Accenture announced that CMS awarded the company a five-year, $563 million contract to continue managing HealthCare.gov, the Wall Street Journal reports (Armour, Wall Street Journal, 12/29).

Background

In January, CMS announced it was awarding Accenture a one-year contract to oversee HealthCare.gov and prepare for the next open enrollment period.

The government's three-year contract with CGI Federal -- the previous lead contractor on the federal health insurance exchange website -- was not renewed when it expired on Feb. 28.

In April, CMS posted a "sources sought" notice seeking information from small IT service vendors that might be interested in the work.

In July, the White House began seeking a new contractor, with the requirements that applicants must:

• Work "under aggressive time constraints" in testing and upgrading security, hardware and software features; and
• Perform tests demonstrating that the website can function when it has many simultaneous users (iHealthBeat, 7/17).

Under its current contract, Accenture dedicated more than 500 employees to HealthCare.gov. The website performed much better during the first weeks of the second open enrollment period than it had during the first open enrollment period, during which the exchange website was plagued by technical issues, according to Modern Healthcare (Tahir, Modern Healthcare, 12/29).

Contract Details

Accenture was the only bidder for the contract. Under the contract, Accenture will provide HealthCare.gov with continual:

• Maintenance;
• Technical support; and
• Software development.

The five-year contract includes a one-year base and four one-year extension options. The contract's total value is $563 million if all options are exercised for the entire five-year period.

Comments

CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said, "We are pleased that Accenture will continue to support HealthCare.gov, as we work together to help millions of Americans sign up for quality, affordable health insurance."

Matt Tait, a senior managing director who heads Accenture's work on HealthCare.gov, in a statement said that the company's work to improve the exchange website "will continue under the new contract, as we continuously enhance the capability supporting citizens, issuers and CMS -- focused on simplifying and streamlining the customer experience" (Wall Street Journal, 12/29).