$70.7 Million EHR Contract Awarded
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Leidos wins contract to provide support to agencies that manage clinician order entries.
The Defense Health Agency has inked a bridged contract with a Reston, VA-based technology and defense company, a huge step forward towards revamping its clinical information systems. Nextgov reports Leidos landed the $70.7 million bridge contract from DHA and will “support military electronic health record systems over the next 11 months.
“The contract covers support of the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, or AHLTA, EHR and the Composite Health Care System, or CHCS, which manages clinician order entries.” DHA awarded the contract to Leidos, saying only they “can provide the support required during this short duration contract without loss of efficiency and impact to the sustainment of AHLTA and CHCS … and is the least costly choice for the government.”
Healthcare IT News adds, “Leidos ‘has the operational infrastructure and knowledge required for successful performance and the necessary skillsets to complete this effort,’” according to DHA officials. “The only catch? The funds aren't yet available, so the contract is contingent upon government funding in the near future. Leidos' contract will be good for up to 11 months.”
According to the Defense Health Program's 2015 fiscal year budget estimates, the integrated electronic health record and Department of Defense Healthcare Management Systems modernization will cost nearly $1.57 billion over the course of five years, $18 million of the pie dedicated to the iEHR development.
Original estimates for the iEHR were between $4 billion and $6 billion. In September 2012, however, the Interagency Program Office doubled its previous estimates, pegging the final price tag somewhere between $8 billion and $12 billion. Ultimately, both estimates proved to be grossly inaccurate, as costs climbed to a whopping $28 billion early last year, with no iEHR to show for it.
Just this January, lawmakers on Capitol Hill took aim at the DoD and VA for their dilatory pace in developing the iEHR between the two agencies. "The actions of the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs in developing an electronic health record continue to be of concern to the Committees," House lawmakers wrote in a preliminary appropriations bill. "The Committees want to be very clear with both Departments: An interoperable record between the two Departments is the chief end-goal for Congress."