Veterans Affairs

House Passes Bill to Permanently Authorize VA’s Tech Training Program

VA’s VET-TEC pilot ran out of funding last month, but lawmakers in the House and Senate are moving to permanently authorize the technology education program.

  • By Edward Graham

10 Vendors Receive Over Half of VA's IT Contracts, Drawing Lawmaker Concern

A Government Accountability Office representative told House lawmakers that Veterans Affairs’ IT obligations have been “increasingly concentrated with a small group of vendors.”

  • By Edward Graham

VA Lacks Goals to Assess Satisfaction With New EHR, Watchdog Finds

The report from the Government Accountability Office found that the absence of such goals has limited the agency’s ability to “objectively measure progress toward improving EHRM users’ satisfaction.”

  • By Edward Graham

‘Continuing Significant Deficiencies’ Hamper VA’s Information Security Controls, Audit Finds

An audit released by the VA Office of Inspector General found that the department “needs to implement improved controls” to address persistent gaps in its information security program.

  • By Edward Graham

VA Puts Oracle Cerner on a Short Leash in $10B Health Records Contract

The agency extended the contract for its EHR provider by one year, and put performance conditions in place.

  • By Adam Mazmanian

VA Seeks Cyber Operations Help

The Department of Veterans Affairs is looking for capabilities ranging from cyber incident response and cloud threat detection to insider threat analysis to support its security operations center in a new market research request.

  • By Carten Cordell

House Lawmakers Lambast EHR Rollout Over Pharmacy Problems

Both witnesses and lawmakers agreed that the Oracle Cerner EHR system at its current state is not satisfactory—but disagreed over how to fix it.

  • By Kirsten Errick

Inter-Agency Effort Targets the Half of Veterans Who Never Engage With VA

The resource hub out of the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs is part of a larger White House initiative to better respond to the life experiences of Americans.

  • By Aaron Boyd

Permanent Funding for VA’s Tech Training Program Heads to House Floor

VA’s VET-TEC pilot ran out of funding last week, but lawmakers on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee have approved bipartisan legislation that would permanently reauthorize the program.

  • By Edward Graham

6 Major Multibillion Dollar Tech Procurements to Watch in 2023

Contracts range in potential estimated value from $5 billion to $100 billion, according to government spending data and Deltek analysis.

  • By Frank Konkel

House Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Reform VA’s EHR Program

The bipartisan proposal would require VA to prioritize system improvements at the five medical facilities currently using the new software before deploying it at any additional sites.

  • By Edward Graham

VA Pauses Future EHR Deployments Under ‘Larger Program Reset’

The Department of Veterans Affairs said it plans to delay future rollouts of the new EHR system until it is confident that the software “is highly functioning at current sites and ready to deliver for veterans and VA clinicians at future sites.”

  • By Edward Graham

House Lawmakers Coalesce Around Bipartisan Fixes to VA’s EHR System

The top Democrat and Republican on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee have started bipartisan negotiations to address the Department of Veterans Affairs’ troubled rollout of its new electronic health record system.

  • By Edward Graham

Congress's Competing Proposals to Fix VA's Ailing EHR Program

Top lawmakers tasked with overseeing the Department of Veterans Affairs have introduced competing bills to enhance oversight of VA’s new electronic health record system.

  • By Edward Graham
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VA’s New Cyber Apprenticeship Program Will Focus on Training for Underserved Veterans

The VA’s initiative, set to begin this summer, “is really designed to attract that diverse and inclusive cybersecurity talent,” a department official told Nextgov.

  • By Edward Graham

VHA's $8.5M Emergency Comms System Largely Inoperable, OIG Finds

An audit conducted by VA’s Office of Inspector General found that an estimated 80% of the emergency communications systems deployed at 184 VA medical facilities are “not fully operational.”

  • By Edward Graham

VA Again Delays Rollout of New Electronic Health Record System

The Department of Veterans Affairs, which announced last October it was pausing rollouts of its new EHR system until June 2023, said it “is not yet ready” to move forward with the software’s scheduled deployment at the VA Saginaw Healthcare System.

  • By Edward Graham

Top Republican Moves to Block VA’s EHR Deployment Until Improvements Are Made 

A dozen GOP senators—including the ranking member of a key committee—signed on to the bill.

  • By Edward Graham

Lawmakers Need to Enhance VA’s Oversight of Oracle EHR Rollout or ‘Move On,’ Top Republican Says

House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chair Mike Bost, R-Ill., said Republicans and Democrats in both chambers of Congress are largely aligned “on what we know we want to fix and the problems that we’re seeing” with the deployment of VA’s new EHR system.

  • By Edward Graham

Veteran Deaths Lead Lawmakers to Call for VA to Renegotiate Oracle EHR Contract

Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester said that VA should “negotiate an entirely new contract” with Oracle Cerner following the revelation that the EHR system has resulted in the deaths of four veterans.

  • By Edward Graham

Official: VA’s Legacy EHR Must Be Maintained, But Not a Long-Term Solution

The official cautioned that “modernization would require VistA be rewritten almost from scratch.”

  • By Edward Graham