Lawmakers Implore VA to Consider Pulling the Plug on EHRM Program
Congressman Mike Bost, ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, doubts whether the VA EHRM program should continue amid scheduling issues, patient safety concerns, and rising costs.
Several years into the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program, lawmakers are extremely disappointed with the results and are considering abandoning the project, according to reporting from Military Times.
On July 20, members of the Senate VA Committee learned the estimated $16 billion project cost over the next 30 years could approach $51 billion when system maintenance and staffing issues are factored in.
"It is $40 billion over the cost estimate VA has been operating under until now," said Senator Jerry Moran, R-KS, ranking member of the VA committee. "But until Monday, we were not aware how large that cost overrun truly is."
Cost inaccuracies have been a major issue throughout the EHRM project.
In 2021, two reports from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) stated the VA underestimated the total by $2.5 billion due to poor reporting practices.
In response to the cost inaccuracies, the VA paused its EHR implementation through the end of the 2021 calendar year to ensure enterprise readiness at the next go-live.
Former VA leaders have also raised concerns about the ongoing rollout and its inflating costs.
“If you don’t have discipline, if you don’t control costs tightly and if you don’t even know what your costs are, you’ll get sucked for every dollar the government has,” Roger Baker, chief information officer (CIO) and former assistant secretary for information and technology for the VA, said to FedScoop. “Like with Cerner. That’s how this game works.”
“The VA doesn’t know how much things cost and it has no clue how to do so, it would be like me trying to estimate what it could cost to build the Empire State Building,” he continued.
In addition to cost overruns, patient concerns have raised questions about the implementation of the Oracle Cerner EHR system.
A glitch in the system failed to deliver more than 11,000 orders, where requests for items such as appointments or blood tests went unanswered.
In at least two cases, the lost files caused major harm to patients, Military Times wrote.
Amid these patient safety risks, VA decided to delay EHR implementation for sites in Idaho.
In light of all these challenges, lawmakers believe the EHRM program might need to be terminated.
Administrators “have to fundamentally improve,” Rep Mike Bost, R-IL, ranking member of the House VA Committee, said during a Senate hearing. “If we don’t see major progress by early next year, when VA says they intend to roll [the effort] out to larger sites, we will have to seriously consider pulling the plug.”
“I hope the situation can somehow be turned around,” Bost continued. “But everyone involved in this needs to understand that the consequences are real, and that there are no blank checks.”
Bost said he will draft legislation to protect patients and taxpayers from the program spiraling out of control.
Current committee Chairman Mark Takano, D-California, believes the VA department should upgrade its records system, but he said, “I will not sit idly by and allow this program to endanger veterans.”
VA officials have promised overhauls to the training programs to prepare staff for future deployments better. Also, Oracle Cerner leaders said they are committed to fixing past problems with the system.