Columbia, S.C.-based Companion Data Services (CDS) has been tapped by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide data processing and hosting operations for a National Level Repository (NLR) that will track incentive payments to health care providers adopting electronic health records.
The NLR system will be hosted and operated by CDS staff and reside at CDS headquarters. CDS will also provide application development consultant services to Northrop Grunman Corp. (Los Angeles), who has been placed in charge of designing and developing the NLR.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, passed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, offers incentive payments for health care providers that invest in health care information technology and electronic health records.
CDS’ contract with CMS is for one year with four one-year renewal options. If all options are exercised, the contract would be worth approximately $24 million.
