While not huge in terms of contract value, an RFI released this week on GSA eBuy (RFQ1673012) to support the Division of Encounter Data and Risk Adjustment Operations (DEDRAO) is drawing a lot of early interest with a pair of SDVOSBs already inquiring about potential partners. More details about this requirement and some key partners to know are provided below.
The incumbent on this contract is Index Analytics. The predecessor 5-year contract was last awarded in 2019 and it is slated to end this August. Contract Details and Spend to date can be found here. (75FCMC19F0075). That contract was competed as a small business set-aside action on GSA MAS, drawing 5 bids. Evelyn Dixon has been the contracts lead on this opp.
Opportunity Background
The Division of Encounter Data and Risk Adjustment Operations (DEDRAO) in the Medicare Plan Payment Group provides technical assistance to plans on submissions of diagnosis data and monitors plan data submissions. In addition, the division analyzes trends and financial impacts of risk adjustment data. In order to perform these functions, DEDRAO initiated a project called the Encounter Data Dashboard and Analytics (EDDA), which created the Encounter Data Workbench (EDWB). The EDDA project provides CMS users an intuitive interface for gaining an understanding of risk adjustment and encounter data to help with decision-making and problem solving. Using agile based methodology, the project team will work collaboratively with CMS to maintain and enhance easy-to-use visualizations and reports. The existing EDDA:
- Is maintained on the CMS Enterprise Portal.
- Supports approximately 80 users and they generate approximately 15,000 reports on an annual basis.
- There are about 23 MicroStrategy general cubes and 22 data reference cubes which feed into 23 grouped MicroStrategy functional end user reports; and
- Accesses the following information to create reports: over 6 billion encounter data and chart review records, about 9 billion Risk Adjustment Processing System (RAPS) diagnoses data, about 8 billion Fee for Service Claims data, beneficiary enrollment and demographic data for approximately 60 million beneficiaries, and Medicare Advantage Parent Organization, contract data and plan data, RAPS data.
The EDDA project produced the Encounter Data Work Bench (EDWB), a MicroStrategy analytic platform, within the CMS IT environment managed in cloud, that combines multiple CMS enterprise share services tools and industry standard technologies.
These tools include Snowflake Data Warehouse/Data Repositories, Python, SQL, MicroStrategy / MicroStrategy ONE, HTML/CSS, JavaScript and GIT. Users access the EDWB through the CMS Enterprise portal.”
The EDWB offers both high-level and detailed data analytics, reports, and visualization in an integrated interface using the tools above. The contractor team shall maintain the existing EDWB, and work with CMS and other CMS contractors to enhance the capabilities of the EDWB to meet changing business analytics and reporting needs of the encounter and risk adjustment data and operations, when needed. This work is part of a larger effort and will require the contractor team to coordinate with other CMS contractors to meet analytic and reporting goals. All work will be conducted and saved in the CMS analytic environment. Moreover, all artifacts and deliverables from this project shall be owned by CMS. The contractor team and CMS will collaborate to maintain these analyses as well.
To successfully utilize the agile development process and achieve the goals of this project, CMS requires analytic competencies & capabilities from the team that include:
- Knowledge and experience with Part C encounter and risk adjustment data and/or health care claims or encounter data.
- Statistical analysis experience.
- Experience implementing agile analytic projects within the CMS IT environment.
- Experience developing custom dashboards, reports, and data visualization products using CMS enterprise off-the-shelf BI applications, as stated above, and other open-source technologies proven to integrate seamlessly in the CMS IT environment.
- Familiarity with the CMS HCC risk adjustment payment models data.
- Experience with CMS Cloud, Snowflake, MicroStrategy, Python, HTML/CSS, Java Script, SAS EBI, source control tools such as Git, GitHub and Agile Methodologies.
- Experience with configuration management, change management and CI/CD process.
- Experience with the Parent Organization, Contract, and plan data in the Health Plan Management System (HPMS).
This is not in the CMS forecast yet. More details will be shared as they are made available.
Pro Tip 1 – If you are a firm with capabilities and socio-economic status that might support this or any related effort, comment below and let others know you are interested. Comments are some of the most viewed portions of any post.
Pro Tip 2 – Feel like you are missing out on some of the key actions happening at CMS? It can be hard to keep up. Track all of the latest news on the NEW OrangeSlices Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Intel Segment Page .
Looking for an IT and consulting firm to partner with at CMS? Click Here You can filter the list by several key indicators, including socio-economic status, NAICS, Contract vehicle, etc.
Firms drawing the most attention:
Below is a list of more than three dozen large and small companies we have noted as drawing the most views by Government and industry leaders on the OrangeSlices AI consultant directory over the 2nd half of 2023 and that bring direct past performance and/or related relationships in support of CMS.
- Sparksoft **
- RELI Group **
- Skyward IT Solutions **
- Softrams **
- Ventech Solutions **
- Index Analytics **
- Ad Hoc **
- C-HIT
- eSimplicity **
- Next Phase
- CVP **
- Nava **
- Tantus Tech
- Maximus **
- Nimbus Consulting
- ICF **
- Think Systems
- Radiant Infotech
- Global Alliant **
- ERP International **
- Unissant **
- Signature Consulting Group (SCG)
- Truss
- Sprezzatura Management Consulting
- Coforma **
- SoftDev **
- Akira Technologies
- Williams Consulting **
- iAdeptive
- International Consulting Associates (ICA)
- DAS Federal **
- IT Concepts **
- Sky Solutions **
- J29 **
- VITG
- Sierra7 **
- LMI
- Mathematica
- AIR
- Fu Associates
- CGI Federal
- Mettle Solutions
- For People **
- Abt Associates
** An Elev8 GovCon Honoree, noted for a corporate culture that demonstrates excellence, making the company a beacon for talent, for partners, and for clients.
We cannot and will not speculate here as to the reasons for the increased interest, but whether it is a company evaluating them as a potential partner; a federal acquisition leader doing their due diligence; or a consultant weighing their next job move, this group of companies has been receiving increased interest.
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