GAO: IT System Issues Persist with VA’s Family Caregiver Program

By Fred Donovan

May 29, 2019 - The Department of Veterans Affairs has repeatedly tried and failed to fix IT system problems with its Family Caregiver Program, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

The Family Caregiver Program was set up in 2011 to provide support and services to family caregivers of post-9/11 veterans who had a serious injury received in the line of duty. It provides primary family caregivers with a monthly stipend, training, and other support services, such as counseling and respite care.

The GAO first identified problems with the program’s IT infrastructure, called the Caregiver Application Tracker (CAT), in 2014. CAT was a web-based system designed to facilitate the exchange of data about caregivers between VA medical centers and other Veterans Health Administration (VHA) entities.

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At that time, the government watchdog found that the CAT did not have ready access to workload data allowing the VA to monitor the program’s effects on the resources of its medical centers.

In July 2015, the VA launched a project to improve CAT's data reliability called CAT Rescue. However, the VA had to end that project in April 2018 before any capabilities were implemented because of numerous defects identified in testing, the GAO related.

At the same time, the VA was developing a new IT system called Caregivers Tool (CareT) to replace CAT. CareT was intended to use the improve data generated from CAT Rescue, while adding new capabilities.

End-user acceptance testing of CareT highlighted the need to develop more capabilities than originally planned.

While this was going on, Congress passed the Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks Act of 2018 (MISSION Act), which gave the VA until Oct. 1, 2018, to implement a new IT system to support the Family Caregiver Program.

Specifically, the MISSION Act directed the VA to implement a new IT system that would allow for data assessment and monitoring of the program. The system should have the ability to retrieve data to monitor workload trends at the medical center and aggregate levels, manage an increased number of caregivers as the program expands, and integrate with other IT systems at the VHA.

However, the VA said that it would not be able to meet the Oct. 1, 2018, deadline. It decided to scrap the CareT program in February 2019. The following month, it began development of yet another IT system, the Caregiver Record Management Application (CARMA), for the Family Caregiver Program.

The department has not yet established a date for completing CARMA, which is based on an existing commercial product. “VA’s efforts to implement an IT system that supports the Family Caregiver Program have been continuing with no end in sight,” the report observed.

GAO Backs Best Practices for Replacing IT Infrastructure

The GAO recommended that the VA apply best practices to the challenges it has found acquiring a replacement IT infrastructure for the program.

These best practices include:

Active engagement of program officials with stakeholders
Qualified and experienced program staff
Support of senior department and agency executives
Involvement of end users and stakeholders in the development of requirements
Participation of end users in testing system functionality prior to formal end-user acceptance testing
Consistency and stability of government and contractor staff
Prioritization of requirements by program staff
Regular communication maintained between program officials and the prime contractor
Sufficient funding

“VA has invested considerable time in multiple efforts toward improving and replacing its IT system to better serve the Family Caregiver Program. However, even with these efforts, the department has not yet implemented a system and the program is not prepared for expansion. Going forward, it is important that VA take steps to improve its efforts to implement a replacement IT system for the Family Caregiver Program,” the report concluded.

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GAO: IT System Issues Persist with VA’s Family Caregiver Program

The Department of Veterans Affairs has repeatedly tried and failed to fix IT system problems with its Family Caregiver Program, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.

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