VA Secretary Shinseki sees iEHR as remedy for claims backlog

The backlog of claims for veterans should progress more quickly once the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) completes its transition to the joint interactive EHR (iEHR), according to the Army Times. In an interview published on Veterans Day, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki emphasized the department’s need to repair its disability claims process depends on the organization’s ability to implement the new EHR developed jointly with the Department of Defense (DoD).

The VA-DoD joint venture has come on Congressional scrutiny over the past few months because of delays in the rollout of the iEHR. During hearing before the House Committees on Armed Services and Veterans Affairs in July, officials from the DoD and VA indicated that the iEHR would not be implemented at certain test sites until 2014 and across all site until 2017. At the time, the revelation drew the ire of the chairman of the VA subcommittee Representative Bill Johnson (R-OH), who chastised Shinseki for not refusing to heed his earlier advice...