Specialist
Former executive at Epic Systems Corp
Agenda
- Major trends and developments in the EMR (electronic medical record) and EHR (electronic health record) provider industry
- Epic Systems’ (OTC: EPOR) portfolio gaps, potential module adjacency expansions and ability to move downstream to outpatient settings
- Implementation costs, data interoperability and NLP (natural language processing) efforts
- Epic’s positioning and competitive dynamics vs Cerner (NASDAQ: CERN), AthenaHealth and other EMR and EHR providers
- Strategic growth outlook, importance of CEO Judy Faulkner to Epic and succession planning
Questions
1.
Could you identify some of the most important trends and drivers you’ve been following in the US large health system EMR [electronic medical record] market over the past 6-9 months?
2.
Epic has dominated the large health system demographic for some time now. How is the company thinking about expanding its customer base downstream to capture smaller systems, provider groups and ambulatory settings? What are the major strategic considerations?
3.
Could you expound on Epic’s efforts to build a SaaS model to enable small physician practices to become Epic customers more independently vs having to directly connect or use Community Connect as a means of integrating with health systems? How has this product helped small practices maintain their independence while allowing them to utilise Epic’s offerings?
4.
What are the most logical modules of hospital and/or outpatient EMR for Epic to expand into next or are already on its roadmap? For context, point solutions vendors like Provation specialise in gastrointestinal and co-exist with Epic, Wound Care by Net Health, as well as specialised modules for lab information management. How would you weigh the attractiveness of these relative adjacencies?
5.
What are your thoughts on patient engagement, population health, etc, in terms of expanding reach on the ancillary services side? Which do you see as most compelling and why?
6.
What are the typical implementation costs of getting new customers up and running on the Epic platform? How does this impact switching costs and contract profitability?
7.
How do you assess Epic’s efforts to improve its systems’ interoperability? How does such a large, expansive company become nimbler in this regard?
8.
Could you further expound on Epic’s efforts to get into lab information software? How big of a push is Epic Beaker in that regard? What kind of displacement risk do you see for specialised lab information software providers, such as Sunquest?
9.
Could you discuss how predictive analytics, AI and streamlined coding are innovating EMR solutions platforms and helping to reduce interoperability challenges and/or create efficiencies?
10.
Has the emergence of digital health companies diminished Epic’s leverage to keep its data proprietary? Is it now required to share or sell data to companies such as Sharecare?
11.
How do you think Oracle’s acquisition of Cerner – Epic’s largest competitor – will impact Epic? How might big tech ownership strengthen Cerner’s positioning in the marketplace?
12.
In September 2022, Iowa-based Washington County Hospital and Clinics received a USD 753,100 grant from the USDA [US Department of Agriculture] to help fund an Epic EHR [electronic health record] implementation. How much of a game changer is this for Epic? How do you assess the company’s continued growth runway for government contracts?
13.
Could you discuss Epic’s international expansion strategy? How is the company attempting to recreate its domestic go-to-market efforts to occupy a similarly strong position in ex-US markets with different regulatory environments and healthcare systems?
14.
Has Epic made investments in NLP [natural language processing] technology to increase its offering’s suitability to non-English speaking demographics? What is the potential for NLP technology?
15.
We’ve seen compression in health system IT spend and application rationalisation as hospital budgets become increasingly pressured amid a tricky US macroeconomic backdrop. Does this actually help providers such as Epic, which can offer a multitude of services at one fixed price? Alternatively, could we see any downward pricing pressure or might customers even switch to cheaper vendors?
16.
How are Epic’s competitors reducing maintenance costs and business disruption? How do you assess their efforts to encroach on Epic’s positioning via optimising maintenance and upkeep expenses?
17.
Could you quantify some of the costs involved in Epic migrating its platform to the cloud? How detrimental might some of these costs be to the company?
18.
What are you monitoring on the regulatory front around potential antitrust risk? During her tenure as FTC [Federal Trade Commission] head, Lina Khan has called out UnitedHealth Group among others. Could Epic find itself under FTC scrutiny given the company’s current rate of expansion?
19.
Do you have any sense of Epic’s market share and RFP [request for proposal] win rates vs Cerner and other EHRs?
20.
What are your thoughts on Epic CEO Judy Faulkner and her singular importance to the company? How is the company thinking about a succession plan or life after Faulkner?
21.
Is there anything we haven’t touched on that may be important to highlight when thinking about Epic?
22.
What is your 12-18-month outlook for Epic? How can we gauge company performance over that time?
