Department of Veterans Affairs witnesses told the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee that the VA's electronic health record modernization (EHRM) work is central to improving information sharing with Medicare and community providers, but cautioned that new statutory care‑coordination structures risk duplicating existing VA care processes.

"We are in the process, particularly through our EHRM efforts, and expansion in Oracle Health, developing a health exchange that does provide a more timely way for sharing medical records," Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Health Thomas O'Toole said. Senators asked whether the department's planned initiatives would make certain bills unnecessary or require amendments.

Senators discussed S.506, a bill intended to improve care coordination for veterans dually eligible for VA and Medicare, and S.219, the Veterans Healthcare Freedom Act, which would expand access to community care. O'Toole said VA supports the goals of improving coordination but expressed concern that statutory creation of an additional care coordination layer could create redundancy with existing VA primary care teams.

"One of the primary concerns is related to ensuring, we currently provide care coordination through the primary care group at the VA," O'Toole said, adding that an “additional care coordination runs the risk … that we could have redundancy in that care and redundancy in those services.” He said EHRM work should reduce longstanding record‑sharing challenges and that VA would work with the committee on bill amendments.

Veterans service organizations on the panel urged targeted pilots and careful oversight. Brian Dempsey of Wounded Warrior Project told the committee that a three‑year pilot in S.506 could provide lessons for care integration and cost containment for younger dual‑eligible veterans. Disabled American Veterans asked the committee to emphasize VA‑led case management, training standards and oversight so community providers without VA experience do not fragment service‑connected care.

No committee action occurred; senators and witnesses agreed to continue working together on technical fixes and statutory language to avoid operational duplication and to ensure records interoperability.