The Defense Health Agency has put a foot forward with revamping its clinical information systems after it inked a bridged contract with a Reston, Va.-based technology and defense company. 

 

Leidos, previously the Science Applications International Corporation, landed the $70.7 million contract from DHA in which it will support the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application and Composite Health Care System with logistics, data mapping, beta site support, remote monitoring and enterprise scheduling support. 

 

 

[See also: VA, DoD get tighter leash with iEHR cash.]

 

The only catch? The funds aren't yet available, so the contract is contingent upon government funding in the near future. Leidos' contract will be good for up to 11 months.

 

According to the Defense Health Program's 2015 fiscal year budget estimates, the integrated electronic health record and Department of Defense Healthcare Management Systems modernization will cost nearly $1.57 billion over the course of five years, $18 million of the pie dedicated to the iEHR development.  

 

Original estimates for the iEHR were between $4 billion and $6 billion. In September 2012, however, the Interagency Program Office doubled its previous estimates, pegging the final price tag somewhere between $8 billion and $12 billion. Ultimately, both estimates proved to be grossly inaccurate, as costs climbed to a whopping $28 billion early last year, with no iEHR to show for it. 

 

Just this January, lawmakers on Capitol Hill took aim at the DoD and VA for their dilatory pace in developing the iEHR between the two agencies. "The actions of the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs in developing an electronic health record continue to be of concern to the Committees," House lawmakers wrote in a preliminary appropriations bill. "The Committees want to be very clear with both Departments: An interoperable record between the two Departments is the chief end-goal for Congress."