Negotiations for a second massive information technology project with the tech giant CGI officially fell through last week, state officials said.
Vermont canceled its request for bids on the Integrated Eligibility “IE” Solution Project on Jan. 24. The project is meant to provide tracking and eligibility systems across programs administered by the Agency of Human Services.
CGI was the only company to bid on the contract, said Doug Racine, secretary of the Agency of Human Services, and the state felt it needed more options.
“This is a big project and we need to explore our options to make sure we get the best vendor possible,” he said.
Racine said CGI’s poor work performance on the state’s health care exchange website was a factor in the decision to cancel and reissue the request for bids.
The IE solutions project is much larger than building the IT systems for the exchange, and estimates of that contract’s value range as high as $100 million.
VTDigger initially reported that negotiations with CGI stalled in December, amid ongoing frustration over the company’s spotty work on the Vermont Health Connect website.
Vermont has paid CGI $19.3 million of the $83.7 million total for the exchange contract, said Mark Larson, commissioner of the Department of Vermont Health Access.
Larson said he expects CGI to complete the work set out in its contract, but left open the possibility that the agreement could be amended.
Vermont has collected the maximum $5.1 million in penalties for missed deadlines allowed by the contract. It’s unclear what might happen if CGI walked away from the contract without completing the work.
CGI has “demonstrated the intent” to complete the work demanded by its current contract, Larson said.
“CGI remains fully committed to delivering the robust functionality desired for Vermonters by Vermont Health Connect, using the most qualified staff needed to accomplish the work,” a company spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
Larson does not have any “specific concerns at this time” about CGI’s staffing level for the team working on Vermont Health Connect, he said.
“I know that they continue to rotate staff, and we have conversations about their staff rotations on a regular basis,” he said.
CGI’s contract is broken down into four categories that include design development and implementation of the exchange site, worth $32 million of which $5.7 million has been paid; premium processing, worth $2.6 million of which $448,000 has been paid; integrating the exchange site with other agency information systems, worth $18.8 million of which $3.7 million has been paid; and ongoing maintenance and operation of the site, worth $30 million of which $9.4 million has been paid.
Vermont has the option to extend the ongoing maintenance and operation portion for an additional two years beyond what is covered by the current contract, Larson said.
The exchange website lacks critical functionalities: small business employers cannot yet use it; users cannot make changes to applications, and the online payment feature still does not work.
Part of the reason the state needed to cancel its request for bids on the IE solutions project was to ensure the work CGI is doing to integrate the Vermont Health Connect with the Agency of Human Services other systems isn’t duplicated, said Richard Boes, commissioner of the Department of Information and Innovation, which has an oversight role for large technology contracts.
Overhauling ACCESS, the state’s legacy IBM mainframe operating system created in the early 1980s, is still a priority, Racine said, but since the original RFP went out in November 2012, his agency has expanded its vision for what services the system would integrate.
Currently, the system doesn’t allow food stamps, fuel assistance and Medicaid to share information. This project would integrate those programs, he said.
“What we’re trying to get to is better case management,” Racine said.
The revised RFP for the project is expected to be released in March.
