A scandal that plagued the Veterans Affairs Department earlier this year prompted us to move this promise from Promise Kept to Stalled. We wanted to update it once again following action by Congress and President Barack Obama to address those problems.

This promise — to "make the Veterans Administration a national leader in health reform" — was based on four tenets laid out by Obama: electronic records interoperability, effectiveness research, wellness programs, and accountability for performance and quality improvement initiatives. The progress made in those areas during Obama's six years, however, was overshadowed when it was discovered that a Phoenix VA office falsified wait-time data to see a doctor.

It turned out to be a system-wide problem in which VA employees at various offices lied about how quickly they saw patients, in order to take advantage of a program that incentivized VA hospitals if they scheduled a primary care appointment within 14 days. The actual wait time at the Phoenix facility was 115 days.

The Obama administration eliminated this incentive in June. Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sloan Gibson said it actually created "incentives to engage in inappropriate behavior."

In the months that followed, Congress reached a rare bipartisan agreement to fix the troubled VA. Obama passed the $16.3 billion plan in August, of which about $12 billion is new spending.

Here's what the legislation does:

• Allocates $10 billion toward private practices that will treat veterans who cannot get an appointment with their local VA hospital within 30 days or who live 40 miles from a VA hospital. This represents a significant shift in policy. Previously, veterans were treated inside the system.

• The bill allocates $5 billion to hire new doctors, nurses and other health professional at VA hospitals, which are generally considered to be understaffed.

• The rest, about $1.3 billion, will go toward building 27 new VA medical centers across the country.

• The VA would also be barred from creating performance-based goals tied to wait times, and allows the administration to dismiss poorly performing senior executives within the department.

It remains to be seen what impact this will have toward fixing the VA problems and fulfilling Obama's promise to "make the Veterans Administration a national leader in health reform."

For example, the clause that allows the VA to take action against poorly performing executives might increase accountability, an area Obama promised to improve. As Obama noted, "If you cover up a serious problem, you should be fired. ... And if you blow the whistle on an unethical practice, or bring a problem to the attention of higher-ups, you should be thanked. You should be protected for doing the right thing. You shouldn't be ignored, and you certainly shouldn't be punished."

VA supervisors threatened to retaliate against employees who filed complaints about improper scheduling. Holding them accountable for stifling whistleblowers could improve accountability and transparency within the system and discourage bad behavior.

Whether the money spent on new doctors and clinics improves the system is something to keep an eye on as well. Veterans groups have also expressed trepidations at shifting some veterans to private practices, noting that treating battle wounds and complications from duty requires unique understanding and skills.

There is reason to believe strides have been made, and we'll reevaluate this promise once these changes go into effect. For now, this promise remains Stalled.