The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is looking to extend its contract with Oracle Health – formerly Oracle Cerner – for the agency’s Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program as it is quickly running out of money.
According to a notice posted to SAM.gov on Aug. 11, the VA is looking to increase the total contract ceiling value, which is already at nearly $10 billion. However, the proposed increase and new total contract ceiling are redacted from the documents.
“Due to unanticipated complexities in deploying the EHR system, VA has reached the current contract ceiling sooner than originally planned,” one of the documents said. “Accordingly, the expanded scope is necessary to ensure continued EHRM deployment activities and associated support services until all VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) and associated facilities have fully transitioned to the EHR system.”
VA said it expects to use the remaining ceiling by the first quarter of fiscal year 2027.
The agency is proposing three one-year optional ordering periods that would extend the contract through May 16, 2031.
The current contract is set to expire in May 2028. However, as of July 2026, the VA had deployed the new EHR system, known as the Federal EHR, to just 14 out of 164 VA medical centers.
Under VA’s current 2026 schedule, the department has slated three Federal EHR deployments for August at Fort Wayne VAMC in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Marion VAMC in Marion, Ind.; and Richard L. Roudebush VAMC in Indianapolis. VA also plans October deployments at Alaska VA Healthcare System in Anchorage and Louis Stokes Cleveland VAMC in Cleveland.
In 2027, the VA plans to deploy the system to 26 sites across Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Missouri.
The agency has yet to publicly release a deployment schedule beyond 2027.
In May 2018, the VA awarded a 10-year contract to Cerner, now Oracle Health, to implement the EHR system. It then modified the contract in 2023, taking a tougher stance to hold Oracle Cerner accountable for technical fixes to the program whose rollout has been beset with difficulties.
The VA paused deployments of the Federal EHR in April 2023 alongside contractor Oracle Health following concerns from users at early deployment sites. The agency finally resumed deployments in April of this year, after fixing problems related to the initial rollout.
The Federal EHR go-lives in Michigan in April and in Ohio and Kentucky in June have gone smoothly.
VA Secretary Doug Collins told lawmakers in April that the agency’s EHRM rollouts have “been a success.” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., also vouched for the success of the rollouts in his home state, saying, “The reports have been very positive from the folks in Michigan.”
The agency also rolled out a new chatbot, VA ChatEHR, to assist VA staff using the new Federal EHR. VA ChatEHR has answered over 53,000 questions from more than 8,000 users since April.