SRA to run provider watch-list data banks

By David Hubler
Friday, June 29, 2007

SRA International, a provider of technology and strategic consulting to federal agencies, has won a contract from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to operate the agency’s National Practitioner Data Bank and Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank.

The task order, good for 4 1/2 years, was awarded under the Chief Information Officer Solutions and Partners 2 Innovations contract. It has an estimated value of $68.6 million if the agency uses all the optional extensions.

SRA will operate and upgrade the two national data banks by providing software development, systems engineering, operations services, systems administration, testing and security services.

Established by Congress, the two systems protect the public by collecting and reporting to authorized health care entities adverse actions taken against health care practitioners, providers and suppliers.

The data bank is a fee-for-query system that collects and reports adverse actions and tracks high-risk practitioners who move from state to state or job to job without disclosing their history. SRA said it has supported the data bank program since 1994.

The data bank also provides information on health care practitioners, providers and suppliers and related fraud and abuse. SRA said it has supported the program and the Office of the Inspector General of the Health and Human Services Department since 1998.

Earlier this month, SRA purchased Constella Group, a privately held global health consulting company in Durham, N.C., that will form the foundation of its new health business unit.