HP Awarded $26 Million Contract for Medicare, Medicaid IT Support

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services has received a $26 million order to continue its IT support for the Department of Health and Human Services’ CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) division.

Under the contract announced Oct. 13, HP will maintain an IDR (Integrated Data Repository) for CMS and provide services to improve the accuracy of Medicare payment data.

According to CMS, an IDR is the backbone of the agency’s enterprise IT efforts. It involves the integration of Medicare claims, data on providers and health plans as well as the data services the NLR (National Level Repository) uses. HP was first awarded a contract to monitor NLR data quality in 2007.

From NLR data, CMS will be able to determine which health care professionals and hospitals are eligible for stimulus funds under HITECH (the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act).

HP has worked with Medicare and Medicaid clients for 44 years, handling 35 percent of those claims in the United States and accounting for 2.4 billion health care transactions per year, the company reports.

It will provide analysis of IDR data and monitor data feeds for accuracy and timeliness. HP will also combine data from separate repositories and establish and perform database backup and recovery.

“To administer the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs, CMS must adopt even higher levels of data integrity to accurately make incentive payments to health care providers,” said Dennis Stolkey, U.S. Public Sector senior vice president for HP Enterprise Services, in a statement. “HP will assist CMS in the maintenance, management and integration of large volumes of Medicare data as this important program moves forward.”

In August, HP signed a $200 million Medicare maintenance contract with CMS. The agreement calls for HP to provide application support and maintenance services for Medicare Part B claims processing.

Also in August, HP signed an eight-year, $135 million technology services contract with the Alabama Medicaid Agency to provide IT services and help the agency meet HIPAA 5010 requirements. HP will provide electronic provider enrollment, a secure Web site to access EHRs (electronic health records) remotely and electronic prescription transmission from physicians to pharmacies.