At a hearing with North Carolina’s chief IT officer George Bakolia, Plano, Texas-based EDS and Dallas-based ACS questioned the decision by DHHS to hand over the management of the contract from EDS to ACS in April 2004. EDS claims that the system being developed by ACS does not meet the state’s technology standards for software and hardware compatibility. EDS has managed the contract for the past 25 years, and will continue to operate the Medicaid processing system until ACS takes over the contract, which is scheduled to take place in July 2006.
Unisys, which was another bidder on the contract, is also protesting the award to ACS, claiming it lost out because the state did not evaluate its bid fairly.
ACS will develop and manage the North Carolina Medicaid Management Information System over the next five years. The system processes 90 million annual claims for Medicaid and mental health programs, and the public health and Division of Facility Services. According to reports, ACS’s project was $80m less expensive than the one being proposed by EDS.
A decision is expected to be made by June 8 about whether ACS will keep the contract or if it will be offered back out to the competition.
