National Government Services, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded the contract to the desktop application used by all Medicare Contact Center Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to answer millions of calls from Medicare beneficiaries, saving time and improving CSRs’ ability to provide more timely and accurate services, according to a company press release.
The software will support the Next Generation Desktop (NGD) for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the next five years.
The contract, valued at over $111 million over five years, has been held by National Government Services since the NGD's inception, according to the press release.
The NGD enables CSRs to have access to information the beneficiary may have already entered into the Medicare Website, MyMedicare.gov, the press release reports. For example, if someone had been choosing a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan, but needed assistance, “that individual could simply call 1-800-Medicare and the CSR would have the information previously entered at their fingertips,” the press release says.
"Data integration is a critical innovation in the health care IT arena," Tim Masheck, National Government Services vice president of health information technology, explained in the press release. "Such technology enables those on the front lines to provide better patient care and a more pleasant experience overall. National Government Services is proud that we were called upon yet again to ensure the integrity of this critical application."
Over 25 million calls were handled by 1-800-Medicare workers last year, with approximately 3,500 CSRs at the call center using the NGD desktop tool to assist callers.
"This award is an important signal of CMS's continuing confidence in National Government Services and a key step in our efforts to further grow our business," said National Government Services president Sandra Miller. "We look forward to helping CMS continue to innovate and provide better service to all of its 46 million Medicare beneficiaries."
In 2008 the Beneficiary Network Services (BNS) Help Desk was set up by CMS to obtain centralized, integrated Help Desk support for all 1-800 Medicare Beneficiary Contact Center's (BCCs). Originally created in 2002, the Virtual Contact Center (which became BNS in 2008), was assembled to provide “a virtual, enterprise-wide, contact center environment that maximizes the use of technologies, resources, and service effectiveness across sites and contractors.”
Edited by
Rich Steeves
