I recently had the opportunity to speak with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Eric Shinseki about many of the issues facing East Tennessee veterans. As a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and a veteran myself, I am committed to ensuring that veterans around the country receive the medical care and benefits they earned through their service. I have the utmost respect and appreciation for our veterans and the sacrifices they have made to protect the freedom we hold dear.

Over the last year, the VA has worked to keep its promise of ending the claims backlog by 2015, but a recent report released by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of American (IAVA) found that, since cutting the number of claims from 600,000 in March 2013 to 400,000 in November, the VA hasn’t made additional progress. It is evident we need to improve our current system to ensure that active duty servicemembers can easily transition into the VA without delays.

It seems to me that one way to cut down on the number of claims would be to improve the coordination between the Department of Defense (DoD) and the VA when a servicemember leaves their service and enters the VA system. I am particularly troubled by the lack of coordination for veterans health records, as the VA and DoD have been pursuing separate electronic health record (EHR) systems  for their respective agencies that were unable to allow veterans to transition seamlessly between the two systems.

This is why I introduced the Integrated Electronic Health Records for Military and Veterans Act, legislation to create a public-private partnership for development of an integrated EHR system for our military and veterans. This bill would allow active duty personnel to transition seamlessly to the VA system with their full medical history available. In an age of instantaneous information transfer, it is unacceptable that DoD and VA cannot work together to avoid these unnecessary headaches. It’s time to solve this problem once and for all by engaging the creativity of private companies and individuals to develop a solution to a problem that the government still hasn’t solved.  

Last week, at a hearing on the VA budget held by the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I asked Secretary Shinseki when veterans could expect a resolution on this important issue. He indicated the DoD is still requesting and reviewing proposals, but it’s possible a new system could be rolled out sometime in 2016. Since I’ve been in Congress, the discussion over EHR and claims backlog is one we’ve had each year, and I don’t want to look back in 10 years to see we’re still talking in circles. Based on what I’ve heard from Secretary Shinseki, I am confident that the secretary is keenly aware of the importance of this issue and is working toward a long-term solution.  

I am committed to finding solutions to the problems our veterans face. There are more than 500,000 veterans in the state of Tennessee. Rest assured, as long as I have the privilege of serving the First District, I will continue to fight for each and every one of them.  

Feel free to contact my office if we can be of assistance to you or your family.