How The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs uses GitHub

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) serves 19.2 million veterans across 171 medical centers and 1,269 outpatient clinics nationwide, offering healthcare alongside disability compensation, education assistance, home loans, and life insurance. To modernize its approach and make these services more accessible, VA's Office of Information and Technology (OIT) partnered with GitHub in 2019.

Adoption and Training

Of OIT's more than 7,000 employees, 5,000 are now GitHub users, with expectations to reach 100 percent adoption by 2021. VA provides GitHub seminars and self-guided education materials online for developers and contractors less familiar with the platform.

VA.gov and Veteran Services

The first major project was rebuilding VA.gov, the agency's homepage, which now receives 10 million visits monthly from veterans. The site consolidates 80 percent of VA's services on a single page, allowing veterans to refill and track prescriptions, message their healthcare team, manage GI Bill benefits, and request military records. A companion mobile app extends these capabilities, enabling veterans to access health services and view medical records on the go.

Open Source and Code Inventory

VA's Digital Service team open sourced all code for VA.gov from a public GitHub repository. As a federal agency, VA must inventory 100 percent of internal code and release at least 20 percent as open source to comply with the Federal Source Code Policy. GitHub serves as the central repository where contractors can efficiently gather and inventory VA's code while making it publicly available.

The agency also designed and developed its electronic health record system on a public GitHub repository, allowing other hospitals and countries to use and modify the implementation.

APIs and Claims Processing

VA operates a public repository for the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS), their largest claims processing system, along with their API program. The claims ratings API exemplifies this success: previously, VA service organizations used automated software to generate PDFs that were faxed or mailed—a time-consuming and less secure process. Today, the API allows electronic submission, enabling veterans to receive their claim number immediately. With approximately one million requests annually, the API reduces processing time by two to three weeks.

Veterans can also quickly download medical records to their devices, and VA securely exchanges health information with the CDC using firewall standards.

DevOps and Internal Efficiency

VA has transitioned many teams to a DevOps model, automating release processes and improving workflow efficiency. Developers can track issues through pull requests to code commits and production deployment, enabling better visibility into work in flight. A centralized platform significantly reduces integration time and accelerates deployments, bringing VA closer to continuous integration.

This modernization also supports talent recruitment and retention—younger developers with commercial sector experience expect to work on GitHub, making the platform valuable for attracting top talent.

Industry Impact

VA's contributions to the open source community extend benefits beyond the agency. Other hospitals and organizations can adopt and modify VA's implementations, helping transform the healthcare industry. As the transition from Rational to GitHub Enterprise continues, VA's modernized approach to both internal DevOps and end-user experience will benefit millions of veterans accessing support across VA hospitals, local communities, and online.