DoD, VA Making Steps Toward Joint EHRs--For Now

The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments appear to be moving toward finally creating an integrated electronic health record--or iEHR--that will house a cloud computing environment hosted by the Defense Information Systems Agency, the VA's Chief Information Officer Roger Baker, announced Wednesday at a Washington, D.C. meeting.

But elsewhere in Washington, the creation of next-generation EHRs is getting a critical eye--especially on Capitol Hill. On Tuesday, two House Armed Services Committee panels voted to sharply reduce budgets for the next-generation EHR system-- pending receipt of reports requested by the panels, according to Nextgov.

One of the panels--the Military Personnel Subcommittee--in its markup on Tuesday "put a potential speed bump" in the way of development of next-generation EHRs, Nextgov repots. The panel said it would corral all but 10 percent of the requested budget until 30 days after DoD delivers a report detailing a transition plans for a new system "that is cost-effective and interoperable." This language will need approval by the full House and Senate.