Bill Proposes $1.3B for VA EHRM, Additional Program Transparency
The bipartisan budget bill would make 25 percent of VA EHR modernization (EHRM) funding contingent on increased transparency from officials about the project.
Lawmakers introduced a bipartisan budget bill on Sunday that includes $1.3 billion in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to continue its Oracle Health EHR modernization (EHRM), according to reporting from NextGov.
However, the bill would make 25 percent of the funding for the EHRM contingent on increased VA transparency about the project.
The fiscal year 2024 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act is one of six bills introduced by House and Senate appropriators to avoid a partial government shutdown on March 8.
The budget requires Denis McDonough, VA secretary, to provide appropriate congressional committees with a report on the status of “measurable operational metrics” that the agency is using to determine when to resume EHR implementations.
Additionally, the bill mandates McDonough to confirm in writing “whether the system is stable, ready, and optimized for further deployment at VA sites, and if not, an estimate of the timeline required to begin further deployments.”
As part of the funding proposal, lawmakers also required VA to submit to the House and Senate Appropriations committees “a report containing an earned value analysis of the veterans electronic health record system, including a graphic performance report, a schedule and cost performance indexes, an estimate of completion and a budget at completion and a variance analysis for cost and schedule.”
The bill’s reporting requirements regarding the EHR implementation pause are in addition to the agency’s quarterly briefings with lawmakers on the EHRM and reports on its “obligations, expenditures, and deployment schedule by facility.”
The release of the budget package comes after the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) told members of the House VA Committee that issues with the Oracle Health EHR have put veterans’ medication safety at risk.
David Case, deputy inspector general, told lawmakers last month that veterans seeking care at one of five facilities using the new EHR who then receive treatment at a VA facility using its legacy EHR could have inaccurate medication data.
Since September 2023, VA providers have ordered medications and documented medication allergies for approximately 250,000 veterans within the new EHR system.