platform market seeks to transform outdated, paper-based processes into efficient, scalable systems capable of analyzing health records, predicting patient risk, and guiding better care decisions.
To achieve this, companies like Particle rely on the secure exchange of health information. However, Epic’s actions have disrupted this flow, causing significant harm to both providers and patients.
Epic’s Tactics to Suppress Competition
The lawsuit details how Epic has allegedly employed a multifaceted strategy to stifle Particle’s growth. Over the past six months, Epic has cut off access to data for Particle’s customers, spread unfounded complaints, and overwhelmed Particle’s support operations with baseless security concerns.
Negative Impact on Patient Care
The complaint further highlights the real-world consequences of Epic’s alleged actions. A network of community oncology practices has reported over 2,800 patients experiencing a decline in care quality due to Epic’s deliberate blocking of crucial clinical information. These records should have been accessible to providers using Epic’s EHR software, but Particle’s attempts to deliver them have been thwarted.
“Epic Systems controls the medical information of nearly every American – meaning one private company has unchecked power over our health care,” said Particle Health CEO Jason Prestinario. “Now, Epic is using that power to thwart an emerging industry intended to bring payers and providers into closer collaboration for better patient care.”