VA to expand health data exchange in September

The Veterans Affairs Department this fall will expand a program to exchange health care information with the Pentagon and private sector providers.

The department plans to start testing the program in 11 geographical regions in September, up from the current five, according to a fact sheet prepared for a July 26 industry conference. Performance data collected during a six-month trial period will help determine whether the program will be expanded nationwide in 2012, the fact sheet stated.

The exchange is part of VA's Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record project, which President Obama announced in 2009. The goal is to give service members and veterans a unified account of health and benefits information "from the day they first enlist to the day that they are laid to rest," the president said at the time.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki in February told the House Veterans' Affairs Committee the lifetime record is designed to "establish the interoperability and communication environment necessary to facilitate the rapid exchange of patient and beneficiary information that will yield consolidated, coherent and consistent access to electronic records between [the Defense Department], VA and the private sector."

Also in September, VA will open a Web portal that will allow veterans to authorize the release of data to clinicians, according to the fact sheet. And the department this fall will try out a point-to-point exchange capability, allowing two health care providers to send veterans' information to one another directly.

The Senate subcommittee overseeing VA appropriations in June approved the department's request for $53.4 million in fiscal 2012 funding for development of the records.

VA uses Health and Human Services Department-backed standards for the National Health Information Network to exchange data between its hospitals and private health care providers in San Diego, as well as pilot sites in Indiana, Utah, Virginia and Washington state. The fact sheet did not name the other six sites that will be involved in the expansion.

The lifetime record program also includes a new project for the VA National Cemetery Administration that will allow veterans to access their burial benefits on a pre-need basis via VA eBenefits.