The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) strategic review of the VA’s Electronic Health Records (EHR) program has found that the agency underestimated program costs by between $1 billion and $2.6 billion. […]

Amid a strategic review of the deployment of its new Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials told Congress on April 14 that the agency will not begin EHR system deployment at a second VA site until the current strategic review is completed. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is pausing its electronic health record (EHR) modernization program for up to 12 weeks to allow for a thorough “strategic review” to ensure program success. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has made progress on implementing its new electronic health records (EHR) system, but should postpone deployments of the system at additional locations because additional testing will likely identify issues that need to be resolved first, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Oct. 24 officially launched its new electronic health record (EHR) system at VA facilities in the Pacific Northwest and Las Vegas. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that it completed transferring patient data for approximately 88,000 veterans to its new electronic health record (EHR) solution as the agency prepares for the system’s launch at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center (VAMC) in Spokane, Wash. […]

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced bipartisan legislation to streamline patient electronic health record (EHR) matching among healthcare providers using the United States Postal Service (USPS) address-formatting tool. […]

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has experienced delays in converting facilities to its new electronic health record (EHR) capabilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now targeting October to implement the changes. […]

The House Appropriations Committee questioned today why the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is requesting $2.6 billion in funds for Fiscal Year 2021 for the VA’s Office of Electronic Health Records (EHR)— $1 billion more than the FY2020 request— when the EHR Modernization go-live date was delayed and wants better communication on information from the agency to avoid delays and cost more money. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) electronic health record (EHR) modernization launch in Spokane, Washington was indefinitely delayed on Feb. 10, leaving members of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Technology Modernization concerned about agency transparency. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is in the early implementation stages of its rollout of the modernized, $2.5 billion Financial Management Business Transformation (FMBT) effort, but full implementation isn’t scheduled until 2030, prompting concern from members of Congress during a joint meeting of the House Veterans Affairs’ Subcommittee on Technology Modernization and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on December 5. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched a training program to support its electronic health record (EHR) modernization effort, and its trainees are starting to work on EHR modernization implementation already, according to a VA press release today. […]

A Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit has found a “significant” backlog in medical documentation that needs to be entered into patients’ electronic health records (EHRs). […]

Nearly 20 years after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) first identified the need to modernize its scheduling system, VA is on track to adopt a permanent scheduling solution as part of its electronic health record (EHR) modernization effort, according to a report from VA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) today. […]

While the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has completed its migration of existing records into the data center of its electronic health record (EHR) vendor, the VA and Department of Defense (DoD) are jointly searching for a director and deputy to oversee $10 billion, 10-year modernization effort. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has completed the migration of its existing records in the VistA system into the data center of its electronic health record (EHR) vendor Cerner, notching a key milestone for the EHR modernization effort. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office Inspector General (OIG) discovered in a July 31 report that a VA healthcare facility in Long Beach, California, failed to adhere to VA and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) privacy and security policies in the midst of a patient electronic health record (EHR) complication. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is in the final stages of planning for its transition to a commercial electronic health record (EHR) system, but faces congressional concern on two fronts: the agency’s inability to reliably define costs for the existing VistA system, and its estimate of $4.8 billion to maintain the system throughout the EHR transition effort. […]

The House Appropriations Committee released a second of five appropriations minibus FY2020 spending bills for Commerce-Justice-Science, Agriculture-Rural Development-FDA, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) cited IT problems as an “ongoing obstacle” to the VA serving its mission in its semiannual report to Congress, publicly released May 30. […]

The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing Wednesday, May 22, on pending legislation – including bills related to electronic health records, and to make the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) website more accessible to disabled veterans – but took no votes on those measures. […]

The Defense Department’s (DoD) most senior leadership faced the wrath of one of the House Appropriations Committee’s most senior members today over what Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., a former chairman of the committee, regards as slow progress toward the goal of efficiently linking electronic health records (EHR) systems used by DoD and the Veterans Affairs Department (VA). […]

Cybersecurity and the acquisition of a new Coast Guard electronic health records (EHR) system remain on the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO’s) list of open priority recommendations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is continuing with its electronic health record (EHR) modernization effort, and a notice posted today on FedBizOpps shows that VA is preparing to migrate data from its existing VistA system to its new commercial platform. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is looking to small business for help in its $16 billion move to a new electronic health record (EHR) system, as the department announced its intention to host business engagements on the topic last week. […]

While Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials provided an estimated start date of March 2020 for the agency’s electronic health record (EHR) modernization effort, members of Congress called on VA to fully implement the program earlier than VA’s 10-year timeline during a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies on Wednesday. […]

During a hearing on Tuesday, members of Congress, including Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, shared their concerns about the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA’s) technology efforts with Secretary Robert Wilkie, including the electronic health record modernization (EHR-M) project, FITARA implementation, and telehealth efforts. […]

Several senators took a skeptical view today over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) Electronic Health Records Modernization effort (EHRM), raising questions on the need for better IT infrastructure, scheduling systems, and leadership structure. […]

Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, is asking James Gfrerer, the newly confirmed CIO at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), for his list of priorities to improve the agency’s IT operations. […]

The Department of Health and Human Services on Nov. 28 issued a draft strategy that the agency said is “designed to help reduce administrative and regulatory burdens on clinicians” stemming from use of health information technologies including electronic health records. […]