Author: JourneyWoman Staff

The Department of Veterans Affairs is nearly tripling the ceiling on its contract with Oracle to modernize the agency’s electronic health record system, yet lawmakers left a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday without clear answers about why the increase is necessary or how much taxpayers will ultimately pay.

VA’s original electronic health record contract had a ceiling of roughly $10 billion. The department has increased that ceiling to roughly $27 billion, an increase of about $17 billion.

The nearly $27 billion figure discussed repeatedly during Wednesday’s hearing is not money VA has already spent. It is the maximum potential value of the Oracle contract.

But the new contract ceiling is substantially higher than the ceiling on the deal VA struck with Cerner in 2018. Oracle acquired Cerner in 2022.

VA’s original contract had a ceiling of about $10 billion over 10 years. The department said at the time that the contract would replace its aging Vista system and create a common electronic health record with the Defense Department.

The issue lawmakers pressed throughout the hearing was why VA needs roughly $17 billion more under that contract.

VA Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence offered part of the answer during Wednesday’s hearing, but not all of it.

Lawrence said VA had estimated the cost of completing the deployment through 2031, asked Oracle for a proposal and then relied on its acquisition team to negotiate the resulting contract.

But Lawrence says he was not involved in those negotiations and could not explain why Oracle’s proposal reached roughly an increase of $17 billion, how much VA negotiated from the company’s request or what specifically drove the additional cost.

Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill., asked whether VA expected to hit the original contract ceiling early and whether the accelerated rollout contributed to the increase.

Lawrence said VA had “hit the ceiling as planned.”

Elsewhere in the hearing, Lawrence described problems and complexities from earlier phases of the program requiring Oracle to address those issues as the department continued the rollout.

Lawmakers did not get a detailed explanation Wednesday of exactly what those complexities were or when VA determined the original ceiling would be insufficient.

The hearing also did not establish how much of the new ceiling VA ultimately expects to spend.

Lawrence emphasized that the roughly $27 billion figure is a contract ceiling, not a $17 billion payment to Oracle. He said the contract operates on a time-and-materials basis, meaning individual work is negotiated and obligated under the ceiling.

The expanded contract encompasses more than the electronic health record itself, including software and licensing, hosting, managed services, training, testing, data migration, change management, deployment support and other work.

What did VA actually negotiate with Oracle?

Lawmakers repeatedly returned to Oracle’s previous assurances about the program’s costs.

During the hearing, members cited a 2022 statement from Oracle Health CEO Mike Sicilia that the company was prepared to bear cost overruns associated with the VA project.

Lawrence said he was aware of the statement but could not explain how it was reflected in the current contract negotiations.

He said VA would need to determine what Oracle had previously promised and how the department’s acquisition team handled those commitments.

The department also provided lawmakers with a much larger estimate for the modernization effort as a whole.

Lawrence said VA estimates it will cost about $37 billion to complete deployment through 2031, plus approximately $11 billion for sustainment, for a total of roughly $48 billion.

When Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., asked whether that was an independent estimate, Lawrence corrected himself and acknowledged that it was not.

The Government Accountability Office told the committee Wednesday that VA still has not provided an updated cost estimate or detailed documentation of its schedule sufficient for GAO to determine whether the schedule is consistent with leading practices. GAO also noted VA has fully implemented only four of its 18 recommendations related to the EHR modernization program, with 14 still not fully addressed as of August.

Members from both parties questioned the cost increase, the pace of the rollout and whether VA could demonstrate that the additional spending is producing better care.

Lawrence defended the recent deployments as an improvement over earlier phases of the program.

VA has deployed the system to 11 sites in 2026, with Cleveland and Anchorage scheduled to go live in October. The department plans 26 additional site deployments in 2027 and expects to continue deployment waves through 2031.

Lawrence said VA is using 15 “return to normal” measures to determine whether facilities have recovered after implementation, including emergency department throughput, ambulatory visits, surgeries and inpatient care.

He also said trouble tickets have declined with each successive deployment and that, at Indiana on Day 12, more than 75% of trouble tickets had been closed and validated by the end users who submitted them.

Lawmakers questioned whether those measures are enough to demonstrate that the system is working safely and effectively.

Rep. Conaway, D-N.J. raised reports that roughly 300 dermatology patients at a VA facility had their referrals canceled after implementation of the Oracle system, including patients with cancer diagnoses.

VA’s chief medical officer, Dr. Adam Evans, did not explain what had happened. Instead, he asked lawmakers to provide the information so the department could investigate.

Lawmakers question the training

Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., said VA employees had reported completing Oracle’s required training without feeling confident using the system and said some new employees had been unable to document care for two to four weeks.

Lawrence defended VA’s training requirements while acknowledging that the department continues to make changes based on feedback from recent deployments.

Throughout the session, lawmakers asked a spate of questions, including: why Oracle’s proposal for additional work came to roughly $17 billion; what VA negotiated; why taxpayers are being asked to shoulder the additional cost after Oracle’s earlier assurances about cost overruns; and how the new contract ceiling fits into VA’s broader estimate of roughly $37 billion to complete deployment and another $11 billion to sustain the system.

VA officials did not provide detailed answers to those questions during the hearing. The dissatisfaction was bipartisan.

Oracle was not there to speak for themselves. The company initially accepted an invitation to testify before the committee but later declined, citing time constraints.

Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., moved to subpoena Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison and CEO Mike Sicilia, arguing that the committee cannot perform effective oversight when the company responsible for the contract will not appear to answer questions.

Ranking Member Mark Takano, D-Calif., also questioned whether VA had resolved problems identified during earlier deployments, citing concerns from employees at the Michigan, Southern Ohio and Indiana sites.

“Employees in Michigan, Southern Ohio, and Indiana are telling us that many of the issues identified by the first six sites still have not been fixed,” Takano said.

Lawrence, meanwhile, told lawmakers he remained confident VA could complete the remaining deployments within the new contract ceiling.

“This is the money available to do the things we need to do,” Lawrence concluded.

This post was originally published on this site.

The Navy’s top officer issued a directive to get high-energy lasers into sailors’ hands as soon as possible to adapt to the modern combat environment.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle released his 10th C-NOte on Wednesday, saying the service needs to incorporate directed energy technology sooner rather than later to combat a threat environment in which mass-produced, low-cost drones challenge traditional munitions.

“The question is no longer whether these systems work—it is how quickly we can field them across the fleet and place them in the hands of sailors,” Caudle said. “For too long, we have viewed directed energy as an emerging technology rather than an operational capability. That must change.”

The announcement comes amid an Iran war that has seen the Navy and U.S. military at large use a significant portion of their missile interceptor stockpile while deterring ballistic missiles and drones.

The cost of using interceptors to destroy unmanned aerial systems at times exceeds the cost of the system itself, the message said.

Using lasers can help balance that ratio out.

The Navy can preserve those interceptors and other traditional ordnance for military operations that specifically require them and use directed energy to combat the proliferation of drone warfare.

This will help sustain the fight longer.

Directed energy weapons, like high-energy lasers and high-powered microwaves, can also be deployed to defeat small boats, surveillance platforms, and cruise missile threats.

The expansion of available weapons onboard the ship to include lasers will mean commanders will be tasked with deciding whether munitions or directed energy weapons are better suited for a target.

Ships will also need more electrical power to fuel the directed energy weapons, so the Navy fleet will need to consider this when designing ships for the future.

In the meantime, the continued implementation of the Containerized Capability Campaign will help accelerate the fleet’s education on using directed energy weapons, the administrative message said.

The ability to deploy the containers across multiple ships will shorten fielding timelines, streamline the installation process and allow sailors to experiment and learn the weapons.

The experience will allow service members to provide feedback that will help sharpen the Navy’s strategic usage of the weapon and help expedite the service’s development of directed energy weapons’ capabilities.

As adversaries hone their own laser weapons systems, the Navy must continue to strengthen its innovation in the field so that the lasers are combat-ready, the message said.

The containerized initiative was established by Caudle to bridge the gap between the current fleet’s limited fielding capabilities for lasers and the future. Specifically, the campaign allows for directed energy weapons to be deployed on platforms and ships without the need for major redesigns.

Caudle has previously told lawmakers that incorporating high-energy laser weapons could reduce the Navy’s reliance on missile interceptors and open up more space onboard for offensive weapons.

But bringing directed energy weapons into wider fleet use will require ships with significantly greater electrical power capacity, as well as other advances. Those requirements will need to be considered in future ship designs, Caudle said.

This post was originally published on this site.

A Navy corpsman was found dead near a South Carolina waterway on Sunday after he was last seen days earlier close to the Broad River Bridge.

The body of Yu Wei Huo, 33, was found near the river’s shore, according to the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office, which said that an autopsy is pending to determine the cause of death.

HM3 Huo, from Flushing, New York, worked as a dental assistant and was stationed at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Paris Island, the Corps confirmed.

“Out of respect for the sailor’s family and loved ones, no additional details will be released at this time,” the service said in a statement. “The Marine Corps extends its deepest condolences to the family, friends, and fellow service members affected by this loss.”

Last Friday, local officials asked for the public’s help finding Huo, saying that “there is concern for his safety and well-being.”

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating the sailor’s death.

This post was originally published on this site.