Subsidiaries of the Hewlett-Packard and Xerox corporations are in a bidding war for a contract to manage Vermont’s Medicaid billing system. HP Enterprise Services (formerly known as Electronic Data Systems), which has held Vermont’s Medicaid Management Information System contract since 1992, is in a fierce battle with Affiliated Computer Services, a subsidiary of Xerox, over the deal, according to an official who asked not to be identified.
The Department of Vermont Health Access has requests-for-proposal out for the Medicaid Enterprise System, also known as the Medicaid Management Information System. Four companies have placed bids for the contract. Susan Besio, commissioner of DVHA, said the names of the bidders are confidential, and she wouldn’t say where the other two bids came from.
HP is a purveyor of Medicaid billing services in 18 states, including Nevada, Alabama, Kansas, Connecticut, Kentucky and Vermont, according to a report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Its offices in Vermont are located in the same Williston building as DVHA.
ACS has Medicaid contracts with a dozen states across the country, including New Hampshire, where the company has repeatedly failed to meet deadlines for the installation of a new computer system. ACS has a $61 million contract with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services to develop and operate a new Medicaid billing system. It was supposed to have the system up and running in 2007, and it has been fined $500,000 for delays, according to an October 2010 story in New Hampshire Business Review.
ACS contracts have been terminated in at least three states — Minnesota, Wyoming and Idaho — over the last two years, according to the business magazine.
DVHA will name the winning bidder in July.
Want to revolutionize health care? Apply here
Three weeks after Gov. Peter Shumlin signed Act 48, which sets up a framework for the creation of a single-payer health care plan, his administration has moved forward with arguably the most important first step toward implementation: Finding the right five people to run the Green Mountain Care Board.
The board will work with the Shumlin administration to design the governor’s single-payer health care plan. It will address the big questions that were not answered by Act 48, namely: What the benefits package will look like; what reimbursement rates will be for providers; how much the system will cost; and how it will be paid for. The work begins Oct. 1.
Meanwhile, the applicant search is now under way. The Green Mountain Care nominating committee began advertising the five paid positions on Friday. In July the committee will vet the candidates for Shumlin who will hand pick the members of the board.
The 20-page application form is like a final exam for executive types, with large empty white spaces for essay-length answers on a variety of topics. Got experience? The Green Mountain Care Nominating Committee wants to know about it.
“Please describe your experience in each of the following areas: health care financing, information technology, policy and economics.” Not to mention exhaustive knowledge of state and federal regulations. Management experience, BTW, is a plus.
Applicants must also divulge their sources of income and list “anticipated receipts from deferred income arrangements, stock options, uncompleted contracts and other future benefits which you expect to derive from legal or previous business relationships, professional services, firm membership, former employers, clients or customers.”
The nominating committee has also asked applicants to share information about any lawsuits or disciplinary actions they may have been subject to. Tax liens, tax audits and bankruptcies must also be listed and explained. Candidates also must submit six references, explain why they want to serve on the board, and propose suggestions for ensuring that the Green Mountain Care Board is “both transparent and accountable.”
The applications are due no later than 2 p.m. on July 11. The committee is advertising the five positions in local newspapers and on health care public interest and industry websites.
The faint of heart need not apply.
Besio goes to Pacifica Group
Susan Besio, commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access, is retiring at the end of the month. Besio was charged with managing the state’s Medicaid system and a suite of government subsidized health programs under Green Mountain Care, including Dr. Dynasaur, the state’s health care plan for children, Catamount Health, Medicaid and the Vermont Health Access Plan.
Medicaid spending in Vermont is about $1.24 billion, or roughly a quarter of the state’s annual budget. Unlike most states, Vermont has what is known as a “global commitment” waiver that gives the state the flexibility to use the federal funding for a broader range of health care programs.
Besio is staying in Vermont, and she said she will take a part-time consultant gig with Pacifica Health Group in July. In 2007, Pacifica analyzed the state’s nonprofit mental health programs offered through community-based “designated” agencies. Besio will lend the national consulting group her Medicaid expertise.
Gov. Peter Shumlin has not yet named Besio’s successor.
