Corruption Timeline
In 2016, the VA's homegrown VistA system was consistently among the top-rated Electronic Health Records in the world. In 2017, VA leaders, pressured by Jared Kushner, replaced it with commercial vendor Cerner in one of the largest no-bid contracts in government history.
In 2020-2021, early VA rollouts were plagued by system failures, clinician burnout, and patient harms including 6 deaths. By 2022, cost estimates had ballooned to $50 billion, and further Cerner rollouts were halted.That same year, Cerner was acquired by Oracle Corporation, who promised to improve the product and revive the program.
By December 2025, GAO and Washington Post reported that few improvements had been made, including to known safety risks, and Oracle was being investigated for accidental breaches and intentional monetization of patients' health data at its non-VA clients. But by then, Trump was back in power. And Trump's VA had decided to accelerate Oracle rollouts as its top priority for 2026. So far, an additional ~$6 billion has been appropriated to the project. And new patient safety concerns are being swept under the rug.
VistA ranked among top EHR systems
Kushner pushes VA leadership to adopt Cerner
Cerner EHR begins to be rolled out/p>
Cerner is acquired by Oracle
GAO opens an investigation into data breaches
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