The following is an excerpt from Section 734 of H.R. 1960 – pending National Defense Authorization Act 2014 legislation, page 399.

SEC. 734. INTEGRATED ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF DEFENSE AND VETERANS AFFAIRS.

(a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress that—

(1) despite repeated attempts at cooperation over the past 20 years, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs have failed to implement a solution that allows for seamless electronic sharing of medical health care data;

(2) the recent decision by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to abandon their earlier agreement and pursue separate paths to integration jeopardizes the stated goal of providing ‘‘a patient-centered health care system that delivers excellent quality, access, satisfaction, and value, consistently across the Departments’’;

(3) despite the repeated concerns and objections of the congressional committees of jurisdiction, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs seem to be on a continued path to fail in achieving the goal of creating a seamless health record that integrates data across the Departments; and

(4) the President should make the necessary leadership changes to assure timely completion of this requirement.

(b) IMPLEMENTATION.—The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall—

(1) implement an integrated electronic health record to be used by each of the Secretaries; and
(2) deploy such record by not later than October 1, 2016.
(c) DESIGN PRINCIPLES.—The integrated electronic health record established under subsection
(b) shall adhere to the following principles:

(1) To the extent practicable, efforts to establish such record shall be based on objectives, activities, and milestones established by the Joint Executive Committee Joint Strategic Plan Fiscal Years 2013–2015, including any requirements, definition,documents, or analyses previously developed to satisfy said Joint Strategic Plan.

(2) Principles with respect to open architecture standards, including—

(A) modular designs based on standards with loose coupling and high cohesion that allow for independent acquisition of system components;

(B) if existing national standards do not exist as of the date on which the record is being established, the Secretaries shall agree upon and adopt a standard for purposes of the record until such time as national standards are established;

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr1960pcs/pdf/BILLS-113hr1960pcs.pdf