September 2016 update
This month the Oregon Common Credentialing Program (OCCP)
marked a major milestone with the selection of a Common Credentialing solution
vendor.
Scheduled to launch in 2018, the OCCP system will be provided by partners Conduent Business Services//Medversant Technologies. The decision to award the project to the Conduent/Medversant team came after a thorough and competitive procurement process, led by the Oregon Health Authority's (OHA) prime vendor, Harris Corporation (see below for more on Harris).
Stakeholders have been engaged throughout the process and have helped inform the solution’s
operational requirements, as well as the formal request for proposal (RFP). Members from the Common Credentialing Advisory Group were also invited to
participate in vendor product demonstrations and reference (customer) onsite visits to ensure
Oregon’s system will meet users’ needs and work requirements.
Harris Corporation is now negotiating contract terms with the Conduent/Medversant team as related to OHA’s requirements. OHA expects to execute a contract in July 2017 with Harris for implementation of the Xerox/Medversant credentialing solution.
The OCCP system is expected to “go live” in early 2018. Additional details and timelines will be released once the Conduent/Medversant team is onboard.
Vendor request for proposals
Harris Corporation led an open, competitive procurement process for the Common Credentialing system subcontractor. The procurement process was publically announced in February 2016 along with the minimum vendor qualifications. Eleven vendors expressed interest in submitting a proposal. The minimum requirements posted were:
- Vendor must have one successful production installation for a period of at least two years and at least one end user’s contact information must be supplied.
- Vendor must be able to demonstrate the common credentialing solution if requested.
- Hosted solutions are required to host the solution and production data within the United States, and offshore vendor team members are prohibited from accessing production data and system servers.
- Vendor must be a Credentials Verification Organization or partner with one.
Vendor selection
In May 2016, Harris issued the Common Credentialing RFP to the eleven interested vendors. Six vendors submitted complete proposals, which were evaluated in stages:
-
Initial evaluation – Proposals were scored for written proposal topics including Management, Schedule, Past Performance, and Product and Technical capabilities. Price Credibility was also scored based on the level of detail provided to allow for thorough price analysis.
- Deficiency notices- Vendors were provided deficiency notices that identified non-compliant issues in their original response and given opportunity to respond and address these issues. Proposals were then rescored and vendors were evaluated on their updated scores.
- Demonstration/Site Visit/Price – Vendors were evaluated on stakeholder attended product demonstrations and client site visit scores, as well as proposed pricing compared to a target budget.
- Repricing – Two vendors met requirements and scored highest in the first three evaluation steps. These vendors were asked to resubmit their cost proposal after clarification of project scope and volume assumptions. From this step, Harris formally recommended the Conduent/Medversant common credentialing solution. OHA accepted Harris's recommendation.
Prime vendor – Harris Corporation
In 2015, OHA contracted with Harris Corporation to serve as its prime contractor and systems integrator (SI) for the Oregon Health Information Technology Program’s implementation projects. Under the contract, Harris is responsible for overseeing the implementation of three key projects, the OCCP, Provider Directory and Clinical Quality Metrics Registry.
Upon completion, these interrelated projects will provide crucial building blocks for statewide HIT services to support care coordination, quality improvement, efficient operations and analytics, and new models of care and payment in Oregon.
As the contracted Prime vendor, Harris’ responsibilities include:
- Serving as a single point of contact overseeing and coordinating the implementation of related systems
- Procuring and managing vendor solutions allowing for stakeholder appraisal and meeting state requirements
- Establishing required integration between vendor solutions
- roviding an appropriate common access mechanism to ensure an efficient user experience
- Providing consistency in the delivery of services across the portfolio of common projects
- Ensuring the appropriate management of multiple vendors’ solutions to reduce the agency’s risk of failure
Harris has experience with the state’s healthcare transformation efforts and has successfully partnered with OHA since 2011 to manage and deliver initial components of the state’s health information exchange strategy. Harris works under the direction and approval of OHA’s Office of Health IT.