THIS NOTICE IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. This work (HITECH Audit Support) is being done as a modification to an existing contract, GS-23F-0133M/ HHSM-500-2012-00042G that was awarded to FIGLIOZZI AND COMPANY. IAW FAR Part 8.4, this contract was competitively awarded on April 16, 2012 and approved to be awarded as "Time and Materials". The main goal of the HITECH Act is to improve the nation's health care through the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and promotion of the meaningful use of EHR via incentive payments. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expects that "meaningful EHR users" would demonstrate each of the following: meaningful use of a certified EHR, the electronic exchange of health information to improve the quality of health care, and reporting on clinical quality and other measures using certified EHR technology. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), along with CMS, has identified criteria to define meaningful use of EHR.
In the early stages of meaningful use, Eligible Professionals and Eligible Hospitals will attest that they are meaningful users of EHRs. Upon attestation, they will be eligible to receive an incentive payment.
CMS has been tasked to design and develop the necessary systems functionality to enable implementation of the HITECH Act. CMS Office of Financial Management (OFM) is responsible for auditing various components of the HITECH program, and oversees the audit process and the contractor is needed to perform the actual audit of the "meaningful EHR users".
CMS is responsible for providing oversight of the types of organizations listed above. CMS's oversight of "meaningful EHR users" is a monitoring control process designed to ensure they are in compliance with regulations established within applicable HITECH law, and therefore eligible to participate in the incentive program.

Upon the completion of the audit, the contractor is required to communicate non compliances identified to the organizations or personnel. CMS Management will evaluate the evidence in order to make a final determination of each "meaningful EHR users" eligibility.

The ARRA specifies that CMS shall commence making payments effective January 1, 2011, or as soon as CMS systems are capable. The audit process will need be started soon after the first payments are made.

The Government awarded a Times and Material contract. No other contract type is suitable for this effort. At the time, it was not possible to estimate accurately the extent or duration of the work or to anticipate costs with any reasonable degree of confidence. The Project Officer has not been able to accurately estimate, with a reasonable degree of confidence, the amount of time required to complete the effort.

The contracting officer is aware and intends to require appropriate Government surveillance of contract performance in order to give reasonable assurances that efficient methods and effective cost controls are being used. The contracting officers intends to request periodic floor checks be performed by the CMS cost pricing staff in order to meet this requirement.