VA asks for input on modernizing electronic health records

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

In today’s Top Federal Headlines, VA has demoted its DC Medical Center’s director after the Inspector General report finds the center’s storage facilities are being poorly managed.

• Trouble at the Veterans Affairs Department’s D.C. facility: VA’s inspector general found patients at the medical center are being endangered by poor management of its medical supplies. It issued a report detailing how there’s no effective inventory system for knowing what equipment is available or subject to recalls. The IG also said most of its satellite storage areas for supplies were unsanitary. VA said it demoted the medical center director and is conducting a review of the matter. (Veterans Affairs)

• Veterans now have a place to search average wait times and quality information at VA medical centers and clinics across the country. It’s called AccessToCare.VA.Gov. Version 1.0 will officially launch May 1. VA is working with the U.S. Digital Service on Version 2.0. (Veterans Affairs)

• Jesus Muchacho, a former Customs and Border Protection officer and program manager, has pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators. While working for CBP’s National Targeting Center, Muchacho admits he wasn’t truthful when asked about unauthorized searches of classified databases and disclosing information to unauthorized third parties. (Justice Department)

• The Office of Personnel Management has renewed its contract with Long Term Care Partners to provide services for BENEFEDS. It’s what the government uses for enrollment and administration for the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Program. Under the contract, LTCP runs the online exchange, administers enrollments and changes, collects premiums and provides a customer service call center, among other services.

• Fiscal 2016 was a banner year for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, at least in its Office of Federal Operations. EEOC Appellate Review Attorney Marqui Willoughby said 2016 finished with 111 federal findings of appellate discrimination, the highest number of findings in nine years. About half of the discrimination findings related to disabilities, while roughly one-third of them involved retaliation. (Federal News Radio)

• College students at the military academies are participating in the 17th annual Cyber Defensive Exercise. The program is hosted by the National Security Agency and challenges students to defend their networks against a military red team in real time. New events this year include defending a space satellite and completing drone exercises.

• National Academy of Public Administration President Terry Gerton said new reform guidance from the Office of Management and Budget has much to be optimistic about. She said it tackles some longstanding workforce problems. But she cautions that hoped-for savings will come from interagency trades, which must be brokered by OMB itself. American Federation of Government Employees president J. David Cox said the OMB plan has both good and dangerous ideas. (AFGE)

• The Veterans Affairs Department will make a decision by July about how it should modernize its electronic health records system. But first, it is asking vendors for a little help. VA issued a request for information yesterday seeking contractors’ input on how it could move the Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture or VistA system to a software-as-a-service cloud platform. VA wants to consolidate 130 VistA instances at five data centers to one in a commercial cloud environment. Responses to the RFI are due April 26. (FBO)

• Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of Staff, clarified this morning that a so-called “stop loss” policy is just one option that’s generally reserved for national emergencies, adding that while he considers the pilot shortage a crisis, it’s not an emergency. He was responding to news accounts earlier this week that quoted another senior general as saying the Air Force might resort to stop-loss to deal with a shortage of more than 1,500 pilots. But Goldfein said that step would have to be authorized by the president and the secretary of defense. (Federal News Radio)

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