Days after John Bartrum’s exit, John Figueroa takes up the reins of the agency charged with modernizing veteran health records for a second time.

After pausing deployments in 2023 following years of failures, EHR rollouts at four Michigan facilities this month went smoothly, according to Secretary Doug Collins and Sen. Gary…

The VA secretary says the lawmakers are “cherry picking years old problems.”

The package to end the government shutdown gives the VA $3.4 billion for the EHR rollout — but there’s a catch.

Doug Collins also said the agency is “going to continue” with the implementation of its External Provider Scheduling tool.

The fiscal 2026 budget proposal calls for a $2.17 billion jump in funding for the VA’s troubled EHRM, and promises more DOGE involvement in agency IT systems.

The rollout of the agency’s electronic health record follows continued scrutiny of the system from Congress and other watchdogs.

VA Chief Acquisition Officer Michael Parrish earlier this week said his agency is working to add new enforcement mechanisms to the contract.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said Monday that the department it is working through an implementation check list for each hospital set to receive the new system.

The outage affected VA, DOD and Coast Guard sites and left medical staff recording patient information on paper documentation.