- GAO has reviewed VA’s progress on 18 electronic health record recommendations
- Ten remain open while four are partially complete
- The 2026 Healthcare Summit will explore AI, health IT modernization and more
The Government Accountability Office has confirmed that the Department of Veterans Affairs has fully implemented four of the 18 recommendations it issued to strengthen VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization, or EHRM, program, while the remaining 14 recommendations are still in progress as of August.
Veterans across the country continue to depend on coordinated, reliable health information systems to receive timely care. The Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Healthcare Summit on Dec. 3 will bring together government and industry leaders to discuss artificial intelligence adoption, health IT modernization, interoperability and other priorities shaping the future of federal health care delivery. Book your spot now to hear from officials leading these efforts.
GAO said Wednesday its findings were presented in testimony before the committee summarizing five prior reports issued between June 2020 and March 2025, along with follow-up work on VA’s progress addressing the agency’s recommendations.
What Recommendations Has VA Fully or Partially Implemented?
VA has closed four recommendations to date. Two stem from GAO’s February 2021 report and required the department to resolve critical and high-severity test findings before expanding deployments. A third, from GAO’s February 2022 report, involved using a stakeholder register to identify and engage relevant parties. The fourth, from GAO’s March 2025 report, called on VA to establish baselines and performance targets for metrics measuring the new system’s impact.
Four additional priority recommendations from GAO’s May 2023 report are partially implemented. These involve communicating system changes to meet user needs, addressing barriers identified in the department’s strategic review, setting user satisfaction targets and resolving system trouble tickets within established timeliness goals.
What Recommendations Remain Open?
GAO reported that 10 of the 18 recommendations remain open, representing the next steps for the EHRM program to build on progress made so far:
- The program still needs an updated, independent total life cycle cost estimate.
- A reliable, updated integrated master schedule remains outstanding.
- Formalizing a department-specific change management strategy would help drive user adoption.
- Continued attention to change readiness scores is needed ahead of future site deployments.
- Demonstrating the effectiveness of workforce training and related change activities remains a work in progress.
- Establishing clear targets and metrics to measure change adoption and its outcomes is still pending.
- Measuring and reporting on the outcomes of program changes has not yet been completed.
- Reinstating plans for an independent operational assessment would help validate the system’s performance.
- Setting performance measures for data quality would strengthen oversight of migrated patient records.
- VA has not yet clarified the workshop terminology needed to support full stakeholder participation in configuration decisions.
Why Did GAO Conduct the Review?
GAO conducted the review to update lawmakers on VA’s progress under its fourth attempt in two decades to modernize its legacy health record system, an effort the department paused in 2023 after clinicians and veterans raised concerns and later resumed with an accelerated deployment schedule. GAO has designated VA healthcare as a high-risk area for the federal government, citing recurring challenges the department has faced in overseeing large-scale IT modernization efforts.
What Other VA Modernization Efforts Intersect With the EHR Program?
Beyond the EHR modernization effort, VA has advanced a broader set of 2026 healthcare and IT initiatives. In January, the department announced that it would invest $4.8 billion in efforts to modernize and repair healthcare facilities nationwide, covering facility upgrades, EHR systems and other infrastructure needs, and separately sought proposals for a potential $700 billion Community Care Network indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to sustain veteran-focused community care services.
On the EHR program itself, VA marked its return to deployments by rolling out the Federal EHR system at four Michigan hospitals in April, part of a broader restart of the Oracle-Cerner rollout under a regional go-live approach.
The department has since completed a second 2026 deployment wave in Ohio and Kentucky, extending the system to more than 107,000 veterans and 7,200 clinicians. VA has also sought industry input on a potential recompete of its Light Electronic Action Framework software services contract, which supports travel approvals, staffing requests and other business processes at medical centers and program offices.
