See what top EHR vendors contributed to 2016 presidential campaigns

A look at which candidates Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, Epic and McKesson donated money to support, either directly or via Super PACs. The biggest donor, by more than $800,000, just might surprise you.
By Bernie Monegain
11:42 AM

With America deep into the presidential race now is a good time to check into the campaign contributions to Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Some EHR makers were even ‘feeling the Bern,’ and in certain cases made bigger contributions to Bernie Sanders than either Clinton or Trump.

[Also: Health IT execs have a new favorite dirty word]

These statistics come from OpenSecrets.org, a website that keeps track of campaign contributions and encourages others to distribute and cite the material.

Allscripts
Allscripts contributed a total of $13,516 with $12,064 going to candidates and $1,302 to political parties. The vendor’s top contribution – $4,498 – went to Bernie Sanders, while Hillary Clinton received $3,304.

Athenahealth
Athenahealth contributions totaled $148,882. Of that, the biggest share – $97,119 – went to Right to Rise USA, a PAC created to support Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the running. The presidential candidate receiving the most money from athenahealth, however, was Bernie Sanders with $13,586, followed by Hillary Clinton $12,102. Jeb Bush, athenhealth CEO Jonathan Bush’s cousin, received $2,700 directly.

Cerner
Of Cerner’s total $212,220 contributions, $139,820 went to candidates. The biggest contribution went to Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, 3rd District, who collected $26,200. Next was a $12,318 contribution to Clinton while Bernie Sanders received nearly as much with $11,583. The company also contributed $35,0000 to National Republican Congressional Committee.

[Election roundup: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and others traded barbs about healthcare at the RNC and DNC]

Epic Systems
Epic’s total contributions were $37,349. The lion’s share – $22,730 – went to Sanders and Clinton took in $5,128. Trump, for his part, received $205 and the rest was divided among Congressional and other presidential candidates.

McKesson
McKesson contributed more than any of its rivals: $921,295. Within that, it earmarked $27,655 for Clinton’s campaign, while the rest went to a wide range of House and Senate members and $8,967 went to Sanders.

Sanders, Clinton, Trump and the Super PACs
According to OpenSecrets.org, Sanders had raised $229, 050,714 before he endorsed Clinton on July 12 and left the race. Clinton has raised $516,791,763 to date and Trump has garnered $205,860,765. Super PACs, meanwhile, have raised some $526 million to date.

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