CMS Wants Small Business for Affordable Care Act Data Hub

The federal government is searching for a company to run a major data hub supporting the Affordable Care Act.

The Data Services Hub, part of the health insurance Marketplace Exchange Program that lets users in some states search for plans, would serve as an "interface point" between each exchange and the federal government, the solicitation posted last week said. States without their own exchanges use the Marketplace Exchange program.

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The contractor would test, maintain and operate the hub, which would include features such as file and electronic data transfer between users. Connecting the states and federal systems also would help ensure all parties adher to federal information security standards, the statement of work said.

States may later decide to operate their own exchanges, so the contract would allow for future modifications.

The hub might include data about enrollment, payment transactions and eligibility, and other groups might use it to verify information about specific individuals such as immigration status, according to the statement of work.

The system would generate large volumes of data that could be used to evaluate how successful certain programs are, the posting said. The contractor would build out the technical aspects of the hub, as well as systems to validate, aggregate and transfer some of that information between the marketplace and external businesses.

The hub would have four quarterly releases for developing and updating the software, and "cannot have downtime without impacting the entire Marketplace program,” said the solicitation, which was first reported by Bloomberg Government.