Pentagon request for military health comes in flat for fiscal 2012

The Defense Department requested an information technology operations and maintenance budget of $1.423 billion for the Military Health System, up $29 million from a proposed 2011 budget of $1.452 billion still awaiting passage by Congress.

Defense also requested a $177 million research budget for MHS information technology in 2012, up $39 million from the $137 million in the proposed 2011 budget.

The MHS operations and maintenance budget covers IT infrastructure operations, including the AHLTA electronic health record, battlefield theater information medical systems, networks and computers.

The research budget request for MHS includes $87 million in funding for the next-generation Defense electronic health record, more than double the $42 million requested in 2011.

Defense also requested a research budget of $24 million for theater information systems, up from the proposed 2011 budget of $24 million.