Three EHR Vendors Comprise Majority of Market Share for Hospitals Participating in MU

Cerner, MEDITECH and Epic Systems comprise nearly 60 percent of the market share of primary certified electronic health records (EHRs) for hospitals participating in the meaningful use program, according to a March data brief from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

Following those three vendors on the list were McKesson, CPSI, and MEDHOST. Of course, in order to demonstrate meaningful use, providers must attest using a certified EHR technology. According to the data, as of March 2015, 179 health IT vendors supply certified EHR products to 4,567 hospitals participating in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) EHR Incentive Programs. Broken down further, the top 10 EHR vendors provide the primary EHR for over 9 out of 10 hospitals. For the remaining 169 hospital EHR vendors, 9 out of 10 of all hospitals reporting these vendors report the vendor's product as their secondary EHR.

ONC says that within a hospital's EHR system, a primary EHR is a complete EHR or, if the hospital does not have a complete EHR, it is the EHR that meets the most meaningful use criteria. If a hospital has two or more complete EHRs, all of these EHRs are considered primary for the purpose of this report. A secondary EHR is any additional modular EHR used within the hospital's EHR system.