Contract Award: CSC to provide Enterprise Data Services for U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

News Report

As reported in a recent press release, Maricom Systems, a CSC company, has been awarded a contract with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide enterprise data services to support the U.S. agency’s information systems. The Enterprise Data Services Contract (EDSC), which was awarded during CSC’s third quarter of fiscal year 2011, includes a base year plus five option years with a total estimated value of $105 million.
Under the contract, Maricom will provide CMS with innovative and cost-effective master data management, enterprise portal, business rules management governance, oversight and engineering services.

The Context

The health care sector is under constant pressure to deliver more care, more quality, more coordination, and improved timeliness. Both health professionals and patients have increasing expectations that data will be instantly available at the point of need.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provides services to approximately 100 million beneficiaries and pays benefits totaling approximately $800 billion a year. As the largest single purchaser of health care services in the United States, CMS is in a unique position to support the transformation of the health care delivery system. CMS aims to break down existing program and information silos through convergent Medicare and Medicaid business operations and planning. The emphasis will be on creating enterprise-wide solutions and building capability for a flexible IT infrastructure that will accommodate future systems growth.

Specifically, CMS’ Health Care Data Improvement Initiative defines a comprehensive Enterprise Data Environment that will be central to the CMS IT modernization strategy. It will provide the flexibility needed to support the rapidly evolving role of CMS in the delivery, management, and payment of health care services. The vision is to transform the data environment from one focused on processing claims to one with state-of-the art capabilities for data analysis and information sharing. CMS knows that its data are not sufficiently integrated to provide consistent help in program management decision making. This initiative establishes the foundation for modernizing CMS’ data systems, and for supporting the transformation of business and information systems to meet CMS’s overall mission to ensure effective, up-to-date healthcare coverage, and to provide transparency into federal healthcare data.

Joining CSC's Maricom in this effort are partners IBM and NewWave Telecom & Technologies Inc. Collectively, the team has a prominent history of development and support of systems and data structures at CMS and the requisite experience to create and maintain the future environment of data management.

Comments

“For nearly 15 years, CSC’s Maricom has served as a trusted partner to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Through our experience, we have developed a deep knowledge and appreciation of the strategic mission of CMS, as well as an in-depth understanding of the technology environment,” said Chris Guckert, chief operating officer of CSC Maricom Systems. “Our understanding and support of CMS’ business and technology initiatives make the Maricom team uniquely qualified to work with the agency and other stakeholders to ensure its data management modernization objectives are met, providing a platform for successful implementation of healthcare reform initiatives.”

References: CSC (1), CMS (2)