California re-ups EDS for Medicaid program

EDS Corp. won a four-year, $407 million contract renewal from the California Department of Health Services to continue managing the state's Medicaid program, the company announced today.

Under the contract, EDS of Plano, Texas, will still oversee California's Medicaid Program, known as Medi-Cal, which pays for medical services for 6 million children and adults with limited income and resources.

For the new contract, EDS and the Department of Health Services have introduced several enhancements, including a series of Web-based health care portals, a prescription drug discount program for senior citizens, a fraud detection system and a new accounting system.

About 1,100 EDS employees are located throughout California to operate and maintain the Medi-Cal system. The system moves data among providers and processes payments to physicians, nurse practitioners, hospitals and nursing homes.

EDS handles more than 200 million claims a year and is in contact with more than 80,000 providers through help desks, training seminars, onsite visits and Web functions.

The company won the award following an 18-month competition, company officials said. The award marks the third time EDS has won a renewal of the contract.

EDS has more than 137,000 employees and annual sales of $21.5 billion, according to Hoover's Online of Austin, Texas.