Is Oracle Health’s Big Vision smacking into the wall of Healthcare Reality? Their business says so.

May 15, 2024 | by

Once again, ‘healthcare transformation’ may be A Bridge Too Far but definitely a Long Slog for Oracle. A highly critical Bloomberg report details the flat and deteriorating business of Oracle Health, the division that includes the former Cerner. Since their much-touted acquisition of Cerner two years ago [TTA 14 June 2022], Oracle has not righted the basic health system EHR business. Revenue and clients have stagnated with high-profile losses, versus the massive gains predicted only two years ago, and Cerner falling further behind the hospital/practice EHR leader, Epic, with a 26% hospital bed share compared to Epic’s 48%. 

  • Bloomberg’s internal sources indicated that sales reached $5.9 billion in 2023, but are projected to slip to $5.6 billion both in 2024 and 2025.
  • In 2023, 12 accounts did not renew and announced they would replace Cerner with Epic. These are major names such as Northwell Health and Boston Children’s Hospital. In 2022, clients with a combined capacity of 4,658 patients were lost, according to KLAS Research. This is despite the fact that EHRs are not moved lightly. The average commitment is 15 years or more since the ramp-up is taxing and costs are astronomical.
  • Common complaints cited by KLAS center around Cerner’s legacy software and the Cerner transition: tracking clinical revenue, tool integration, technical glitches, and uncertainty or worsened service associated with the Oracle takeover.Boston moved to improve data exchange with surrounding hospitals and Northwell for Epic’s set of better integrated tools.

Oracle laid off many involved with customer accounts. The consulting and sales area laid off 3,000 in one year from March 2023 to February 2024, according to Bloomberg. These may have been as early as May 2023. In June 2023, there were reports that the VA’s pause of Cerner Millenium for at least a year coupled with the completion of MHS Genesis triggered 500 to 1,200 additional Federal service area layoffs plus rescinded job offers. The layoff total may be as high as 4,200 on a pre-acquisition employee base of 28,000, with salaries and promotions frozen. On the executive level, Don Johnson, who once was a successor to CEO Larry Ellison, departed from leading Oracle Health and AI. Reportedly, Dr. David Feinberg, who briefly headed Cerner prior to the sale, is now a ‘ceremonial’ chairman of Oracle Health. [TTA 18 May 2023] Dr. Feinberg also joined Aegis Ventures as a senior advisor and is on Humana’s board, which sounds like a winddown of Oracle responsibilities [TTA 11 Jan]. The layoffs and freezes have improved the former Cerner’s operating margin from 22% to 33%, but not as high as Oracle’s 46% margin.

Since the acquisition and chairman Larry Ellison’s Big Vision promises of creating ‘healthcare transformation’ and ‘better information’, Oracle’s challenge with Cerner has been not only to move their legacy systems onto the cloud but also to integrate Cerner systems with Oracle–and Oracle may have underestimated that complexity as well.

  • Oracle has stated that most customers have been moved to Oracle’s cloud, but inside sources have qualified them as Oracle Health’s smallest and least technically complicated. The big systems with their own domains have yet to be touched.
  • Cerner applications had about 8,000 bugs to be fixed.
  • On the people management/integration side, there are substantial differences between ‘legacy’ Cerner and Oracle people, often centering around not understanding the nuances and complexities inherent in healthcare–as well as compensation and working conditions. This Editor, who as a marketer has had to deal peripherally with ‘legacy systems’ (to the point of tears) through acquisitions on the payer side, knows this is common.

Where Oracle has had success with Cerner’s EHR is in international markets less saturated with EHRs or with home-grown systems, winning contracts in Sweden, the UK and Saudi Arabia. As previously noted, they are a supplier for the NHS. Oracle has moved forward on population health software,  modernizing Cerner’s revenue-tracking tool, and planning for an AI-assisted ambient listening voice note system. 

What remains up in the air is if the VA will restart Millenium transitioning from VistA this year. Oracle is pushing to restart it and its revenue stream this summer as projected last year [TTA 18 May 2023]. This counters VA Secretary Denis McDonough’s testimony last month to the House Veterans Affairs Committee that the VA does not intend to resume deploying it until FY 2025, which does not start until October 2024, and use carryover funding. This FY, there are no funds or plans allocated except for Lovell FHCC, which seems to be going well. The contract, already tightened last April with multiple metrics, demanded improvements, oversight, and annual renewals, is running into more Congressional headwinds this year. Three senators on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee called for the VA “to use the opportunity the new contract structure provides to re-review terms and add additional accountability and oversight provisions to protect veterans and taxpayers.” pointing to the OIG report issued in March. The contract is up for renewal this coming Thursday 16 May. NextGov, Becker’s

The final burden on Oracle–only alluded to in the article–is the debt load undertaken to finance the $28 billion Cerner acquisition. A complex set of bridge and term loans were used to finance the buy [TTA 27 Oct 2022]. At the time, Oracle’s $90 billion debt load was one of the largest in tech. While Oracle’s stock value has been buoyed by its investments in AI, in the current environment, this debt load becomes suspect. Yahoo Finance, Quartz

VA completely halts Oracle Cerner EHR implementation for ‘reset’; House introduces new–fourth–bipartisan reform bill–and another outage

April 26, 2023 | by

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) pulls on the parking brake for Oracle Cerner, but doesn’t turn off the engine. Last Friday (21 April), the VA formally announced ) that it would cease further deployments of the Oracle Cerner EHR until they can “prioritize improvements at the five sites that currently use the new EHR, as part of a larger program reset.” They have pledged to fix the issues that were identified during the “assess and address” review that started in late summer and fall 2022. No date was given on a restart which would come after which is presumably the ‘address’ part of the process.

In the release, VA will be redirecting resources to “focus on optimizing” Oracle Cerner where it is currently rolled out: Spokane VA Health Care System (Mann-Grandstaff), VA Walla Walla Health Care, Roseburg VA Health Care System, VA Southern Oregon Health Care, and VA Central Ohio Health Care System. The only exception is the deployment at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Chicago – which is the only fully-integrated VA and Department of Defense (Military Health System) healthcare system. That will proceed with a go-live of March 2024.

FedScoop reported that in a live briefing call with reporters, Dr. Neil Evans, who is the acting program executive director for the EHR Modernization (EHRM) Integration Office, would not give specific details about the contract negotiations with Oracle Cerner. “The original contract was a five-year base period with a five-year option, but everything has been on the table as part of the contract negotiations. I anticipate we’ll be able to share more as we near the end of those negotiations.” and “We are working towards an amended contract that will hold Oracle Cerner accountable to delivering the high-functioning, high-reliability EHR system that veterans deserve and will lay the groundwork for our expectations around improvements to the system that we think are necessary.”

The release also revealed a little surprise: “VA estimates FY 2023 costs will be reduced by $400 million.” This Editor noted last week that the March Senate VA Committee disclosed that the VA paid Oracle Cerner $4.4 billion on the contract to date, with a refund of $325,000 paid as compensation for ‘incomplete technology and poor training’. Obligations through the contract were $9.4 billion. The VA will be working with Congress on resource requirements.

Speaking of Congress, the House has now proposed a fourth bill, H.R. 2809, requiring the VA to reform the EHRM program. This bill takes the ‘hold rollout till issues’ position versus “pull the plug” (H.R. 608, which hasn’t moved out of subcommittee). This would require:

  • establishment of program management within the Veterans Health Administration
  • reorganizing the management of the current reporting structure for the EHR functional champion and deputy CIO
  • restricting the monetization or selling of veterans’ data by any internal or external entity conducting work for the VA
  • requiring that performance baselines are met or exceeded at the five live sites before it goes live in other systems

Unlike the VA release, there’s a time limit and a kicker. 180 days after legislation enactment, if VA and Oracle Cerner cannot meet the requirements for the five sites, the bill directs VA to consider terminating or canceling the contract. ‘Consider’ is a bit of a weasel word, but is probably as far as the House wants to go. Another difference is that it is bipartisan, proposed by Democrat Mike Takano of California with six other Democrat House members but with the co-sponsorship of three Republicans, including Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois who is the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs which will review the bill.  TTA’s most recent coverage of VA’s troubles with Oracle Cerner: 19 April, 20 April

And yet another outage. On 25 April, the Oracle Cerner EHR was unusable for at least five hours. It affected Spokane, Wash.-based Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center, Fairchild Air Force Base, and military hospitals across the country, which means it affected VA and MHS where it has largely replaced AHLTA. The Spokane Spokesman-Review obtained an email from Mann-Grandstaff Director Robert Fischer confirming the outage Tuesday while it was happening. Dr. Feinberg, the Cerner integration is going great, right? Fixing this should be Job#1.  Becker’s HealthIT

Pull the plug on Oracle Cerner in the VA! Two House Representatives urge return to VistA, send bill to Veterans’ Affairs committee

February 1, 2023 | by

Hold your hand up if this comes as a complete surprise. A Congressman who was the top Republican on a subcommittee overseeing technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has evidently had quite enough of the Oracle Cerner problems in implementing Cerner Millenium. Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana has introduced H.R.608, titled “To terminate the Electronic Health Record Modernization Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs”. It would pull the plug on Oracle within 180 days, dissolve the VA Electronic Health Record Modernization Integration Office, and restore VistA/CPRS. In other words, back to the drawing board.

It was co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois who is the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, where the bill was referred on 27 January. Rep. Rosendale is now the chair of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization. 

This follows on last week’s two-day slowdown of both the VA and MHS Genesis systems, last summer’s Congressional hearings with the roasting that Oracle Health’s head Mike Sicilia and VA heads received over the OIG report on the ‘unknown queue’ that created 149 adverse events, and October’s delay in further Oracle Cerner rollouts in the VA from January 2023 to June.

While the likelihood that the bill would pass both House and Senate, and be signed into law, is low, H.R. 608 is one very heavy and clever cudgel for getting Oracle–and the VA staff involved with the conversion–to Pay Attention! Fix The Problems! There’s also leverage far beyond the VA EHR. Oracle has multiple Federal contracts which could be jeopardized or defunded. Stay tuned to further developments in VA’s Tower of Trouble and Oracle’s Mound of (Acquired) Misery.  Hat tip to HISTalk for the heads up, actually obtaining a screenshot of part of the bill which has not yet been posted on Congress.gov.  FCW.