CMS is moving forward with the Medicaid Unwinding and this procurement shows they planned to move sooner.
On March 21, 2022, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded Porter Novelli Public Services Inc. (PNPS) a sole-source contract of up to $19.5 million, “Public Health Emergency Unwinding National Outreach and Enrollment Campaign,” to provide technical professional services for the development, implementation, execution and evaluation of a public relations campaign for the massive re-determination of the eligibility of 80 million Medicaid beneficiaries. The contract states, “the PHE is expected to end in April 2022” — an indication that CMS has revised its timeline for the unwinding at least once.
The period of performance for this award is through March 17, 2023. PNPS will receive a base award of $11.5 million with two optional tasks worth $5 million and $3 million. PNPS has the contract for the Children’s Health Coverage National Outreach and Enrollment task. This is a logical follow on as it targets similar low-income families. The original task order was awarded using the National Multi-Medical and Education Campaign (NEC) IDIQ.