Deltek Pulse: January Review for Health Care and Social Services

January was another strong month for state health care and social services agencies and vendors. One indication of this strength was the additional $1.5 billion allocated to 11 states for health insurance exchange (HIX), or health insurance marketplace, implementation by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the form of both Level One and Level Two grants. A summary of the grant awards can be found here. Those state governors who have not announced a definitive decision regarding how an exchange will be implemented in their state have until February 15, 2013, to submit plans to implement a partnership exchange.

In the same vein, many states continue to plan for replacing outdated Medicaid management information systems (MMIS), replacing or upgrading Medicaid eligibility systems to comply with provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and thwarting fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program with upgraded technology. States are starting to take a closer look at the newest iteration of the Medicaid Information Technology Architecture, or MITA 3.0., and are considering how and when they will conduct MITA 3.0 State-Self Assessments (SS-As). For a state-by-state look at Medicaid systems and procurements throughout the country, check out Deltek’s MMIS Vertical Profile Application. 

Solicitation releases in January included:

• The New Jersey Department of the Treasury, on behalf of the New Jersey Department of Health, released an RFP for a Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) automated client centered electronic service system (ACCESS) replacement system.
• The Vermont Office of Purchasing and Contracting, on behalf of the Department of Health, released an RFP on January 7 for WIC MIS and electronic benefits transfer (EBT) implementation project quality assurance (QA) services.
• The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing released an RFP for a core MMIS and supporting services.
• The New Jersey Department of Health released a request for applications (RFA) for the New Jersey Health Information Network. The state is providing up to $1.6 million for the initial development and implementation of the first phase of the network.
• The Louisiana DHH released an RFP for independent verification and validation (IV&V) services for the Medicaid Eligibility Data System (MEDS) Enhancement Project. Redmane Technology is developing the new MEDS.
• The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services released an RFP for EBT services for Montana's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and WIC programs.

Contract awards in January included:

• The Florida Department of Children and Families awarded eFunds (a subsidiary of FIS Global) a contract to provide EBT services for the SNAP, TANF and WIC programs, replacing the incumbent, JP Morgan Chase. The three-year base contract is valued at approximately $60 million.
• The Rhode Island Department of Human Services awarded Deloitte a three-year contract valued at approximately $105 million to develop its HIX and modernize its eligibility system for Medicaid and other human services programs.
• The Tennessee Bureau of TennCare awarded Magellan Health Services a contract for Pharmacy Benefit Management Services, replacing SXC Health Solutions (now Catamaran).
• The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration awarded a contract to Software Engineering Services (SES) to provide assessment services for its MMIS and decision support system (DSS).

Stay tuned for a series of blogs on states’ efforts to implement all-payer claims databases (APCDs), brought to you by Deltek’s Health Care and Social Services team.

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