VA Ties Community Care Modernization to EHR Interoperability

The Department Veterans Affairs is taking steps to achieve its longstanding goal to seamlessly move and share patients’ electronic medical records between its network and other health care organizations. VA officials told Congress last week that a modern electronic health record system is at the heart of its ambitious Community Care Network (CCN) Next Generation (Next Gen) procurement contract to maximize health care access and choice for veterans.

Issued as a Request for Proposals for CCN Next Gen on Dec. 15, 2025, and valued at nearly $1 trillion over 10 years, the contract uses the VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks (VA MISSION) Act as a platform to increase competition, upgrade and modernize the provider network and enhance the services already laid out in the legislation.

VA Focuses on Interoperability 

Testifying to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs on Jan. 22, Richard Topping, the VA’s assistant secretary for management and chief financial officer, outlined the challenge: the department’s bespoke electronic health record system is more than 30 years old, requiring new patient medical records to be manually loaded in. The new contract requires the VA to upgrade its existing system to allow health records to seamlessly move between the Community Care Network and participating health care providers.

To achieve this, the VA is investing $300 million to modernize its EHR system to industry standards and requiring participating providers to use commercial health exchanges. When it is fully operational, CCN Next Gen’s system will allow providers to directly send medical records to the VA and enable interoperability with other government health care providers like TRICARE and the War Department’s medical systems.

“We are going to transfer medical records, share medical records in the same way the rest of industry does. … We want to be as plug-and-play as possible,” Topping said.

Topping added that the VA expects CCN Next Gen’s program design, along with changes to payments, to provide significant savings of 8 to 14% over the life of the contracts. He noted the cost-containment framework is expected to reduce community care spending by $54 to $100 billion over the next decade. These savings will be driven by fewer unnecessary hospitalizations, improved management of high-cost services and drugs, improved quality and stronger fraud and payment controls, he said.

Revolutionizing Community Health Services

Topping said the contract aims to revolutionize how the VA manages contracts for its CCN by allowing the department to make multiple rounds of task orders to contractors. The structure allows the VA to adapt CCN Next Gen to meet veterans’ changing needs over time and allows many vendors to compete for multiple rounds of varied task orders, ensuring continuous competition over the life of the contract. The awards will vary in capability, opening avenues for smaller, regional firms to participate.

The contract will dramatically modernize current CCN contracts by providing the VA with the tools and capabilities “to drive outcomes, ensure quality, and manage costs effectively,” Topping said.