Congress

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Contractors Who Built Healthcare.gov Website Blame Each Other For All The Problems

Mike Masnick | Techdirt | October 24, 2013

With all the problems associated with the Healthcare.gov rollout, a bunch of fingers (including ours) pointed at the usual list of government contracting cronies who built the thing. The deal was done under an existing contract (so no open bidding) and involved the same "usual suspects" who have been connected to a number of other large government computer systems debacles... Read More »

Copyright Week: The Digital Public Domain

Michael Carroll | infojustice.org | January 14, 2014

Whatever one thinks about the rest of the Google Book business, I think it’s important to focus on the digitization of public domain books by both Google and the Open Content Alliance and to use these efforts as the basis for conceiving of the Digital Public Domain as a more robust version of the traditional public domain. Read More »

Cosponsor.gov Lets You Upvote the Bills You Want Passed

Brian Fung | Nextgov | June 5, 2013

It used to be that if you ran for Congress and lost, you’d have to crawl back to your opponent’s secure district and kiss your chance at legislating goodbye. With luck and enough money, you might try again next time. Read More »

Court Prods FCC In Unexpected Direction In This Week’s Verizon Ruling

A court ruling this past Tuesday on FCC “network neutrality” regulation closes and opens a few paths in a three-way chess game that has been going on for years between the US District Court of Appeals, the FCC, and the major Internet server providers. [...] Read More »

Defense Health Agency Signs AHLTA EHR Contract

Erin McCann | Government Health IT | May 7, 2014

The Defense Health Agency is moving closer to reworking its clinical information systems with a bridged contract engaging a Reston, Va.-based technology and defense company.  Leidos, previously the Science Applications International Corporation, landed the $70.7 million contract from DHA in which it will support the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application and Composite Health Care System with logistics, data mapping, beta site support, remote monitoring and enterprise scheduling support...

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Defunct Defense-VA Health Record Office Spent Bulk Of Budget On Support Contracts

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | November 22, 2013

The now moribund interagency program office charged with developing an integrated electronic health record for the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments spent $1.1 billion during its five year life, with the bulk of that going to support service contracts, based on a Nextgov review of Pentagon reports to Congress and testimony. Read More »

Department Of Veterans Affairs: "They Are Rearranging The Deck Chairs On A Sinking Ship"

James Dao | The Legal Examiner | September 27, 2012

Veterans Wait for Benefits as Claims Pile Up
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Diagnosing the Online Health Exchange Debacle: "Proprietary" Software Needs a Dose of Open Source

Amy Goddman and Juan Gonzalez | Democracy Now | October 25, 2013

As the problem-plagued roll-out of President Obama’s signature healthcare policy undergoes congressional scrutiny for the first time, we speak with Clay Johnson, a former Obama campaign innovation expert who founded Blue State Digital, the company that built Obama’s 2008 website. During a House panel on Thursday, lawmakers questioned executives of two of the lead contractors behind the website, healthcare.gov — CGI Federal and Quality Software Systems Incorporated — about the myriad of glitches and defects. Johnson says the new website is built with outdated and proprietary software. "When the government is building software like this, it ought to be built out in the open — built with a licensing system called open source so that the public truly owns it," Johnson says. He notes that "In 1996, Congress lobotomized itself by getting rid of its technology think tank called the Technology Assessment Office. So they’re writing bills where they don’t understand the technology required in their laws."

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Do You Want The Government Buying Your Data From Corporations?

Bruce Schneier | The Atlantic | April 30, 2013

A new bill moving through Congress would give the authorities unprecedented access to citizens' information. Read More »

DOD Announces EHR Interoperability Progress, Requests Input

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | February 7, 2014

The Department of Defense isn’t taking its spate of Congressional spankings lying down.  After more than a year of continuous criticism over its lack of progress on EHR interoperability during its will-they-won’t-they romance with the Department of Veterans Affairs, a series of optimistic press releases show the DOD’s commitment to rehabbing its image while it seems to finally be getting the project on track. Read More »

DoD Chastised For Role In VA Claims Backlog

Patricia Kime | Army Times | April 16, 2013

Under fire from Congress for the Defense Department’s contributing role in the Veterans Affairs Department’s disability claims morass, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told House lawmakers Tuesday that DoD is “restructuring” relevant offices and responsibilities to ensure quicker delivery of medical records to VA. Read More »

DoD Chastised For Role In VA Claims Backlog

Patricia Kime | Army Times | April 16, 2013

Under fire from Congress for the Defense Department’s contributing role in the Veterans Affairs Department’s disability claims morass, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told House lawmakers Tuesday that DoD is “restructuring” relevant offices and responsibilities to ensure quicker delivery of medical records to VA. Read More »

DOD Cooperation Accelerating VA Claims Handling

Karen Parrish | My San Antonio | July 16, 2013

Senior officials from the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs assured Congress July 10 that they are closing in on solutions that will alleviate the backlog of veterans' health benefit claims and streamline processing of current and future claims. Read More »

DOD Decides To Keep Legacy EHR Until At Least 2018

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | January 3, 2014

The Department of Defense is officially sticking with its tried-and-true AHLTA electronic health records system for at least the next four or five years according to a recently released procurement document. [...] Read More »

DOD Isn’t Ready To Let Go Of Legacy EHR Just Yet

Jennifer Bresnick | Government Health IT | November 6, 2013

The Department of Defense may be flirting with commercial EHR vendors, but they’re not ready to commit to an off-the-shelf product just yet.  In a request for information released this week, the Defense Health Agency indicated that it is looking for support of its Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) through 2018 [...]. Read More »