Key facts
- The letter went to chairs and ranking members of House and Senate committees for veterans' affairs and appropriations.
- NAVAPD also delivered the letter to bipartisan congressional leadership, oversight and appropriations committees, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
- The association asked VA to report and disclose documented patient safety events at facilities using Oracle Health EHR software.
- NAVAPD requested that the House Veterans' Affairs Committee gather patient safety incident information from Oracle during the executives' subpoena appearance.
The National Association of Veteran Affairs Physicians and Dentists asked Congress in an Oct. 12, 2026 letter to pause further deployments of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Oracle Health electronic health record system. | cite: Nextgov.com, navapd.org
The letter went to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate committees on veterans’ affairs and appropriations. NAVAPD also delivered it to bipartisan congressional leadership, oversight and appropriations committees, and the U.S. Government Accountability Office. | cite: Nextgov.com, navapd.org
The association says it represents about 20,000 physicians and dentists across VA’s nearly 170 medical facilities. It said deployments should restart only after VA finishes an independent patient-safety assessment at sites already converted. | cite: Nextgov.com, navapd.org
The group asked Congress to hold off on more Oracle EHR implementations and instead fund patient care, system upkeep, and safety fixes at sites already running the system. It urged an independent safety review at sites already using the system, with contributions from frontline doctors, dentists, and nurses. It also asked VA to report and make public documented patient safety events at facilities running Oracle Health EHR software. The letter points to workflow disruptions in clinical settings, delayed referrals, patient safety incidents, and rising program costs. | cite: Nextgov.com, navapd.org
NAVAPD asked the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee to collect patient safety incident information from Oracle when its executives appear under subpoena. It called for an independent comparison of staying with Oracle or modernizing VistA, covering costs, risks, feasibility, and AI-assisted development tools. NAVAPD requested additional documentation and justification for proposed contract cost increases and sought a written response from Congress by Oct. 23, 2026. | cite: Nextgov.com, navapd.org
Nineteen VA medical facilities currently operate the new EHR system, with two additional sites in Ohio and Alaska having gone live on Saturday. VA Secretary Doug Collins has set 13 as the total number of site rollouts for this year. In December 2024, the Biden administration announced plans to resume deployments at four Michigan-based VA medical facilities in 2026, with VA targeting mid-2026 after early-stage planning announced December 20, 2024. | cite: Nextgov.com, congress.gov
The VA’s initial contract with Cerner was worth $10 billion and dates to May 2018. Oracle bought Cerner in 2022 and renamed it Oracle Health. Last month, the VA and Oracle moved to extend their contract, adding a $17 billion ceiling and three one-year options, a move that reportedly caught lawmakers in both parties off guard. | cite: Nextgov.com
A 19-0 vote by lawmakers in both parties sent subpoenas to Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and Oracle CEO Mike Sicilia. The subpoena orders them to testify before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. The panel is expecting an open hearing with the Oracle CEO on November 19. “the Committee intends to hear from the CEO of Oracle on November 19th,” said a spokesperson for Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill. | cite: Nextgov.com
The House panel on veterans’ affairs held a contentious hearing last month on the EHR modernization project. VA paused most Oracle Health electronic health record rollouts in April 2023, except for one facility in North Chicago. The Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center received the system in March 2024. | cite: Nextgov.com, congress.gov
Technology and usability problems, rising costs, and patient safety concerns have surfaced since the initial modernized rollout in 2020. The project is part of a federal drive to field one interoperable EHR for the Defense Department, Coast Guard, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. | cite: Nextgov.com
GAO put current life cycle cost estimates for EHR modernization at between VA’s $16.1 billion and an independent figure of $49.8 billion. As of February 2025, roughly 1,800 complex configuration change requests remained unresolved at VA. GAO reported in February 2025 that 14 of 15 earlier EHR modernization recommendations remained unimplemented. The first modernized rollout came in October 2020 at Mann-Grandstaff in Spokane, Washington, followed by four more sites in 2022. | cite: congress.gov
GAO estimated that 160 medical centers, or 94 percent of the total, would still be without the new system in mid-2026. User surveys from 2024 still showed general dissatisfaction with the new system at VA. | cite: congress.gov
VA’s spending on EHR modernization totaled about $12.71 billion between fiscal year 2018 and the third quarter of fiscal year 2024. VistA, the VA legacy system, has run for more than 30 years and costs a lot to maintain. GAO has designated VA health care as high-risk for the federal government, partly because of IT challenges and the EHR modernization rollout. | cite: congress.gov
In December 2025, Senators Richard Blumenthal, Patty Murray, and Elissa Slotkin wrote to VA Secretary Doug Collins about the EHR rollout timeline. The senators said problems and defects in the EHR remain insufficiently addressed. They pointed to a 2024 VA watchdog finding connecting a scheduling mistake in the modernized record system to a veteran’s 2022 death in Ohio. A March 2025 GAO report cited by the senators found that 58 percent of modernized EHR users believed the system raised safety risks. | cite: FedScoop
Kasperowicz said the system has improved since the Biden administration and pointed to 13 planned deployment sites for next year. Kasperowicz said VA’s EHR was incident-free 96.68 percent of the time over the previous 18 months as of September. Kasperowicz said user interruptions have fallen over at least the last 35 months. | cite: FedScoop
Collins said on X that staff satisfaction with the new system has doubled since 2024. He added that veteran outpatient trust scores rose at every deployed site. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., said the panel saw meaningful good signs but cannot ignore other warning signs. NAVAPD said high-quality care for veterans depends on an electronic health record that is dependable, safe and effective. | cite: navapd.org, FedScoop
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