The Department of Defense awarded Cerner its highly anticipated contract to modernize the agency’s electronic record system.
Under the initial 10-year, $4.3 billion contract, the three firms will build a brand new health record system for 9.5 million active and retired military members at approximately 1,000 sites, according to The Washington Post.
The contract could reach a total value of $9 billion over the next 18 years, according to WaPo.
Cerner’s team was up against an Epic/IBM/Impact Advisors team and an Allscripts/Computer Sciences/Hewlett-Packard team. The selection of Cerner’s team is seen by many as an upset to many experts’ forecasts.
According to Bloomberg, the other two project teams can file a protest, but Pentagon officials indicated they are unlikely to change their minds. Frank Kendall, a weapons buyer for the Pentagon, said, “There’s a clear ‘best-value’ solution here for us and I think that will be clear to the people who were not selected,” according to Bloomberg.
The DOD expects to begin installation of the new system in late 2016.
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