What Happened?

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has completed only four of 18 recommended fixes to its troubled electronic health records system, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) told a House committee on Sept. 2. That leaves 14 recommendations unfinished, including 12 the GAO flagged as critical before the agency tries to roll out the new system to hundreds more facilities.

The VA has been trying to replace its aging records system. The first site went live in 2020, but by 2023 veterans and clinicians said the new system wasn't working for them, and the VA stopped expanding it. In December 2024, the agency announced a restart, beginning with four facilities in Michigan. It now plans nine more sites in 2026 and aims to reach roughly 170 facilities by 2031.

Why Does it Matter to Me?

When a veteran sees a VA doctor, that doctor relies on electronic records to track medications, past diagnoses, and test results. A system that isn't working well can mean delays, errors, or gaps in care.

The GAO report found that several configuration change requests, meaning fixes and adjustments to how the system operates, were still waiting to be addressed. Until those are fixed, the GAO warned, users are unlikely to get the full benefit of the new system.

Both Sides, Now

The VA says it is moving forward.

Congressional oversight committees are less confident. The Senate and House committees that control VA funding and policy asked the agency to deliver a detailed cost estimate and schedule by Sept. 30, 2025. The VA provided only what the GAO called a "notional schedule," without the cost estimate or documentation lawmakers needed to judge whether the plan was realistic. The GAO has listed VA health care as a high-risk area for the federal government, in part because of repeated struggles with this modernization effort. This is one of several attempts the VA has made at the project.

What Happens Next?

The VA plans to deploy the system to nine more sites in 2026, but the GAO's testimony makes clear that Congress still lacks the cost and timeline details it requested. Lawmakers on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs could press the VA for that documentation or use the appropriations process, the annual vote on federal spending, to attach conditions to future funding. Until the VA delivers a full cost estimate and closes out the remaining 14 recommendations, the GAO says future deployments carry the same risks that derailed earlier ones.

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