DoD Narrows Field For $11 Billion EHR Contract

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Narrowing of solicitation notice knocks PwC and others out of the pool.

The Department of Defense (DoD) issued a narrowing of solicitation notice eliminating some teams from the bidding process for its lucrative $11 billion electronic health record modernization contract. According to NextGov only three bidding teams remain in competition for the contract under the department's new “competitive range” for the project.

The bid from PwC, Google, DSS Inc., Medsphere, Medicasoft, and General Dynamics was one of those eliminated according to Politico. Scott McIntyre, PwC US Public Sector Managing Partner said, “PwC remains committed to helping support the health and well-being of our troops and their families. We will continue to work closely with the Defense Department in any capacity that serves those goals.”

According to  iHealth Beat, although DoD Healthcare Management System Modernization Contracting Officer Matt Hudson did not reveal which teams were still in the running for the contract, sources in the know believe the remaining bids belong to the Computer Sciences Corp., Hewlett Packard, and Allscripts team; the Cerner, Leidos, and Accenture Federal team; and the IBM and Epic team .

An IBM spokesperson has confirmed that its team is still in the competition, while a fifth bid from Intersystems Trak Care, also failed to meet the new criteria and is out of the running.

PwC had announced in January it was teaming with Google to offer a solution based on an open-source version of the Vista EHR used by the VA, so the elimination of PwC’s bid seems to mark the end of an open-source option for the DoD. According to Healthcare Dive, PwC officials said Google was involved from the beginning of the process, developing a plan they designated the Defense Operational Readiness Health System.

The DoD contract is scheduled to be awarded in June.