The state has awarded one of its biggest service contracts to Computer Sciences Corp., a Virginia-based company that bid $265.2 million to build and operate a computer system to pay Medicaid claims.
The state selected CSC last month over Electronic Data Systems, a Texas company that has had the job since 1977. EDS bid $287.3 million for the work. Hiring a company to build and run a new Medicaid bill-paying system has been a long and contentious process. This is the second time in about four years that the state has tried to find a company to manage its Medicaid claims.
"Both the vendors were competitive," and both could have done the job, said Angie Sligh, director of the office of Medicaid Management Information Systems for the state Department of Health and Human Services. The decision to choose CSC came down to price, she said.
The federal government pays 90 percent of the cost, Sligh said. CSC will install the system and operate it for four years, starting in mid-2011.
The work involves processing more than 80 million payments each year to doctors, hospitals and others who care for patients under the government health insurance program.
A CSC spokeswoman would not answer questions about the contract, saying the company planned a formal statement. CSC has numerous contracts with the federal government and manages Medicaid claims for the state of New York.
Lanier Cansler, a former deputy secretary at DHHS and a former state legislator, is a registered lobbyist for CSC, according to the N.C. Secretary of State's office.
The parent company of EDS, Hewlett- Packard, has three registered lobbyists in the state. (N&O)
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Re: State awards $265m service contract
It would be greatly appreciated if a savy reporter could do some digging around to see just how Cansler has treated his relationships with Virginia based Computer Sciences Corporation and this other company Fuqua Enterprises which he appears to have co-owned.
He and Perdue have indicated that some sort of 'safe harbor' has been created. And we all know about Cheney's 'safe harbor' in terms of Halliburton which has undoubtedly made him a billionaire even while he was sitting in office pretending not to throw them business.
At the legal core of the Medicare created term, 'safe harbor', is the matter of conflict of interest. How do you address issues of a public official and his/ her ties to private enterprise? Since there is no 'cooling off' period as associated w/ public office that has been writtin into law in NC, what is Cansler's arrangement re: these two companies----and maybe there are more companies which he has (not: right) lobbied for.
Is he on the board in any way as associated w/ these two companies? Is he a stockholder? How has he created, perhaps, invisibility?
Marsha V. Hammond, PhD: Clinical Lic psychologist, Asheville/ Waynesville, NC hammondmv@netzero.com NC mental health reform blogspot: http://madame-defarge.blogspot.com/