The VA’s tech mess began in Kansas City. Here’s how to fix it for veterans

[Tony]

The story of failure began in 2017, when Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, facilitated a no-bid contract negotiation — a mechanism that invites corruption — to replace VistA with Cerner’s private “off-the-shelf” EHR. The VA waived competitive bidding as a “public interest exception” because of “the urgency and critical nature” of having the VA and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Military Health System on the same Cerner EHR. The resulting $10 billion contract remains the largest non-defense no-bid contract in government history.