The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has tapped Northrop Grumman to develop a national repository for tracking incentive payments to healthcare providers that CMS will pay for meaningful use of electronic health records starting in 2011.
 
The contract is valued at approximately $34 million over one year with five and one-half year option periods.

Northrop Grumman will design, develop, implement and maintain the data repository that supports the administration and incentive payment disbursements of Medicare and Medicaid programs to medical professionals, hospitals and other organizations.

"As the United States undergoes a significant transformation of its healthcare system, the National Level Repository will meet a critical need by processing millions of transactions to provide correct and accurate payments to our countless professionals, institutions and state agencies that are serving the medical needs of our citizens," said Amy King, Northrop Grumman's vice president of health information technology programs.

CMS officials said The National Level Repository would provide the agency with an agile, flexible and scalable solution to help meet the evolving requirements of the HITECH Act, which promotes the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology to improve patient care.

Northrop Grumman's teammates include Companion Data Services, Columbia, S.C.,and InnovTech, Ashburn, Va.