Senator Murray Presses VA Secretary Nominee Doug Collins on EHR, Making VA Work for Women Veterans and Preserving Access to Lifesaving Abortion Care at Collins’ Nomination Hearing

***VIDEO of Murray’s Q&A at nomination hearing HERE**

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, pressed Douglas A. Collins, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on how he would prioritize getting the Electronic Health Record (EHR) system right before it’s deployed to more sites—including what specific steps he would take to hold Oracle accountable and ensure the system is safe for veterans—at the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on his nomination. Murray also pressed Mr. Collins on making the VA work for women veterans—who are the fastest-growing demographic of veterans—and whether he plans to eliminate access to lifesaving abortion care for women veterans who get their health care at VA.

“Back in 2018, under President Trump’s first administration, the VA and Cerner, which is now Oracle Cerner, signed a no-bid contract to roll out the Cerner Electronic Health Record to all VA facilities, and the first site went live in my home state in 2020—and it was disastrous. VA and Oracle endangered patients by rushing the deployment, not making sure the system was technically sound, not working with the clinicians on the ground, and not providing sufficient training. And veterans and providers in my home state are still paying the price for that,” Murray said at today’s hearing.

“Last month, the VA announced that it would be moving forward with pre-deployment activities at the next four sites for the Electronic Health Record. You said, and you referenced it here, that you plan to make EHR a ‘priority’–I want to know what specifically that means. Are you going to prioritize it by rushing the implementation, or are you going to prioritize it by getting this system right and focusing on veteran safety and clinical productivity issues moving forward?”

Mr. Collins responded by saying that his first step would be to “look at it from fresh eyes,” and bring in Oracle to get a better sense of what their issues are.  “We’re going to listen to our clinicians. We’re going to listen to our hospitals. And as I said just a few minutes ago—we’re special in who we care for, but we’re not unique. There’s no reason in the world we cannot get this done. And I think that’s the concern that I have, because this body—and you in particular—have done such a great job with the appropriations process of making sure that we’re funding a system, but we’re now sitting here six to eight years away, and nothing’s happened,” Mr. Collins said.

“If confirmed, I’m going to gather together members of my staff that will be specifically tasked to—as soon as possible within the first days of this administration—see what is the issue. I believe that we can do it and do it properly, not rushed. There’s enough information there that I believe we can actually get it done quicker, but it’s going to take looking at,” Collins said.

Murray asked Collins to, “please make sure that you talk with those people on the ground that have been dealing with this to understand what has gone wrong, why it’s been such a problem as you take on those next steps,” and requested that he stay in close touch with her on the issue. “This has been, as this committee knows, my top priority, and I have just been so frustrated with it, so I want to stay in touch with you,” Murray said.

“It’s time to get it done,” Collins agreed. “I will not accept ‘we can’t do it.’ I will not accept, ‘I don’t know.’ I will not accept, ‘We don’t have enough money.’ You had eight years and billions of dollars, So I’m with you on this. We will definitely work together.”

Murray continued on with her questioning, saying: “I care deeply about our women veterans and that they have the services they need. So I want to just ask you, do you believe a veteran, who lives in Texas, who has been raped and becomes pregnant, should be able to get abortion care at her local VA?”

“Senator–that is an issue that is very sensitive in this body. It is something that has been looked at. Here’s what the law actually says: the original law from 1992 says the VA does not do abortions. Two years ago, that was a decision that was looked at and decided. I will tell you this: We will be looking at that issue when I get in there to confirm that the VA is actually following the law,” Mr. Collins replied.

Murray pressed Mr. Collins on whether he planned to modify the law, to which he demurred, saying “when we get in, we’re going to look and make sure that the law is being followed–from the 1992 law, where it said they couldn’t, and the revision that just happened.”

“Well, I want you to know that I’ll be following this very closely. I want to make sure that women veterans get the health care they need,” Murray concluded.

Senator Murray was the first woman to join the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the first woman to chair the Committee—as the daughter of a World War II veteran, supporting veterans and their families has always been an important priority for her. Senator Murray has fought throughout her career for increased benefits for veterans, housing assistance, better access to veterans’ clinics throughout Washington state, and more accountability from the VA.

Advocating for women veterans in particular has been a longtime focus for Senator Murray, and as Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee in 2010, Senator Murray passed her landmark Women Veterans Health Improvement Act into law. Murray has worked to permanently authorize the VA child care pilot program to increase access to free, quality child care for veterans during their appointments, make much-needed improvements to the women veterans call center, and fix a loophole that left veterans footing the bill for medically-necessary emergency newborn transportation that VA should be covering. Murray introduced and helped pass the Deborah Sampson Act, legislation to address gender disparities at VA that established a dedicated Office of Women’s Health at VA and required every VA health facility to have a dedicated women’s health primary care provider, among other things. Murray also helped to pass the MAMMO Act to expand access to high-quality breast cancer screening and treatment services for veterans. Senator Murray leads the Veteran Families Health Services Act, comprehensive legislation that would expand fertility treatments—including IVF—and family-building services for servicemembers and veterans who are unable to conceive without assistance, and she has sought unanimous consent to pass the legislation on multiple occasions. Last March, Murray applauded VA’s move to expand IVF services to eligible unmarried veterans and eligible veterans in same-sex marriages, and allowing veterans to use donated gametes in IVF services. 

Senator Murray has been conducting oversight on the flawed EHR rollout in Washington state since the Trump Administration first negotiated the contract with Cerner (later acquired by Oracle), and at every point in the process since then. Murray has consistently pushed VA on its failed implementation of EHR—conducting oversight, holding the administration accountable, and calling on VA to halt deployment of EHR until they get it right in Washington state. In March 2023, Murray introduced comprehensive legislation that would require VA to implement a series of EHR reforms to better serve veterans, medical personnel, and taxpayers. In the Fiscal Year 2024 funding bills, Senator Murray negotiated and passed as Chair of the Appropriations Committee stronger language to hold VA and Cerner accountable for the rollout of the EHR system, and in May 2024, she sent a letter urging VA to consider feedback on the system from providers and veterans in Spokane and Walla Walla and reiterating that VA must not move forward on the rollout of EHR until the myriad issues that have plagued the system in the locations where it has been launched are fixed.

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