The Senate wants the Government Accountability Office to review the Defense Department‘s efforts to deploy a new military electronic health record system and challenges related to the implementation and performance of the EHR platform, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.The upper chamber voted 95-0 to mandate a GAO study of MHS Genesis through an amendment to the $854B minibus appropriations bill senators approved Thursday.
Lawmakers specifically want the congressional watchdog to determine measures that DoD has undertaken to update Genesis after the Pentagon’s Office of Operational Test and Evaluation found earlier this year that the system was “neither operationally effective nor operationally suitable.”
They also seek to determine if the platform works to meet health care requirements at the four Pacific Northwest sites and if the department has a capacity to accomplish its global deployment goals by 2022, the report noted.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced the amendment that must have a counterpart version in the House before it can move up the legislative ladder. If the measure becomes law, GAO would be given six months to complete the review.
