House: $1B Wasted On Vets’ Medical E-Records

The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have wasted about $1 billion in a failed effort to streamline medical record-keeping, the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee said in a hearing Wednesday. “I’m concerned we’re taking a step back toward a model that has been tried and failed,” said committee Chairman Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., at a hearing to examine the project.

Defense and VA officials said this month they had abandoned an ambitious plan to integrate medical records for both active-duty service members and veterans into a single electronic system to make the records more accessible for patients and doctors. After cost estimates doubled and technology problems persisted, they decided on a less expensive plan to keep their current systems while making them “interoperable.”...