sequestration

With most veterans waiting nine months for the Department of Veterans Affairs to process disability claims, a congressional panel Wednesday chastised the VA and the Department of Defense for each breaking four years of vows to merge all troops’ medical records into a single electronic system to help crack that backlog. Read More »

U.S. Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel says he likes to make this point in his speeches: "The securest data center is the one that's unplugged from the network, but that's not going to get you the service that you need." Read More »

With sequestration and looming budget cuts, it’s hard to know what the future of federal government IT will look like. To make it a little easier, FedScoop created a quick guide on a piece of legislation that’s getting a lot of attention right now: the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act. Read More »

The CIOs of the Military Health System (MHS) and the US Navy, David Bowen and Commander Cayetano S. Thornton, took the stage at the Government Health IT Conference and Exhibition this week to discuss EHR adoption, modernization, and the swirling questions surrounding the Department of Defense’s efforts to find a suitable EHR to meet their needs. Read More »

Interoperability and exchange are perhaps the most frequently spoken words at this year’s HIMSS13 conference. Yet they are only two among the many issues facing national coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD, this week. Read More »

With Congress seemingly satisfied to let the defense budget take another $52 billion hit in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 [...] Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gave a preview recently of how Round 2 of budget sequestration could rattle current forces and deepen damage to U.S. readiness. Read More »

Federal health IT spending grew 27 percent annually from fiscal 2011-2015, with the market jumping from $2 billion four years ago to $6.5 billion in fiscal 2015, according to research from big data and analytics firm Govini. Civilian health agencies fueled health IT spending the most. The Health and Human Services Department increased its annual health IT spend by a compound annual growth rate of 34 percent, with about half of its total obligations driven by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is preparing for a major modernization effort and call center upgrade...

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