Smaller Deal On E-Health Record Angers Capitol Hill

The Obama administration pared back its plan to develop a single, integrated, electronic health- record system for the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs due to shrinking defense budgets and rising costs.  If the single system were built “from scratch,” as planned, it would cost up to $12 billion — double the estimate given to Congress two years ago.
 
These details came to light Wednesday during a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee where VA and Department of Defense health officials had uncomfortable moments explaining the new plan...

But VA officials sounded relieved to be able to keep their own health records system, known as Vista. Defense officials, meanwhile, said they are shopping for an e-records system from among commercial sources. They also have not yet ruled out using Vista as the “core” e-record system if ways could be found to modernize it and adapt it to military-unique needs...