VA to Employees: Zip your lips

VA TO EMPLOYEES — ZIP YOUR LIPS ON EHRs: Some VA IT officials Arthur [Allen] has spoken to this week got emails instructing them to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the Cerner deal with the agency. The emails were directed to people who “have been selected to participate in the planning for an electronic health acquisition,” and it prohibits them from discussing “all data, information and software” related to the purchase.

However, many VA officials who got the email aren’t working on the Cerner deal — yet, anyway. To date, a small group led by military officers who ran the DoD’s Cerner purchase decision in 2015 has been overseeing this acquisition process. Some worried that the NDAs could make it hard for VA employees to give Congress straight dope on the Cerner implementation.

“Before, if VA employees spoke out against the Cerner deal they might have been worried about losing their jobs, but if they were ready to retire they might have taken the chance,” said Nancy Anthracite, director of WorldVista, which commercializes VistA-based software. “This way they might not even be willing to do that.”