The Federal Trade Commission is examining Epic Systems Corp., the nation’s largest vendor of electronic health records, for potential violations of antitrust law as part of a broad inquiry into the company’s business practices, according to four people who were recently contacted by investigators.
The probe is in its early stages and may never lead to charges against Epic, whose dominant market position and control of Americans’ health data has rapidly accelerated in recent years. But the people contacted by investigators — who work in or advise health care businesses that interface with Epic — said they were asked about a wide range of issues relating to company policies and practices that have generated continual complaints and lawsuits from former employees and rival companies.
One of the people said the government appears to be pursuing two separate lines of inquiry. One is focused on Epic’s agreements that bar its employees from working for a wide swath of health care businesses that directly, or indirectly, compete with the company. Another set of questions focused on Epic’s use of its dominant market position, and leverage over its hospital customers, to block rival technology companies from getting access to patient data and information needed to support their businesses.
