Palantir Secures $90M VA Data Integration Contract

The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded analytics company Palantir a four-year, $90 million contract to enhance the agency’s Common Operating Platform. The award expands the company’s work in the health and defense sector and is the first major contract the analytics provider secured from the VA.

Under the contract, Palantir will provide new tools that would integrate data from multiple health and benefits systems into the COP. The Denver-headquartered company said the activity will give leaders much-needed insights into the services that VA offers to veterans, FedScoop reported Thursday.

The analytics provider said one of the main issues it hopes to address is collecting data on wait times in private hospitals that veterans can use.

The company’s officials also stated that the agency will retain ownership of all its data. The COP system will link into existing information technology and data platforms within the VA, Palantir explained.

The department can also use the offerings to remake the whole health IT system on its embattled 10-year, $16 billion Electronic Health Records modernization program. The Government Accountability Office and the VA inspector general flagged several issues with the EHR modernization program. One recommendation is that the VA should pause the program to conduct more testing.

Palantir previously worked with the agency on COVID-19 surveillance pilots and with other health agencies on several coronavirus tracking programs.