EHR Cerner

Cerner Picks 24 Companies To Help Convert VA From VistA In $10 Billion Contract

Cerner has pulled together a cadre of 24 health and tech companies to help it convert the Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health records from VistA to its own system in a $10 billion conversion project that will likely cost around $30 billion.

“We have formed a world class team that has the best interest of Veterans at heart,” Travis Dalton, president of Cerner Government Services, said in a statement Wednesday. “This is the beginning of a long transformational journey. We will continue to seek and bring the best talent available to the VA. Our nation’s Veterans deserve the highest quality care and we are confident we have brought the right players to this team to succeed in our collective mission.”

Cerner selected seven companies as its “core team” that includes known characters to the VA scene:

  • Leidos
  • Guidehouse
  • Accenture
  • Henry Schein Inc.
  • AbleVets LLC
  • MicroHealth
  • ProSource360

Another 17 companies will also be helping out including numerous veteran-owned companies.

“Cerner has brought together some of this country’s brightest industry leaders to transform veteran health care delivery,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said. “This team will create a single longitudinal health record that can facilitate the efficient exchange of data among military care facilities, VA facilities and the thousands of civilian health care providers where current and former service members receive care.”

The additional companies are:

  • ACI Federal
  • B3 Group Inc.
  • Blue Sky Innovative Solutions
  • Clarus Group LLC
  • Forward Thinking Innovations LLC
  • HCTec
  • HRG Technologies
  • KRM Associates Inc.
  • Liberty IT Solutions
  • MedicaSoft
  • MedSys Group
  • Holland Square Group
  • PM Solutions
  • Point Solutions Group
  • Sharpe Medical Consulting
  • Signature Performance
  • ThomasRiley Strategies.

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8 Comments

  1. If it were left up to me, it would cost even less through integrated and contractual agreements on aligning with the private sector. Eventually, I wouldn’t doubt that a deal will soon be on the table on this very thing.

  2. A few of the monthly highlights from August courtesy of the VAOIG.

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    Former East Orange, New Jersey, VA Medical Center Physician Sentenced for Fraud Scheme A VA Office of Inspector General (OIG), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) OIG investigation revealed that on more than 350 occasions between 2011 and 2015, the defendant submitted documentation to VA in which he claimed to have performed procedures that he had not actually performed. The former VA physician who was contracted to perform medical procedures at the East Orange, New Jersey, Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) on a fee basis was sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment and 24 months’ supervised release. The defendant was also ordered to pay restitution of approximately $238,000 to VA, an additional forfeiture of more than $238,000, and a fine of $7,500. As the result of a civil settlement, the defendant must pay an additional $476,460.

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    Former Marion, Indiana, VA Medical Center Nursing Assistant Convicted of Criminal Deviant Conduct A former Marion, Indiana, VAMC nursing assistant was convicted of criminal deviant conduct after a four-day jury trial. An OIG and VA Police Service investigation revealed that the defendant performed a sexual act on a patient who was living in the VAMC’s dementia ward.

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    Former Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Veterans Affairs Regional Office Employee Pled Guilty to Wire Fraud and Identity Theft

    A former Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Regional Office employee pled guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identify theft in a scheme to defraud VA of approximately $838,000. An OIG investigation revealed the defendant’s duties included the review, approval, and authorization of veterans’ benefits claims. The defendant accessed the personally identifiable information (PII) of veterans and their spouses to manipulate preexisting claims and to create fake claims. Prior to authorizing the fictitious or altered claims, the defendant changed the direct deposit claim information to divert the stolen funds to his co-conspirators’ accounts. After receiving the direct deposits from VA, his co-conspirators provided the defendant with a kickback. The defendant manipulated records internally to avoid detection in this scheme. As a result of this investigation, nine individuals were arrested and convicted.

    __

    Former VA Field Examiner Convicted of Multiple Criminal Charges

    A VA OIG and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) OIG investigation revealed that while the defendant was a field examiner, he drafted a will for an incompetent veteran and deceptively inserted is name as the sole beneficiary of the veteran’s finances, valued at approximately $680,000. The defendant also lied to VA about his own purported disabilities to obtain a 100-percent permanent and total disability rating. After resigning, the defendant lied on his application to be a “background investigator” with OPM. The loss to VA due to his false benefit claims is approximately $320,000. He was convicted of wire fraud, mail fraud, theft of public money, conflict of interest, and false statements.

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    Misuse of Time and Resources within the Veterans Engineering Resource Center in
    Indianapolis, Indiana

    The VA OIG Administrative Investigations Division sustained an allegation that a Supervisory Industrial Engineer misused VA time and resources to start a privately-owned business and solicited subordinate staff to join this business. The OIG found that the engineer, who worked within the Veterans Health Administration(VHA) Office of Strategic Integration’s Veterans Engineering Resource Center (VERC), used a VA email account to communicate with subordinate staff, criticize VERC restructuring, and propose they use their collective experience to create a company to offer services to outside organizations. The OIG found VA time and resources were misused to conduct non-VA business during and after official duty hours. At one point, 43 VA employees, most of whom have since left VA, were on the company roster. The OIG also found that the engineer misused his VA email on several occasions to manage multiple personally-owned rental properties.
    See- https://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-17-04156-234.pdf

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    Processing Inaccuracies Involving Veterans’ Intent to File Submissions for Benefits

    The OIG conducted a review to determine whether Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) staff assigned correct effective dates on claims for compensation benefits with an intent to file (ITF). An ITFallows claimants the opportunity to provide minimal information related to the benefit sought and up to one year to submit a complete claim. VA may use the date of receipt of an ITF as an earlier effective date for paying benefits. The OIG found that VBA staff did not always assign correct effective dates from March 24, 2015, to September 30, 2017, resulting in over $72 million in improper payments. Most errors occurred during the initial period of ITF implementation. This was largely due to lack of standard operating procedures, inadequate procedural guidance for electronic ITF submissions, deficient and delayed training, and lack of functionality in the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS). The OIG recommended modernizing the ITF system and possibly integrating submissions into the VBMS. In addition, the OIG recommended a special review of ITFs submitted during the period of concern.
    See- https://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-17-04919-210.pdf

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    For more of the VAOIG August 2018 Highlights see- https://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/highlights/vaoig-highlights-201808.pdf

  3. Why the outrageous price tag, seems to me the VA is having a ball with these transaction and the crooks behind the Cerner Corporation and it’s goons with their hands out, there has to be a competitor out there that can handle this massive plan and help save tons of money in the process, I’m not an IT guy but somebody can develop a better system then the one the VA is using or clean up the bugs out of it, the VA needs to hire some of the top minds like MIT students that can probably accomplish this task or continue to search

  4. This FOSP (Fuckup Of Stellar Proportions) Project by the VA should be fun to watch.

    Here is another:

    “https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/some-veterans-are-going-into-debt-waiting-for-overdue-gi-bill-benefits/ar-BBO3bVD”

    POTUS and Congressional Critters spout off “We owe a lot to our nations veterans . . .”

    They certainly have a ‘funny’ way of showing it!

  5. All well and good-intended for those deep-pocketed contractors receiving Uncle Sugar’s $$$$, but mark my words, the VA will not be on same page as Cerner or other 17 Co.’s and even predict all 17 Co.’s and Veteran owned Co.’s will be on completely different pages, increasing cost of a never-to-be brought-up-to-date beyond cup and string tech the VA currently possesses.

    This is but another ruse/smokescreen for a multi-Billion dip into the Veteran Cookie Jar…Denver VAMC Black Hole of IT “fixes”….while the same sacks of meat operate system….

  6. “from VistA to its own system in a $10 billion conversion project that will likely cost around $30 billion.”

    The sad reality is that it will exceed $150 Billion and will never be completed or function properly.

    When it is never completed and found to never be able to function as promised it will open the door to the next great boondoggle.

    How a Veteran can know this is just look at Wilkie and his plans that include all the VSOs.

    The never ending failure of the VA!

  7. Finally, Sounds like a software solution to a software problem instead of locking in a company to billions in contracts.

  8. Here we go again…
    “This is the beginning of a long transformational journey. We will continue to seek and bring the best talent available to the VA. Our nation’s Veterans deserve the highest quality care and we are confident we have brought the right players to this team to succeed in our collective mission.”

    Bark bark call me Diogenes. “In search of an honest man.” More PC, honest human beings. Especially when it comes to health care to government or VSOs.

    “Implementation.” “Mergers.” The “collective” yep for what to what end? Another generations old “beginnings.” Broken records and old horses beat to dust.

    How will all this bull shit function well across the board when even civilian hospitals and clinics can openly and legally refuse to give those being retaliated against their medical files or send them out to referrals??? Give us files with lies and cover-ups? Or punish some nurse or staff for merely intentionally not inserting info into our files or remarks to be discussed in the forth coming appointments filled with failures, excuses, etc.

    As even seen on this board and some of us experience daily in real life. Just because the word or stamp on something “veteran” doesn’t actually mean they are out or for the rest of us, or for all. Many in certain positions of power are our worse enemy, VA or civilian, or politically since it’s combined too in health care today. Easy to see their hearts and agendas when many cut, run, ignore, or join the machine when it comes to corruption, retaliation, failures, or fearing to get involved in some issue. If an entire state and community can come out legally to black-ball or attack their perceived enemy are they, will any, willing to lose their own business, lifestyle or connections with the machine or be ethical and stand up to it all. Not in this culture of corruption.

    It would be interesting to see all those connected with those mentioned in the long list of groups or businesses, new and deeply permanently installed. Their shareholders, secret investors, connections, all the visa users and foreigners, foreign companies used, all of it.

    Seems we’ve discussed this before when it comes to the fancy talk about instantaneous electronic file transferring combined with emergency care and all.

    Why does Wilkie and others totally dismiss or ignore some of us with rock solid proof about any of it? You know he has to read this board like others do … from ‘up there.’ The “top.” Might show the chains of corruption and harm one of their own? Expose too much bottom to top? Or those at the top we are allowed to be aware of or known. How this issue has become so weaponized by many… VA, contractors, civy sector, etc? Too many pockets and insiders lining their pockets. I continue to read, see, and hear a cacophony of bull shit.

    Soros connections?
    Bill Gates?
    Ayers?
    Hillary?
    Bloombergs?
    Red China?

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