CGI Wins $55 Million Medicare IT Contract

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CGI Federal announced Wednesday that it has won a five-year, $55 million contract to provide software and services to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The task order falls under CMS' Enterprise System Development Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (ID/IQ) contract and calls for CGI Federal, a wholly owned U.S. operating subsidiary of CGI Group, to provide software development and operational support services for the Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS). This includes CMS' Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) registration and attestation functionality.

CMS established the Internet-based PECOS as an alternative to the paper enrollment process. PECOS will allow physicians, non-physician practitioners, and provider and supplier organizations to enroll, make changes to their Medicare enrollment, view their Medicare enrollment information on file with Medicare, or check on the status of a Medicare enrollment application via the Internet.

Cheryl Campbell, CGI senior VP, said CMS is moving forward with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) mandates by establishing processes and systems to reward providers' meaningful use of EHR technology.

"With Medicare enrollment at 15% of the U.S. population and growing, CMS is revitalizing our nation's healthcare system to deliver improved healthcare quality and value for many citizens," Campbell said. According to CGI executives CMS' efforts to improve enrollment practices have increased care options for Medicare's 47 million beneficiaries.

CGI executives also said PECOS plays a key role in helping CMS combat fraud. To date, more than 800,000 eligible health professionals have registered as Medicare providers via PECOS. Furthermore, CMS' HITECH registration and attestation process automatically extracts secured provider data from PECOS to help identify eligibility for electronic health record (EHR) incentive payments.

In a report published December 23, CMS outlined its IT modernization plans, noting that it wants to improve its business operations and reduce burdensome procedures for providers, such as enrollment and claim processing.