Researchers at the the Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL) recently completed a study of healthcare IT spending at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from 2001 to 2007. The study, published in the April 2010 edition of Health Affairs, compares health information technology in the VA to norms in the private sector and estimates the costs and benefits of selected VA health IT systems. CITL found that the VA spent proportionately more on IT than the private health care sector spent, but it achieved higher levels of IT adoption and quality of care. CITL estimates the potential value of the VA’s health IT investments at $3.09 billion in cumulative benefits net of investment costs. Soon after the study period ended, the VA took another step toward improving their healthcare IT in partnership with Anakam. In July 2009, the VA selected Anakam.TFA® Two-Factor Authentication to provide trusted access as the enterprise authentication tool across the entire VA, integrated directly with the enterprise identity management infrastructure. The improved authentication now enables secure access to a broad range of online services to veterans and others while at the same time improving the timeliness of benefits (claims) adjudication, quality of benefits delivery, improved efficiency and transparency, and reduced fraud.