During a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) criticized the Department of Defense’s decision not to develop an integrated electronic health record system with the Department of Veterans Affairs, NextGov reports (Brewin, NextGov, 6/12).
Background on Joint EHR Efforts
DOD and VA first launched an effort to create a joint integrated EHR, or iEHR system, in 2009. The iEHR project aimed to allow every service member to maintain a single EHR throughout his or her career and lifetime.
However, DOD and VA officials in February announced plans to halt the iEHR project and instead focus on making their current EHR systems more interoperable.
During a congressional budget hearing in April, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said that his agency is moving forward with plans to share EHR data with DOD. VA plans to use its existing VistA EHR system as its core platform and encouraged DOD to also adopt the VistA EHR system (iHealthBeat, 5/22).
On May 14, the House Appropriations Committee approved a preliminary fiscal year 2014 spending bill for VA that sets aside $344 million for the development of a single, joint EHR system between VA and DOD (iHealthBeat, 5/16).
DOD Secretary Chuck Hagel in a memo obtained by NextGov wrote that the agency will consider a commercial EHR system as part of its efforts to establish an integrated EHR program with VA (iHealthBeat, 5/22).
Details of Murray’s Comments
In her opening statement, Murray said that she did not support Hagel’s decision.
She said, “I think everyone in this room is concerned you spent hundreds of millions of tax dollars — and thousands of staff hours over the last few years — trying to create an integrated IT platform with the VA only to announce you were unable to come to a solution” (NextGov, 6/12).
Murray said that using a single joint, open-source EHR system “would have been the most effective solution and would have revolutionized the market, but the department has backed away from that goal.”
She told Hagel, “I expect that you and Secretary Shinseki will clearly define a plan and ensure leadership remains behind this important project” (Committee statement, 6/12).
Details of Spending on Joint EHR
Meanwhile, lawmakers have said that DOD and VA have spent more than $1 billion on their most recent efforts to develop a joint EHR, Federal Times reports.
Rep. Phillip Roe (R-Tenn.) released figures showing that the interagency program office alone has spent about $362 million this year on the efforts.
Last week, the House passed a 2014 appropriations bill (HR 2216) that would limit funds allocated for developing the iEHR system to no more than 25% of the $344 million in VA funding for that initiative (Johnson, Federal Times, 6/12).
