Obama's fiscal 2011 budget says VA will help administer the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record program with the Defense Department. The budget also includes $200 million to automate processing of veterans benefits.

Veterans Affairs has solicited vendors to coordinate pilot programs for the VA and the Department of Defense's Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record program. Federal Computer Week reports: "The VA has completed work on the first phase of the VLER program, its chief information officer, Roger Baker, said at a recent conference."

Congress approved $3.3 billion for Veterans Affairs to establish "electronic healthcare records, paperless claims systems and seamless integration of medical and service records with the Department of Defense" in the 2010 appropriations bill.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and Kaiser Permanente are starting a pilot program to exchange "electronic health record information" to improve care and services to veterans. The initial pilot is slated for December.

Obama unveiled his plan to create a Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record between the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs that would improve medical services and care to transitioning veterans. "The concept, long advocated by officials in both departments, is considered a major step toward improving the delivery of care and services to servicemembers transitioning from military to civilian life," the Armed Forces Press Service writes.

Obama reaffirmed his committment to information technology in his budget outline for Veterans Affairs. The proposal calls for improving electronic records to more "efficiently retrieve active duty health records" from the Defense Department and "enable all VA care sites to access the records." Further, it gives prioirty to the "development of rules-based electronic processes to increase accuracy, consistency, and timeliness in veterans' receipt of benefits."

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act authorized $50 million for information technology in the Veterans Benefits Administration. This was scaled back from the Senate version of the bill, which would have made $195 million available for benefits IT. The final version also allocates $150 million to the VA to hire and train claims processors.

Veterans Affairs Secretary-designate Eric Shinseki told senators in his confirmation hearing, "Asking [veterans] to take a number and wait or put up with records that are lost or take six months to adjudicate is not part of the culture I expect."