CMS reverses $31M award decision after GDIT protest
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By
Nick Wakeman
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will re-evaluate proposals for this practice improvement and quality measures management task order.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has done a 180 and pulled back an award to Acumen after General Dynamics IT raised several issues with how CMS evaluated proposals.
CMS picked Acumen earlier in the summer for a $31 million task order to support practice improvement and quality measures management. The task order was competed under the Measure & Instrument Development and Support vehicle.
Practice improvement and quality measures management are among the mechanisms CMS uses to push for continual improvement and establish best practices that can improve patient care.
After Acumen was picked as the winner, GDIT filed its protest on Aug. 5 with the Government Accountability Office.
GDIT challenged the cost realism analysis of Acumen’s proposal. GDIT also said that CMS failed to reasonably evaluate compensation for professional employees, misevaluated Acumen’s past performance and did not consider a possible organizational conflict-of-interest.
CMS has since decided to take a second look and told GAO that it would take several steps that begin with pulling back the award to Acumen. GAO then dismissed the protest on Aug. 20.
CMS will hold discussions with bidders and ask for revised proposals. After evaluating the proposals, it will make a new award decision.
There is no clear timeframe for when CMS will make a new award.