Tag Archives: VA

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced a new effort to help former servicemen prepare for computer-focused careers, and seeks professionals who would serve as trainers. The Veteran Employment Through Technology Education Courses program is intended to help veterans enter workforces in the areas of information technology, information science, media application, data processing and other computer-related fields, VA said Wednesday.

The Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are looking to establish a single position of authority who would oversee activities regarding an electronic health record system, FCW reported Tuesday. James Byrne, acting deputy secretary at VA, said at a senate appropriations hearing that VA considers to have one arbitrator to make decisions on the health record when there are disagreements between the two departments.

A new watchdog report shows the Department of Veterans Affairs failed to meet the required savings and cost avoidance during its data center consolidation efforts in fiscal year 2018. The agency did not meet the $85.3M target set by the Office of Management and Budget, the VA Office of Inspector General said its audit report issued Wednesday.

The American Medical Association published a study reflecting the reduction of wait time in government-based veteran health care compared to private sector clinics. The "Comparison of Wait Times for New Patients Between the Private Sector and United States Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers” covered 15 major metropolitan locations and focused on primary care, dermatology, cardiology and orthopedics, VA said Friday.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., is requesting James Gfrerer, chief information officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to address the VA’s information technology problems as its newest CIO, according to Tester’s letter dated Jan. 11. Tester cited a number of issues the VA’s Office of Information and Technology has been facing, including the inefficiency of the department to provide GI Bill housing stipends; modernizing the VA’s Electronic Health Records; and the need to go beyond maintaining current IT systems for the department’s medical centers.

NASA's Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement contract, the agency's governmentwide procurement vehicle, has remained operational despite the government's shutdown, FCW reported Tuesday. Joanne Woytek, SEWP's program manager, told FCW that the vehicle's main federal customers continue buying services via SEWP amid the shutdown.

Cheryl Rawls, who has served with the Department of Veterans Affairs for 20 years, was appointed executive director of VA's Office of Transition and Economic Development. She will consult VA leaders regarding the delivery of services supporting veterans and servicemen who are transitioning out of the military, the department said Monday.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Trade Commission renewed an agreement to address acts of fraud against military servicemen, veterans and their dependents on education benefits and services. The renewed agreement presents a cooperative framework to guide investigations and actions against organizations attempting to deceive servicemen with false education advertising, FTC said Friday.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has issued the seventh iteration of its Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act scorecard, which shows that 11 agencies saw improvement in their letter grades. Thirteen federal agencies maintained their scores, according to the biannual scorecard released by the House panel.
 

The Department of Veterans Affairs has released an application programming interface that would help veterans manage health data via mobile devices. The VA said Friday its Health API is designed to work with the next iterations of Blue Button, the department's service made to ease data access for veterans.