VA to expand health data exchange in September

The Veterans Affairs Department this fall will expand a program to exchange health care information with the Pentagon and private sector providers. The department plans to start testing the program in 11 geographical regions in September, up from the current five, according to a fact sheet prepared for a July 26 industry conference. Performance data collected during a six-month trial period will help determine whether the program will be expanded nationwide in 2012, the fact sheet stated.

The exchange is part of VA's Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record project, which President Obama announced in 2009. The goal is to give service members and veterans a unified account of health and benefits information "from the day they first enlist to the day that they are laid to rest," the president said at the time...

...Also in September, VA will open a Web portal that will allow veterans to authorize the release of data to clinicians, according to the fact sheet. And the department this fall will try out a point-to-point exchange capability, allowing two health care providers to send veterans' information to one another directly....