Texas gets help with health IT incentive program

As the federal government prepares to hand out billions of dollars in incentive payments to reward doctors for going digital, the IT services community is eying opportunities to jump into the transaction as middlemen. A new contract between Texas and the CGI Group is one example.

Nowhere are value-added services likely to be more in demand than among state Medicaid agencies, which have been tasked to administer the complex process of providing help desk services, determining compliance and approving payments to physicians who serve Medicaid clients.

Physicians participating in the Health and Human Services Department’s incentive program can earn up to $63,000 for demonstrating “meaningful use” of electronic health record systems, a series of individual benchmarks designed to set up a foundation for nationwide health information sharing.

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Yet many cash-strapped state Medicaid offices may be less than fully equipped to handle the additional personnel and services required to manage the program in their states.

Aiming to meet those requirements, CGI Group is offering Medicaid Incentive360, what it calls a “turnkey Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Payment Program solution.”

This week, the company signed an $8 million contract with the Texas Medicaid & Healthcare Partnership, the state’s Medicaid claims administrator, to provide “all of the people, processes and technology” needed to oversee the incentive program in the state.

The system includes a portal for Medicaid providers seeking payment information; call center support; verification and payment distribution services; and development of a “provider appeals process” through which providers can defend their meaningful use compliance.

The firm said the system also provides Texas a foundation to set up a shared platform serving potential multistate collaborative projects participating in the incentive program.