Wednesday, October 20, 2010

States Seek Solutions

Louisiana Medicaid issued a Request for Innovation (RFI) seeking information and ideas from vendors. The RFI responses received at the beginning of October are going to be used for planning purposes only. The RFI was issued to find the best ways to integrate state and federal initiatives into the state’s Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) and/or possibly create a replacement for the MMIS.

The Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) in the state operates an MMIS to process claims and makes provider payment for medical claims. DHH contracts with a fiscal intermediary for Medicaid and maintains data on approximately 32,450 qualified Medicaid providers in the MMIS.

The RFI sought comments on such topics as coordinated care networks, EHRs, HIEs, health insurance exchanges, fraud prevention, master patient index, and electronic case management. The vendor needed to indicate whether the system would be COTS with customization, or if the system would be fully customized, if there were any licensing requirements, any barriers to the state owning the system, the estimated costs for the system and implementation, and the costs for operating the system and for staffing and programmers. For more information on the RFI, email Janith Miller at Janith.miller@la.gov.

The State of Vermont, Department of Vermont Health Access (DVHA), in partnership with the Vermont Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities, and Health Care Administration seeks to contract with one or more vendors and will have them assist with the first year of planning for designing and implementing a health benefits exchange in the state. However, the bid award is dependent on the state receiving the grant funding needed.

The RFP is due October 22, 2010. Go to http://dvha.vermont.gov/administration/rfp-health-benefits-exchange.pdf to download the RFP. For more information, email Betsy Forrest at betsy.forest@ahs.state.vt.us.

South Dakota Governor's Office on October 8th issued solicitation notice #25429 seeking vendors to do research and to conduct a survey to provide information on how to develop the South Dakota state-based health insurance exchange. the bids are due by November 5th.

It is necessary to register in order to view the solicitation document. To register, go to www.state.sd.us/boa/opm/register_to_bid_online.htm.