New York awards $351 million Medicare contract

The New York State Department of Health signed a six-year, $351 million

contract with Computer Sciences Corp. to create a new system that will process

and report Medicaid claims.

The system will ultimately allow New York to handle online claims, said

Bill Liddle, project director/general manager of the Medicaid Management

Information System.

In developing a replacement Medicaid system, CSC will:

* Develop a 7-terabyte data warehouse environment to analyze Medicaid claims,

allowing the state to develop policy, trends and other reports and detect

fraud.

* Upgrade the existing Medicaid Management Information System software.

* Develop a new Electronic Medicaid Eligibility Verification System, allowing

medical providers to verify program eligibility for Medicaid recipients,

assist electronic submission of claims, allow pharmacies to check for harmful

drug interactions and increase the efficiency of pre-authorizations by providers

and pharmacists.

Last year, the Medicaid system handled $25 billion worth of claims for 300

million recipients.

CSC will also create and maintain electronic versions of the state's provider

manuals, allowing providers to access them via the Internet.

CSC has worked with New York's Medicaid program since 1986 but did not run

the verification system, which was handled by another company. This contract

ties the two systems together.