Eight vendors to provide services for $1b VA deal

Eight companies have been chosen by the Veterans Affairs Department to provide application maintenance services worth up to $1 billion for its VistA electronic health records system.

The Veterans Health Information Systems Technology and Architecture is in use in VA's 157 hospitals and 887 outpatient clinics.

Under the next-generation vehicle, VA will award task orders for continuity for the 20-year-old clinical and administrative system and for already active projects to modernize and transform the system under HealtheVet VistA.

The blanket purchasing agreement has a base period of five years and, with award term incentives, five additional one-year periods. VA has a goal to award 30 percent of its contract dollars to small and veteran-owned businesses.

The contractors chosen were EDS Corp. and Perot Systems Corp., both of Plano, Texas; Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego; CSSS.NET of Bellevue, Neb.; dNovus RDI of San Antonio; Merlin Technical of Englewood, Colo.; and Patriot Technologies Inc. of Frederick, Md.

Mary Mosquera is a staff writer for Washington Technology's affiliate publication, Government Computer News.