Intermountain, Cerner team up for Defense EHR bid

Cerner Corp., one of several major electronic health-record system vendors competing for a multibillion-dollar contract to replace the Military Health System's EHR, has entered what it terms a “strategic agreement” on its bid with Intermountain Healthcare.

Intermountain, a Salt Lake City-based integrated delivery system that offers “decades of clinical experience and research,” will work with Kansas City, Mo.-based Cerner “to meet the military's specific research requirements to modernize its electronic health-record process,” according to a Cerner statement.

In June, Cerner announced it was joining with defense and national security contractor Leidos, and consultant and systems integrator Accenture to bid on the contract to replace a hodgepodge of existing health IT systems used by the Military Health System. The 10-year contract is estimated to be worth $11 billion.

With 22 hospitals and 185 clinics in Utah and southeastern Idaho, Intermountain is roughly half the size of the Military Health System, which operates 59 hospitals and 360 health clinics.

Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn