Commercial Health Record Software Would Cost $16 Billion, Says VA

If the Veterans Affairs Department replaced its existing Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture with commercial software, it would face a bill of $16 billion, Roger Baker, the department's chief information officer, told a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday.

By contrast, the open source software approach now planned by VA will allow the department to upgrade VistA incrementally, avoiding "a huge outyear expense," Baker said at a hearing of Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations....

...Baker said last month that the open source approach will ensure commercial software vendors "can easily and confidently integrate their products with VistA to make them available for VA to purchase and use in our facilities."