Top Dems press VA for answers on $17B EHR modernization contract boost

The top Democrats on the House and Senate panels overseeing the Department of Veterans Affairs are pressing the agency to disclose the rationale behind its recent decision to boost its electronic health record modernization contract with Oracle Health by $17 billion.

In an Oct. 6-dated letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins that was publicly released on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., said they had “serious concerns” about the agency’s “lack of transparency and cooperation” with Congress when it comes to oversight of the EHR overhaul and contract extension. Blumenthal is ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, while Takano is ranking member of the House veterans panel.

The letter was first reported on Tuesday by Bloomberg Government. 

VA announced in August that it was extending its current 10-year, $10 billion modernization deal with Oracle to include an additional $17 billion ceiling and three one-year option periods. That decision was quietly disclosed in an award notice posted at the time on SAM.gov — a move that surprised lawmakers from both parties.

The extension also followed extensive issues VA and Oracle have faced implementing the new EHR system across the agency’s nationwide network of 164 medical facilities, which has faced usability issues, technical glitches and patient safety issues since the first software go-live at Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, in 2020.

In their letter, Blumenthal and Takano said “VA’s citation of ‘unanticipated complexities’ as the rationale for nearly tripling the original contract remains unexplained.”

During a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing last month, Democrat and Republican members alike lambasted VA’s massive contract extension with Oracle Health and voted 19-0 to subpoena Oracle Chairman and Co-founder Larry Ellison and Oracle CEO Mike Sicilia to appear before the panel to discuss the project’s cost and status.

VA restarted full-scale deployments of the Oracle Health EHR system earlier this year after it froze most rollouts of the new software in April 2023 to address the issues plaguing the project. The agency has implemented the new EHR system at 11 VA medical facilities so far in 2026, with plans to complete two additional deployments at facilities in Alaska and Ohio before the end of the year. Agency officials have expressed their intent to rapidly accelerate EHR software go-lives on an annual basis, with plans to finalize all deployments in 2031.

Blumenthal and Takano wrote that VA did not respond to an Aug. 27 request from the House VA panel to provide lawmakers with additional information on the Oracle Health EHR contract modification, including all relevant communications between VA and the company and “documentation sufficient to explain the need for the increase, including detailed descriptions of the ‘unanticipated complexities,’ and any related cost analysis or determination, including, but not limited to, the price negotiation memorandum.”

In addition to requesting that delayed information, the lawmakers also asked VA to provide written responses to 13 questions about the contract extension process, including how the agency arrived at the new $27 billion total contract ceiling and whether officials will commit to obtaining a third-party total lifecycle cost estimate for the project.

As Nextgov/FCW reported last year, current and former VA officials have also said the EHR software is not compliant with federal accessibility requirements mandated under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Blumenthal and Takano asked VA to detail whether it was aware when it signed its initial contract that the software was not Section 508 compliant, as well as the agency’s plan to address the EHR system’s lack of 508 compliance.