House Committee Provides Funds To 'Jumpstart' iEHR

The House Appropriations Committee fully supports the development of a joint electronic health record system for the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, so long as that system is open architecture, Nextgov reports.

In its version of the VA's spending bill for fiscal year 2014, the committee allocates $344 million to "jumpstart" development efforts. The project, to date, has been plagued by poor communication.

In February, budget cuts and time constraints were cited as reasons for abandoning the creation of a brand new joint EHR system for use by the two agencies from scratch. Last month, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said that lack of understanding regarding the creation of an integrated health record system led him to block DoD from issuing a request for proposals on the project in March.