VA, DOD Must Present EHR Interoperability Plan In January

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | December 13, 2013

The clock is ticking for the military’s on-again, off-again plan for EHR interoperability.  The 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, finalized by Congress on Wednesday, demands a detailed plan from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense outlining how exactly they will achieve adequate health information exchange.  Now the provenance of the Interagency Program Office (IPO), the integrated EHR project has brought little more than problems to the military health system since its inception.

While the Department of Defense has started to move forward with its choice for a new EHR system, its legacy Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) looks like it might stick around until at least 2018. That might present a problem for the DOD, which is now required to deploy a modernized EHR and prove full interoperability with the VA no later than December 31, 2016.  The new bill instructs the two departments to implement the following features...