Cerner agrees to pay $1.9M to settle racial discrimination case
Summary
• The massive medical software vendor will split the money between 1,870 applicants who sought employment as medical billing account and patient account specialists, system engineers, software interns and technical solution analysts between 2015 and 2019, the Department of Labor said. Cerner, one of the largest digital medical records providers in the U.S., allegedly showed systemic bias against qualified Black and Asian applicants for a number of positions. OFCCP found that Cerner violated an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on factors including race, religion and sexual orientation. With the acquisition, Oracle — which has said it plans to leverage Cerner to create a unified national health records database — also inherited a decade-long, $10 billion contract with the VA to design a new health records system linking VA hospitals and clinics. The program has come under increased fire from regulators and lawmakers for implementation errors, potential patient harm and snowballing cost estimates.