Oracle in talks to acquire EHR giant Cerner

Oracle is in talks to buy electronic health record giant Cerner, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The deal could be worth about $30 billion and would be the largest transaction ever pursued by Oracle, Wall Street Journal reported.

Cerner is the key contractor working on the electronic health record modernization (EHRM) program at the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has attracted concern from lawmakers over escalating costs and patient safety complaints.

Earlier this month, lawmakers in the Senate introduced bipartisan legislation intended to bolster transparency and oversight of the EHRM program. This follows the release in July of three reports by the VA Office of Inspector General that raised concerns about the records modernization process.

At the start of December, the VA announced that it had created two new senior technical management positions to oversee the modernization program: a new deputy CIO for EHR as well as a program executive director for EHR integration.