trade-press
VA OIG raises PATS-R risk after low-risk cloud review
A medical-records access path does not become low impact because most users say they do not need it.
FedScoop reports that the VA Office of Inspector General found the Patient Advocate Tracking System-Replacement was wrongly categorized as low risk after its November 2023 cloud transfer, despite access to veteran medical records. VA’s IT office raised PATS-R to moderate after March 2025 preliminary findings. Assessors and agency CISOs should notice the harder point: access controls and user reviews, not the label, are where the audit found the real exposure.