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Analysis: VA, DoD e-health contract cancellation won’t affect implementation

The cancellation is only a minor setback, though, said former national health IT coordinator David Brailer in an interview with Federal News Radio\'s Ruben Gome...

Federal News Network Staff

March 12, 2012 8:17 am

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wfedstaff | June 4, 2015 6:17 pm

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Canceling a $100 million contract can be a big deal for some agencies. You wonder what that could do to any project with ties to the contract. And you wonder about cost overruns because the agency needs to find a new contractor if the project is to continue.

But for Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department, it might not be that big of a deal in the grand scheme. VA canceled a key contract in a project to integrate e-health records with defense systems. The company involved says VA tied the decision to alleged subcontractor conflicts of interest.

The cancellation is only a minor setback, though, said former national health IT coordinator David Brailer in an interview with Federal News Radio’s Ruben Gomez.

“My interpretation of the contract cancellation is it’s not in any way related to the vision of an integrated electronic record shared across VA and DoD,” Brailer said. He added that the cancellation had more to do with “contracting particularities.”