Five Vendors Capture 68% of VA's Quarterly Contract Spend
Summary
The Department of Veterans Affairs obligated $18.9 billion in contracts in FY2026 Q3 (Apr-Jun 2026), and just five recipients -- Optum Public Sector Solutions ($4.79B), McKesson ($3.78B), TriWest Healthcare Alliance ($2.79B), Oracle Health ($1.09B) and Dell Federal Systems ($0.43B) -- took 68% of it. Optum and McKesson alone are 45%, with McKesson's share built on three back-to-back monthly ~$1.2-1.4B task orders under the VA's single-award Pharmaceutical Prime Vendor vehicle, held solely by McKesson.
The figures come from USAspending.gov, the Treasury system of record for federal awards, filtered to the and the four contract action types. The top two vendors alone -- Optum and McKesson -- account for 45% of the quarter. Everything below the top five, spread across every other vendor combined, is about $6.0B.
View data as table
| Optum Public Sector | 4.8 | 25% of the $18.9B total |
|---|---|---|
| McKesson | 3.8 | 20% -- pharmaceutical prime vendor |
| TriWest Healthcare | 2.8 | |
| Oracle Health | 1.1 | |
| Dell Federal Systems | 0.4 | |
| All other recipients | 6 | every other VA vendor combined |
McKesson's $3.78B is not a pile of small buys. It is three back-to-back monthly task orders -- $1.19B in April, $1.40B in May, $1.19B in June -- each labeled "Pharmaceutical Prime Vendor." All three are issued under one indefinite-delivery contract (IDV 36W79720D0001) that USAspending codes as a single award: the vehicle is held solely by McKesson, so every order under it goes to McKesson. The three together are effectively all of McKesson's money for the quarter.
View data as table
| April (36C24026K1007) | 1.2 | |
|---|---|---|
| May (36C24026K1008) | 1.4 | largest VA task order of the quarter |
| June (36C24026K1009) | 1.2 |
- The obligated $18.88B in contracts in FY2026 Q3 (Apr-Jun 2026); the five largest recipients received $12.89B of it -- 68%.
- Optum Public Sector Solutions ($4.79B) and McKesson ($3.78B) alone are 45% of the quarter's contract money.
- McKesson's total is three monthly Pharmaceutical Prime Vendor task orders ($1.19B / $1.40B / $1.19B) under a single-award IDV held solely by McKesson -- the May order was the quarter's single largest task order.
- Every vendor outside the top five combined received about $6.0B. Figures are recomputable from the USAspending API queries in the sources.
Obligations cover contract award types A/B/C/D ( calls, purchase orders, delivery orders, definitive contracts) by action date, summed at the transaction level. The recipient breakdown and the quarterly total ($18,884,198,105.60) agree to the cent -- the total independently equals the sum of all recipients for the window. "Single award" refers to the parent IDV's FPDS multiple_or_single_aw_desc field; it means the vehicle has one awardee (McKesson), so its task orders are not competed among vendors at the order level. Every figure is recomputable from the exact USAspending API queries recorded in the sources; each fixes spending_level explicitly because the endpoint defaults shifted during the pull. This is a held draft prepared for editor review.
Sources(4) ▾
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service (USAspending.gov), USAspending.gov Award Search API — Spending by Recipient (VA contract obligations, FY2026 Q3) (2026-08-14) — Department of Veterans Affairs contract obligations for the FY2026 Q3 window (Apr-Jun 2026), broken out by recipient. Recomputable POST query (issuer-hosted API): {"category":"recipient","spending_level":"transactions","filters":{"agencies":[{"type":"awarding","tier":"toptier","name":"Department of Veterans Affairs"}],"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],"time_period":[{"start_date":"2026-04-01","end_date":"2026-06-30","date_type":"action_date"}]},"limit":15}. spending_level MUST be set to "transactions" to sum obligation amounts by action date; the endpoint's default shifted to subawards during the pull window and returns a partial total if omitted. Award type codes A/B/C/D are the four contract action types. Establishes the five leading recipients: Optum Public Sector Solutions $4,790,117,687.82; McKesson Corporation $3,781,567,387.82; TriWest Healthcare Alliance $2,791,835,774.38; Oracle Health Government Services $1,093,862,799.44; Dell Federal Systems $430,898,720.72. A live POST-only API; exact request body recorded here for reproduction. api.usaspending.gov
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service (USAspending.gov), USAspending.gov Award Search API — Spending Over Time (VA contract obligations, by fiscal quarter) (2026-08-14) — Department of Veterans Affairs contract obligations grouped by fiscal quarter. Recomputable POST query: {"group":"quarter","spending_level":"transactions","filters":{"agencies":[{"type":"awarding","tier":"toptier","name":"Department of Veterans Affairs"}],"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],"time_period":[{"start_date":"2025-10-01","end_date":"2026-06-30"}]}}. Establishes the FY2026 Q3 total of $18,884,198,105.60 -- independently equal to the sum of all recipients in the recipient breakdown for the same window. A live POST-only API; exact request body recorded here for reproduction. api.usaspending.gov
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service (USAspending.gov), USAspending.gov Award Search API — Spending by Award (McKesson VA task orders, FY2026 Q3) (2026-08-14) — McKesson Corporation's contract awards active in the FY2026 Q3 window. Recomputable POST query: {"filters":{"recipient_search_text":["MCKESSON CORPORATION"],"agencies":[{"type":"awarding","tier":"toptier","name":"Department of Veterans Affairs"}],"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],"time_period":[{"start_date":"2026-04-01","end_date":"2026-06-30","date_type":"action_date"}]},"fields":["Award ID","Recipient Name","Description","Award Amount","Start Date","End Date"],"sort":"Award Amount","order":"desc","limit":10}. Returns three monthly Pharmaceutical Prime Vendor (PPV) task orders: 36C24026K1007 (FY2026 APRIL) $1,191,348,080.87; 36C24026K1008 (FY2026 MAY) $1,398,025,092.11; 36C24026K1009 (FY2026 JUNE) $1,191,973,257.74 -- summing to $3.781B, effectively all of McKesson's total for the quarter (the only other McKesson lines are two emergency drug buys totaling under $0.24M). A live POST-only API; exact request body recorded here for reproduction. api.usaspending.gov
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service (USAspending.gov), USAspending.gov — Award detail, McKesson PPV FY2026 MAY task order (PIID 36C24026K1008) (2026-08-14) — Award detail for the May PPV task order (description 'EXPRESS REPORT: PHARMACEUTICAL PRIME VENDOR (PPV) FY2026 MAY', total_obligation $1,398,025,092.11, period 2026-05-01 to 2026-05-30). Its parent vehicle is IDV PIID 36W79720D0001, coded 'SINGLE AWARD' and 'INDEFINITE DELIVERY / REQUIREMENTS' -- a single-award indefinite-delivery contract, so every task order under it is issued to McKesson alone. Machine-readable via GET https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/awards/CONT_AWD_36C24026K1008_3600_36W79720D0001_3600/ (fields: recipient.recipient_name, total_obligation, parent_award.multiple_or_single_aw_desc, parent_award.type_of_idc_description). usaspending.gov
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The Department of Veterans Affairs obligated $18.9 billion in contracts in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 (April-June 2026), and just five recipients took 68% of it: Optum Public Sector Solutions ($4.79B), McKesson ($3.78B), TriWest Healthcare Alliance ($2.79B), Oracle Health ($1.09B) and Dell Federal Systems ($0.43B).