FTC Probes Epic Over Non-Competes, Patient Data Access
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- FTC is examining Epic Systems Corp. for potential antitrust violations as part of a broad inquiry, having recently contacted four people who work in or advise health care businesses that interface with Epic.
- Investigators are pursuing two distinct lines of inquiry: one focused on Epic's agreements that bar employees from working for a wide swath of health care businesses that directly or indirectly compete with the company, and another on Epic's use of its dominant market position to block rival technology companies from accessing patient data.
- 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.
- Epic's policies and practices under scrutiny have generated continual complaints and lawsuits from former employees and rival companies, according to the people contacted by investigators.
- The inquiry also involves state investigators, with the people contacted representing a mix of those who work in or advise health care businesses that interface with Epic.
Why it matters: Epic's two alleged practices hit at opposite ends of the health care stack — restrictive non-competes that lock talent out of competing health systems, and data-blocking that leverages Epic's EHR dominance to lock out rival health tech firms. Hospital customers and competing technology vendors are the stakeholders most directly in the crosshairs, and any enforcement action could reshape competition in the electronic health records market where Epic's control of patient data has rapidly accelerated.
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