Dive Brief:
- The Veterans Affairs Department recently announced 21 companies, including Booz Allen Hamilton, Accenture, and IBM, have been awarded contracts worth up to $22.3 billion to upgrade the agency's IT platform, cyber security, and operations and network management.
- The awards are part of the Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation program, T4NG, which does not replace the VA's current EHR system but aims to improve the agency's care coordination and services.
- VA Secretary Robert McDonald says "T4NG will help meet and strengthen the VA's long-term technology needs."
Dive Insight:
Ten of the awards for T4NG program were made to Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses. Two of them were made to small businesses, and nine to large businesses.
The VA has been awarding big contracts to overhaul not only its IT platform, but also its EHRs.
Cerner was awarded a $4.33 billion contract this past summer to install a new EHR system for the military's 600 clinics and 55 hospitals. Less than a month ago, Cerner was awarded another large DOD contract of $50.7 million for data hosting, as previously reported by Healthcare Dive. Although several companies objected to the award, Cerner's software is such that it must host its own EHR data.