A $100 Million Dental Bill

I reported last month that the Military Health System plans to evaluate two competing applications for its dental electronic health record to make sure it fields the right system, including one it already sunk $100 million into, my sources close to the MHS Skyline HQ in Falls Church, Va., told me.

The $100 million system, AHLTA Dental, looked real dandy until the Army abruptly halted the roll out in November.

MHS told me that it wanted to evaluate AHLTA Dental, developed by Northrop Grumman Corp. and maintained by SAIC, against the Army's Corporate Dental Application, developed by Harris Corp. MHS Chief Information Office Chuck Campbell said it made sense to examine all options before fielding a dental health record for all three services.

OK, this has a certain logic to it. But with two wars going on and an economy that supposedly is just now climbing out of the pit, does MHS really have the luxury to deep six a system it has sunk $100 million into, only to run around and spend another $100 million on another?

This makes my teeth hurt.