Veterans Affairs: Progress Made in Centralizing Information Technology Management, but Challenges Persist

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

Under the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008, the DoD and the VA are required to accelerate the exchange of health information between the depts. and to develop systems or capabilities that allow for interoperability (generally, the ability of systems to exchange data) and that are compliant with federal standards. The Act also established a joint interagency program office to function as a single point of accountability for the effort, which is to implement such systems or capabilities by Sept. 30, 2009. This report evaluates the dept¿s. progress and plans toward sharing electronic health information that comply with fed. standards, and whether the interagency program office is positioned to function as a single point of accountability. Illus.