VA Shifts VLER Work to $12B Contract

The Veterans Affairs Department is turning to companies on its $12 billion information technology contract to help develop the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Health Record, an initiative to provide veterans and service members with instant electronic access to their health and benefits information and other services.

Last July, VA awarded 14 contractors, including CACI, Harris Corp. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services LLC, a spot on the department's Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology, or T4, program. VA awarded SAIC the 15th and final spot on the T4 contract last fall. "I'm sure they're chomping at the bit to get their VLER work," Joe Paiva, executive director for VLER, said about vendors on the T4 contract. "T4 is a very competitive environment."

Under the five-year indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity task-order contracts, vendors will provide program management and strategy planning, systems and software engineering, and other support, VA said. VA hasn't determined what work related to VLER will be done under the T4 program or other VA and DoD contracts, Paiva said. "That [work] will be put out for solicitation for all the T4 vendors, and it will be a full and open competition."...