The Veterans Affairs Department will not openly recompete a $102.6 million contract to manage a critical portion of its future integrated electronic health record (iEHR) system with the Defense Department.
Instead, VA will award the contract to the second most qualified bidder, said VA Spokeswoman Jo Schuda. The firm has not been named.
Last month, VA canceled the contract it had awarded to Fairfax, Va.-based ASM Research Inc. to manage a portion of the iEHR, called the enterprise service bus, which will allow various components of the future system to communicate with each other and with VA and DoD health information stored in data centers. The contract was awarded under VA’s $12 billion Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology, or T4, program.
“This decision was based on the findings of an investigation by the government into an alleged organizational conflict of interest focused on the involvement of individuals from a subcontractor company on the ASM Research team,” the company said in a statement.
Schuda said the enterprise service bus is only part of the iEHR development, which includes more than 20 other projects that are underway.
“While we’re still assessing the exact impact on iEHR development, we believe it will be minimal,” she said.
