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Bridge DoD-VA record gap

For years, the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department have struggled to build a system that can quickly and easily share medical records of troops moving from the military’s health care system into VA’s.

The goal has been to create a “seamless transition” that puts people into the VA system right away, rather than leaving them in health care limbo — sometimes for months.

Each year, Congress holds at least one hearing to ask where the effort stands. Each year, the answer is: “We’re making progress, but much work remains to be done.”

Earlier this month, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki made some jaws drop when he said: “Trying to do ‘seamless transition,’ when a youngster takes off a uniform today and is inducted into [VA] tomorrow — near impossible.”

Shinseki said the focus should shift from trying to share incompatible data in current troop records to creating records from scratch for new recruits that VA could “read” when they leave the military years from now.

A few questions:

• What does that mean for the countless troops leaving service and shifting to VA right now?

• In the Internet age, why, exactly, have VA and the Pentagon been unable to crack this nut despite years of trying?

• Can Shinseki’s approach be implemented and yield results without wasting another decade shortchanging veterans?

After years of being too soft on this issue, Congress last year set a deadline of Sept. 30 to have in place a “fully interoperable” DoD-VA health records system — a deadline that will not be met.

lawmakers must call defense and VA officials on the carpet and press them hard about what is, and is not, possible. Then Congress must set clear goals and hound the agencies until they accomplish this vital mission that has languished for too long.