Single Web site key for vets' combined medical, benefits record

The Veterans Affairs Department said in its proposed fiscal 2010 budget released on May 7 that it has placed a high priority on building a virtual lifetime electronic record, which will follow soldiers from active duty through their retirement, an initiative that the yet-to-be-confirmed VA chief information officer said last week will be supported by a single Web site.

The virtual record, which the Defense Department and VA will share from the time a recruit joins the military to when he or she becomes a veteran, supports the Obama administration's initiative for a standard registration process for VA for all service members. Its aim is to improve how benefits are delivered to vets because it will provide medical and administrative data in one file so doctors can treat soldiers and vets in the examining room and also determine benefits for service-related disabilities.

VA officials said its proposed $3.3 billion budget for information technology in fiscal 2010, which it released on May 7, would support the shared record as well as other projects, including the development of a paperless benefits processing system scheduled for completion in 2012.

Roger Baker, President Obama's nominee for chief information officer at VA, said at his confirmation hearing on May 6 that development of a single Web site to provide benefits and health information to military personnel and veterans would be a key element of the virtual lifetime electronic record.

As service members transition from active duty to veteran status they should be able to access the same Web site, using the same username and password, to check on their medical record and health and disabilities benefits, Baker told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Vets now must use separate systems to access that information. As far as veterans are concerned, they are dealing with the same government as they did when on active duty and they should be able to use the same system, he said.

Adm. Gregory Timberlake, director of the Defense/VA Interagency Program Office, told an audience at a Government Executive panel discussion in March that the two departments should complete full interoperability of their electronic health record systems by September.

Baker told the Senate hearing that Defense and VA can work together to do a lot more to improve information sharing besides health records. The goal should be to "maximize benefits and reduce wait times," he said.

VA must overcome numerous issues when developing IT systems, Baker told the hearing. "The road ahead is unlikely to be incident free," he said. "There is no easy path, no simple answer and no short cut solution to creating a strong IT capability at VA."

But Baker said an "honest" approach at the outset will save VA from backing projects that fail to deliver after years of development, such as its $167 million electronic application to schedule patients' appointments, which VA Secretary Eric Shinseki put on hold in March pending a review.

Asked by committee chairman Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, for his initial thoughts on the failure of the patient scheduling application, Baker replied that VA needs a "common sense management discipline," in which failure can be acknowledged and accepted well before the eight years expended on a system such as the patient scheduling application.