Accenture's Health Care Win - Analyst Blog

Accenture plc (ACN) recently signed a two-year information technology contract with the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology. Per the contract, Accenture will extend its services to determine the specifications and standards required to ease data processing and exchange across the U.S. health care system. Financial terms of the contract were not divulged.

As an integral part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ONC provides resources to the entire health care system to support the adoption of electronic information exchange. ONC's goal is to develop a framework that will establish a set of tools, processes and reusable components that enable refinement and adoption of interoperability standards for the exchange of medical records across all regional, statewide and national health care systems.

Accenture will develop solutions for managing medical records, specifically known as “use cases,” which can be accessed anytime, anywhere while handling patient requests for future clinical purposes. Information culled from these “use cases” will help ONC to formulate an interoperability framework ensuring seamless exchange of information among diverse providers and systems.

Accenture has shaped up a new Health & Public Service operating group to extend additional services to health care, government and public service clients. We believe that the successful integration of the interoperability framework will enable Accenture to capitalize on emerging health care deals. However, Accenture may have to face stiff competition from Dell Inc. (DELL), the key player in the health care industry.

We remain encouraged by Accenture's deal wins across varied industry verticals. Accenture's association with Hilton Worldwide could also improve its chances of winning similar deals in the hospitality sector.

Currently, Accenture has a short-term Buy recommendation, as indicated by the Zacks #2 Rank.

 
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