Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, is calling out the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for ongoing failures to seamlessly transfer medical data for warfighters transitioning from active duty to veteran status.
“When the warfighter transitions from the DoD to the VA, all of those amazing records – search calls, medical records – are more or less lost in translation,” Luttrell said during a House Armed Services Subcommittee hearing on May 8.
Luttrell pointed out that although the VA has made significant investments in its Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program – which is designed to ensure a smooth, paperless transition for veterans moving from DoD care to VA facilities – the system still falls short of delivering a seamless experience for veterans.
“I want the DoD and the VA to make it completely seamless for the service members to move into the veteran space. Have all that information transmit or transfer without any effort whatsoever from the veteran,” he said.
Katie Arrington, acting chief information officer for the DoD and an early participant in efforts to integrate the EHRM program, agreed with Luttrell’s assessment, stating bluntly: “It absolutely does not work.”
However, she offered a sliver of hope for the program’s future, noting that foundational progress is underway to close the data transfer gap – particularly through the implementation of standardized data practices.
“We are creating data standards, data labeling, and data tagging that have never been used before in the department,” Arrington said. “So, data in one disparate source [can] be tagged and labeled in a way that it can transverse from the DoD to the VA.”
A key initiative supporting this effort is the development of a federated data network backed by Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) technology. This system is designed to preserve a service member’s digital identity throughout and beyond their military career, enabling seamless access to their data across agencies.
“If you get out of the service, your identity remains. The data that is pertinent and related to you can be directly accessed by you,” Arrington explained.
With ICAM at its core, the goal is to build a secure “data lake” – a protected, scalable repository where military health and service records are not only stored but structured for easy retrieval and use by VA systems. This would allow veterans to access care without having to reverify or re-explain their medical histories, ultimately leading to faster, more personalized treatment.
Luttrell pressed Arrington on whether the VA and DoD were truly collaborating on the effort.
“Are we looking at that? Are we addressing that? Is DoD having the conversation with the VA?” he asked.
Arrington assured the Texas Republican that both agencies are indeed working together to improve data management and ensure a more seamless transition for service members moving from DoD to VA care.