SRA to oversee health care data banks

SRA International Inc., a provider of technology and strategic consulting to federal agencies, has won a contract from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to operate the agency's National Practitioner Data Bank and Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank.

The four-and-a-half year task order, awarded under the Chief Information Officer Solutions and Partners 2 Innovations contract, has an estimated value of $68.6 million if the agency uses all of the optional extensions.

SRA will operate and upgrade the two national data banks by providing software development, systems engineering, operations services, systems administration, testing and security services.

Established by Congress, the two systems protect the public by collecting and reporting to authorized health care entities adverse actions taken against health care practitioners, providers and suppliers.

The NPDB is a fee-for-query system that collects and reports adverse actions taken against health care practitioners and also tracks high-risk practitioners who move from state to state or job to job without disclosing their history. SRA said it has supported the NPDB program since 1994.

The HIPDB is also a fee-for-query system that provides information on health care practitioners, providers and suppliers and related fraud and abuse. SRA said it has supported the HIPDB program and the Office of the Inspector General of the Health and Human Services Department since 1998.

Earlier this month, SRA purchased Constella Group LLC, a privately held global health consulting company in Durham, N.C., that will form the foundation of its new health business unit.

SRA of Fairfax, Va., ranks No. 33 on Washington Technology's 2007 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.