The contract is divided between a 21-month implementation period, in which EDS will customize and install its Medicaid Management Information System, and a five-year operations period, in which EDS will serve as the state’s fiscal agent.
A release from Florida’s AHCA states the new system will include Web portals for patients and providers to support claims processes, health outcome measurement, and fraud and abuse reporting. According to parts of EDS’ proposal cited in one of the AHCA legal filings, EDS will see 76.5% of the revenue as prime contractor, and subcontractor First Health Services Corp will receive nearly 22% of the award funding for its work. APS Healthcare Inc and ProviderLink Inc will each get a portion of the remaining 2% or so.
Florida currently pays the incumbent supplier, ACS, $66m a year to administer the program. Under the terms of the EDS deal, the state will pay some $38m for the system development, followed by $43m a year for administration. Federal funding will cover approximately 90% of development and 75% of operations costs, AHCA said.
EDS originally announced the award last September, but Unisys and ACS, which both submitted bids with lower price tags, protested the proposal evaluation process and awarding of the contract. What followed was a rather complicated legal dispute, which isn’t fully resolved yet. After ACS’ and Unisys’ initial protests, an administrative judge in January recommended on behalf of ACS’ complaint.
AHCA, however, declined the judge’s recommendations and issued a final order in March that awarded the deal to EDS. ACS and Unisys filed an appeal to the order in a district court and requested that the EDS contract be delayed until the court’s ruling. But the court denied they stay, and so the contract is now going forward as the appeal is heard.
These Medicaid contracts, of which EDS is the clear market leader with fiscal agent contracts with 20 states, are often subject to messy legal battles over the award process. Similar protests have been filed over deals in North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi.
