New bills aim to force new EHR for VA, DoD; reduce claims backlog

The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are still working on developing a better EHR system for military service members. The two agencies first launched an effort to create a joint integrated EHR system back in 2009.

Now, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is pushing for the passage of two bills (S 1296; S 928) that would require the two departments to develop an interoperable EHR system for military service members and hold VA accountable for reducing its backlog of outstanding disability claims.

Schumer is co-sponsoring both bills and wants them included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (HR 1960), which the Senate will discuss in coming weeks.

DOD and VA first launched an effort to create a joint integrated EHR—iEHR—in 2009. The iEHR project attempted to allow every service member to maintain a single, lifetime EHR but was dogged by a host of issues and eventually canceled earlier this year after expenses of $1.3 billion. DOD and VA officials said they would instead focus on making their current EHR systems more interoperable.

Introduced by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the Servicemember's Electronic Health Records Act would require DOD and VA to establish an interoperable EHR system within a year of the bill's passage. Rep. Christopher Gibson (R-N.Y.) has introduced a similar bill (HR 2590) in the House that would require the departments to establish interoperability between their EHR systems within 180 days of the bill's enactment.

In March, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said that the agency is committed to ending the claims backlog by the end of 2015. Shinseki added that three major problem areas have contributed to the backlog:

• Large amounts of paper-based claims and health records that need to be converted to electronic format;
• A need to sync VA's records with the DOD's records; and
• A growing number of veterans who are qualifying for disability coverage.

Shinseki said that VA aims to digitize the disability claims process in every regional office by the end of this year. Shinseki recently said the agency has reduced its backlog of outstanding disability claims by 34 percent. 

Introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the Claims Processing Improvement Act would hold VA accountable for reducing its disability claims backlog by requiring the agency to hire more claims processors and report monthly goals and progress toward reducing the backlog.

Schumer said "serious delays" in the processing of nearly 15,000 veterans' disability claims in New York prompted him to support adding the measures to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014.