The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Oracle Cerner have extended the contract for the Electronic Health Records Modernization (EHRM) program for one month as current contract negotiations between the two parties continue.
The VA successfully renegotiated a tougher EHRM contract in May 2023 to hold Oracle Cerner accountable for technical fixes to the program whose rollout has been beset with difficulties. The renegotiation updated the contract from a five-year term to five one-year terms – that way the agency can renegotiate each year if necessary.
Last year’s contract expired on May 16, but the one-month extension gives the parties until June 16 to finalize a contract.
“These negotiations have been focused on additional considerations to support long-term success of the program for veterans and clinicians alike,” VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes said in a statement.
“We remain committed to holding Oracle Health and ourselves accountable to take the necessary actions to resolve ongoing challenges with deployment of the Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR),” Hayes added. “We are working hard toward an optimized contract that serves and protects veterans, VA providers, and taxpayers alike.”
While there have been improvements to the EHR system over the last year, a group of Democratic senators called on the VA this month to push for stronger accountability provisions in its ongoing contract negotiations – noting that “significant challenges remain.”
“For example, in February of this year Oracle Health’s delivery of the so-called ‘Block 10’ software release was incomplete due to the need to pull back and fix several pharmacy-focused upgrades that had code errors. As you know, pharmacy software upgrades are among the most important changes requested by VA frontline medical staff,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to VA.
Once the agency’s contract negotiations conclude, the senators asked the VA to provide them with “a summary of the new enforcement provisions and terms.” Additionally, they want a summary of how the VA used last year’s contract agreement to achieve better outcomes.
The EHRM program is currently in the middle of a reset period, putting all future deployments on pause while the agency and Oracle Cerner make technical improvements to the system.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough told lawmakers last month that the agency does not plan on being in reset mode for the entirety of fiscal year 2025.
“We’re not staying in reset forever. We’re going to get into deployment,” McDonough said. “During the course of this year, as we approach the end of the year, I anticipate us being in discussions to get out of reset.”
