Congress Looks To Set Firm VA-DoD EHR Integration Timeline

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | July 23, 2013

A bill introduced in Congress late last month would set a firm timeline for the EHR integration efforts of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.  The legislation, called the “21st Century Health Care for Heroes Act”, would hold the DoD and VA to their commitment to establish a bridge between active service and post-discharge health records by mandating interoperability be established within 180 days of the bill’s enactment.

“If you’re active duty in the military, you get a medical record. The day you leave, you become a veteran, and you’re eligible to get veteran administration benefits and the most important benefit among them, of course, is medical care,” Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) told reporters on Monday. “The Veterans Administration is having an enormously difficult time getting the military person’s record from when they served in active duty.”