The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee has issued a subpoena to Oracle chairman Larry Ellison over the company’s role in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ troubled electronic health records modernization project.

Oracle inherited the project through its $28 billion acquisition of Cerner in June 2022 and is now facing congressional scrutiny.

A project that has become more expensive and less functional

The Electronic Health Record Modernization program, or EHRM, was intended to be the VA’s major digital upgrade. Launched in 2018 with a contract awarded to Cerner, the project was designed to modernize health records across more than 170 VA facilities. The original estimated cost was about $10 billion.

Contract modifications have since raised the project’s budget to approximately $27 billion, with the timeline now extended through May 2031. Lifecycle cost estimates for the full program range from $37 billion to $50 billion.

Early deployments that began in 2020 led to thousands of reported patient harm incidents, including deaths. The issues were serious enough to prompt a temporary pause in new deployments.

After acquiring Cerner, Oracle rebranded the business as Oracle Health. The VA has since pursued what officials describe as a multi-year reset of the program, with a goal of completing rollouts across 13 sites by 2026.

Why Ellison, and why now

The House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee has held several hearings examining the system’s safety, costs, and deployment readiness. A February 2024 hearing focused on pharmacy-related failures, while a December 2025 session addressed broader oversight issues.

Seema Verma, who leads Oracle Health, has already testified about the company’s efforts to fix the system. A subpoena directed at Ellison signals that lawmakers want answers from the top of Oracle’s corporate leadership, especially as the committee continues to examine how the program has performed after years of delays and rising costs.

Ellison co-founded Oracle in 1977 and currently serves as chairman and chief technology officer. Oracle has also maintained active lobbying efforts directed at VA committees.

Patient safety remains the central concern

The reported patient safety incidents linked to the early deployments include cases involving improperly prescribed medications, lost or inaccessible records, and clinical workflows that broke down in ways that put lives at risk. Some of those incidents resulted in deaths.

The VA serves roughly nine million veterans through its healthcare system, which is why the program’s reliability has drawn attention beyond the committee room.

Broader implications for Oracle and government technology contracts

With the EHRM contract alone valued at approximately $27 billion and lifecycle costs potentially reaching $50 billion, the project stands as one of the largest government IT efforts in history. The scrutiny now facing Oracle underscores how major federal technology contracts can stay under congressional review long after the original award, particularly when a system affects both taxpayer spending and frontline care delivery.