Trump’s overreach on Veterans Administration

WASHINGTON » Veterans Day prompted President Donald Trump and his administration to take stock of what’s been done to fix health care for those in uniform. They claimed more progress than has been made.

That tendency to overreach extended to trade and the economy as Trump visited Japan, South Korea, Japan and then Vietnam, where he told U.S. veterans of the Vietnam War that the Department of Veterans Affairs has made “amazing” strides and already “is a whole new place.”

His remarks and a White House account of progress at the VA did not acknowledge old problems that persist. For example, a key effort to improve waiting times by revamping the VA’s electronic medical record system may not be completed for eight more years — when Trump will be out of office.

A look at some statements about the VA and other topics arising from his travels and over the past week:

WHITE HOUSE statement Thursday: “President Trump announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs will adopt the same Electronic Health Record as the Department of Defense. VA’s adoption ... will ultimately result in all patient data residing in one common system, enabling

the immediate availability of service members’ medical records and seamless care between the departments.”

THE FACTS: While the administration did announce in June that it would overhaul the VA’s aging information technology system, VA Secretary David Shulkin admitted to Congress last month that the project to revamp electronic medical records won’t be completed for seven to eight years. The full costs of the project also are not known and have yet to be budgeted.

An upgraded IT system is central to the VA’s effort to reduce wait times for medical care as well as to

fulfill Trump’s promise of increasing private care options for veterans. Under Shulkin’s plan to expand the Choice private-sector program, the VA would outsource more routine veterans’ care to private providers including Minute-Clinics while treating more complex injuries. Success of that plan requires a seamless sharing of medical records not only with the Pentagon but also with private physicians, a capability the VA does not currently have.

Shulkin also has yet to negotiate pricing for the no-bid contract with the company that designed the Pentagon’s IT system, estimated to cost at least $16 billion.