President Donald Trump signed the Veterans Affairs Department appropriations bill (HR 5895) on Sept. 21, which includes a provision mandating that the agency decide the fate of a patient-scheduling project within 90 days, according to the Politico Morning eHealth newsletter.
The Epic-Leidos patient-scheduling project is being piloted at a site in Columbus, Ohio, and is currently under budget and expected to finish within three years — a fraction of the time officials originally planned.
According to the provision, the VA has 90 days to decide whether to terminate or continue the project as it begins implementing a Cerner EHR systemwide. The contract with Cerner includes a scheduling system component, however, the nationwide rollout is expected to take nearly 10 years.
If the VA drops its work with Epic and Leidos, "conferees are disturbed that some regions of the country will not benefit from the scheduling system for a decade," despite "the continuing problem of delayed appointments" at VA facilities, according to a joint House-Senate statement about the provision.