Congress approves $1.4 billion military health IT budget

Congress fully funded the Military Health System's information technology systems for fiscal 2012 as part of a multiagency appropriations act passed this weekend, but a separate measure limits how the Defense Department can spend the money.

The omnibus spending package includes $1.4 billion for military health IT. The fiscal 2012 Defense Authorization Act passed last week, however, restricts spending on a next-generation electronic health record system until the Pentagon has met specific requirements.

MHS requested a fiscal 2012 research budget of $86.5 million and an operations budget of $4.6 million for its next-generation electronic health record called EHR Way Ahead; the authorization act allows Defense to spend only 10 percent of those funds until the secretary reports to Congress that MHS has developed an architecture that is cost-effective and interoperable.

In addition, the secretary's report must define the role of the Defense-Veterans Affairs Interagency Program Office in developing a joint electronic health record the two departments agreed on this May.

The omnibus appropriations act also included a $3.1 billion information technology budget for the Veterans Affairs Department in 2012, $50 million below the amount VA requested in January.

The bill restricts VA from spending any of its fiscal 2012 IT budget until it certifies to Congress that its projects meet Office of Management and Budget capital planning requirements and conform to established enterprise life-cycle standards.