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The Department of Veterans Affairs underestimated the costs of the physical infrastructure upgrades needed to prepare VA medical facilities for its new electronic health record. VA's IG said those upgrades may cost between $3.1 and 3.7 billion.
Employees and congressional stakeholders say the VA faces tough decisions with its ongoing strategic review, as the initial rollout of a new electronic health record in Washington state was far less successful than the agency originally touted last fall.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough said the department will launch a strategic review of the electronic health records modernization program, following an analysis of the agency's initial deployment at its first site last fall.
In today's Federal Newscast: The Federal pay gap between men and woman has narrowed, but it's still there. Two congressmen want to stop government funding that pays for experiments on house cats. And Joint Chiefs' Chairman said America needs a bigger Navy.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said it will take months, years in some cases, to implement needed changes to its sexual harassment policies, training and reporting structures.
The Veterans Benefits Administration announced plans to reset its implementation of portions of the Forever GI Act, but the approach sparked confusion from some lawmakers.
In today's Federal Newscast, a newly passed House bill would reform the way the Veterans Affairs Department hires human resources people.
Preparations for a new appeals process at the Veterans Benefits Administration are two-thirds of the way complete, but IT upgrades have fallen behind.
Some clever, eligible federal workers are considering retiring later this year to be on the retirement roles for the January 2019 cost of living adjustment. But the problem is that time is not on their side.
Some members of Congress are encouraged by a new solution to overhaul the outdated and lengthy appeals process for veterans. Members of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee introduced new legislation Tuesday that would create three paths for veterans to move more quickly through the appeals process. VA has roughly 470,000 claims pending as of April 1.
The Veterans Benefits Administration sees progress with the National Work Queue, the automatic workload system that assigns a veteran's claim to the regional office that has the most capacity to immediately begin work. But Congress is concerned the NW Queue creates unnecessary confusion and can't address the growing backlog of veterans claims.
Some documents related to veterans' disability claims are getting thrown out at Veterans Affairs regional offices, but the VA and its inspector general disagree whether the problem is a systemic issue or one that can be explained by human error.
Lawmakers pushed for provisions of the Defending American’s Small Contractors bill to be folded into the 2017 NDAA.