Feds say Cerner discriminated against Black and Asian job applicants in Kansas City

Kansas City-based Cerner Corp. has agreed to pay nearly $2 million after a federal evaluation accused the healthcare IT company of discriminatory hiring practices against Black and Asian job applicants.

The U.S. Department of Labor found that between July 6, 2015, and June 30, 2019, hundreds of Black and Asian people applied, but were ultimately passed up, for jobs that instead went to white applicants, despite having similar qualifications, according to a news release Tuesday.

A routine federal compliance evaluation found that Cerner “systematically” discriminated against qualified Black and Asian applicants who applied to Cerner’s five facilities across Missouri and Kansas, according to the release.

The department drew particular attention to the Cerner Oaks and Cerner Innovations campuses in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Cerner Corp. and Cerner Continuous Campus North Tower in Kansas City, Kansas.

This is a violation of Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from employment discrimination. Cerner has federal contracts with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The labor department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has since entered into a “multi-establishment conciliation agreement” with Cerner.

Cerner agreed to pay $1.86 million in back pay and interest to 1,870 people who applied for jobs across several positions: medical billing account/patient account specialists, system engineers, software interns and technical solution analysts.

Cerner previously denied the allegations and does not admit liability, according to the conciliation agreement.

A spokesperson for Cerner did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

The department of labor also found that Cerner did not have in place an internal audit that would have monitored or identified these hiring disparities. As part of that agreement, Cerner must implement practices to prevent future hiring discrimination.

Cerner, which employs about 13,000 workers across the metro, was recently purchased for $28.3 billion by software giant Oracle.