Alleges Anti-Competitive Practices & Trade Secret Theft

What You Ought to Know:

– CureIS Healthcare, Inc., an organization specializing in info know-how options for the healthcare business, has filed a lawsuit in opposition to EHR big Epic Systems Corporation. 

– The complaint, lodged within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Northern District of California on Might 13, 2025, accuses Epic of partaking in a multifaceted scheme to unlawfully stifle competitors, intrude with CureIS’s enterprise and buyer relationships, misappropriate commerce secrets and techniques, and have interaction in false promoting and commerce libel.  

– The lawsuit paints an image of Epic leveraging its vital market energy to crush smaller innovators like CureIS, in the end harming not solely opponents but additionally healthcare suppliers and sufferers by limiting decisions and degrading the standard of obtainable healthcare know-how options.  

Core Allegations: A Multi-Pronged Scheme to Get rid of Competitors

CureIS alleges that what initially appeared like remoted cases of friction with Epic had been, in actual fact, a part of a deliberate and widespread scheme to improperly intrude with CureIS’s enterprise and that of different MCDR software program suppliers. The lawsuit particulars a number of strategies allegedly employed by Epic:  

• Coercion and Interference with Buyer Contracts: Epic is accused of particularly concentrating on CureIS by pressuring mutual prospects to terminate their relationships with CureIS. The criticism particulars cases the place longtime CureIS prospects, some with relationships spanning over a decade, had been allegedly pressured or coerced into ending their contracts with CureIS after migrating to Epic’s platform or attributable to Epic’s direct intervention.  
• “Epic-First” Coverage: The lawsuit claims Epic imposed an “Epic-First Coverage,” requiring entities utilizing its EHR or RCM software program to additionally use Epic’s variations of different merchandise if obtainable, no matter buyer choice or the prevalence of third-party options. This coverage allegedly prevents prospects from utilizing third-party alternate options even when Epic doesn’t at the moment supply a comparable software, forcing them to go with out essential options.  
• Misrepresentation and False Promoting: CureIS asserts that Epic misrepresents to prospects that it both plans to quickly roll out a competing product or that its present merchandise replicate the performance of a competitor’s, even when Epic’s choices are allegedly of decrease high quality or non-existent. The criticism additionally references an Epic brochure titled “Merchandise You Can Substitute with Epic,” which CureIS claims is a part of Epic’s broader false promoting marketing campaign, typically selling merchandise nonetheless below growth as if they’re present options.  
• Information Blocking and Degradation of Service: A big a part of the criticism focuses on Epic allegedly denying CureIS entry to customer-owned information essential for CureIS’s merchandise to operate, even when prospects approved such entry. This conduct is claimed to violate the twenty first Century Cures Act’s prohibition on info blocking. Epic can also be accused of degrading the standard of CureIS merchandise by, for instance, limiting information entry to delayed or incomplete datasets (e.g., via its Readability product as an alternative of the real-time Chronicles database), thereby stifling competitors.  
• Misappropriation of Commerce Secrets and techniques: CureIS accuses Epic of unlawfully buying its proprietary info and commerce secrets and techniques. The swimsuit alleges Epic solicited detailed details about CureIS’s software program, such because the “RecoveryCURE Product Specs” and “EnrollmentCURE Product Specs,” below the guise of integration discussions with mutual prospects who had been certain by NDAs with CureIS. Epic then allegedly used this misappropriated info to aim to construct its personal imitative merchandise, promising prospects fast growth timelines that will solely be doable with such an improper head begin.  
• Commerce Libel and Unfounded Safety Issues: Epic can also be charged with falsely disparaging CureIS to present and potential prospects by elevating unfounded data-security dangers related to CureIS’s merchandise. CureIS contends these safety issues had been pretextual, with Epic’s actual motive being to get rid of a competitor, as allegedly admitted in a single occasion the place Epic acknowledged CureIS was a “direct competitor.” CureIS argues these claims are significantly damaging given its fame for strong information safety.  

Claims for Aid

CureIS Healthcare’s lawsuit consists of seven claims for reduction in opposition to Epic Methods:

1. Tortious Interference with Contractual Relations  
2. Tortious Interference with Potential Financial Benefit  
3. Commerce Libel  
4. Violation of the Defend Commerce Secrets and techniques Act (DTSA)  
5. Violation of the Lanham Act (False Promoting)  
6. Unfair Competitors (Cal. Bus. Prof. Code § 17200, et seq.)  
7. False Promoting (Cal. Bus. Prof. Code § 17500, et seq.)  

Alleged Hurt and Requested Treatments

CureIS claims that Epic’s actions have precipitated vital hurt, together with misplaced prospects, diminished income, stunted progress, and injury to its fame. The corporate asserts that Epic’s conduct has additionally injured the market and the general public by depriving them of superior merchandise, providers, and aggressive pricing.  

CureIS Healthcare Background

Based in 2006, CureIS Healthcare goals to enhance healthcare via IT, specializing in software program merchandise that automate and optimize complicated healthcare operations reminiscent of enrollment, claims adjudication, income cycle administration, compliance, and information administration. The corporate has a specific specialization in applied sciences for government-managed applications like Medicare and Medicaid, which it claims are traditionally underserved segments of the business. 

CureIS gives merchandise like EnrollmentCURE, EncounterCURE, RecoveryCURE, and LettersCURE, which fall below the class of Managed Care Information Reconciliation (MCDR) software program. This kind of software program depends on interplay with EHR and Income Cycle Administration (RCM) programs to operate successfully.