Cerner Partnering With Surescripts To Revamp EHR Platform

Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ:CERN) announced that it is collaborating with Virginia-based Surescripts, an information technology company that provides network to pharmacies for connecting fragmented health information technology. With this deal, Cerner will be able to integrate Surescripts’ Real-Time Prescription Benefit functionality into the “Cerner Millennium” electronic health record (EHR).

In this regard we note that, last November, the company along with other EHR makers had entered into another collaboration with Surescripts on personalized prescription benefit.

This development will help in providing patient-specific prescription information required at any point of time during the physician’s workflow.

Cerner Corporation Price and Consensus

Cerner Corporation Price and Consensus | Cerner Corporation Quote

“Cerner Millennium” is an EHR platform used to reduce medical error. It helps physicians document and access critical patient data and organize workflows, thereby ensuring patient safety through evidence-based decision making.

Per management, the functionality will be implemented in March 2018 and will be added to Cerner ePrescribe, which comes free of cost for all clients.

This alliance will thus help Cerner gain a stronger foothold in the HCIT (healthcare information technology) space.

Why is Real-Time Prescription Benefit Important?

Surescripts’ Real-Time Prescription Benefit provides prescription price transparency by leveraging information from pharmacy benefit managers. This process helps identify other therapeutic alternatives and patient specific coverage alerts like quantity restrictions and step therapy requirements.

Consequently, this will reduce the number of patients abandoning their prescriptions if the prescribed drugs become unaffordable for them. Hence, greater price transparency may improve medication adherence and also build stronger relationships between the patients and physicians.

Lucrative Prospects in Niche Space

Per a study conducted by Allied Market Research, North America was the leading regional HCIT market in 2015. The North American healthcare asset management market is projected to witness a CAGR of 17.4% to $9.7 billion by 2022.

Rising needs to curtail healthcare costs and growing focus on quality of care drive the market.

Accordingly, we believe, the addition of the new functionality in EHR platform is a strategic move by Cerner as it is likely to secure a diversified client base in the near future.

Price Performance

In the past year, Cerner has underperformed the industry in terms of price. The stock has returned 14.4% compared with the industry’s rally of 16.6%.

However, we are optimistic that the latest developments will have a positive impact on Cerner’s share price movement.

Zacks Ranks & Key Picks

Cerner carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Centene Corporation (NYSE:CNC) , Bioverativ Inc (NASDAQ:BIVV) and athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) . Each of these stocks sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Centene’s projected long-term growth rate is 14.4%. The stock has returned 16.9% in the past six months.

Bioverativ has an expected long-term growth rate of 14%. The stock has returned a whopping 106.8% in the past three months.

athenahealth has an expected long-term growth rate of 20.7%. The stock has returned 5.1% in the past three months.

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