The Department of Veterans Affairs is telling Congress its multi-billion dollar contract for a systemwide EHR with Cerner could be awarded within the first two weeks of November, extending beyond its original timeline, reports Politico Morning eHealth newsletter.
The project's lead program officer, the Executive Director for VA Electronic Health Record Modernization John Windom, reportedly echoed this early November date at an industry conference last week, and sources told Politico the VA and Cerner have essentially finished negotiating.
The $18 billion cost estimate is "consistent with what we're hearing from VA, but until the contract is finalized we aren't 100 percent certain what the cost will be," one source told Politico.
When the VA announced it was selecting Cerner as its new EHR in June, the agency specified it could take up to six months to finalize a contract. At the end of September, VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD, said the contract would be awarded by the end of October.
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