This rapidly emerging digital consultancy, using design and technology to help government agencies deliver better public services, has been awarded a 2-year contract to provide IT services for Medicaid Community Engagement Requirements State Technical Assistance Support to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Awardee Name: SKYLIGHT INC.
Unique Entity ID: F1QZXZNLZJF2
Total Contract Value: $13,909,313.82
Action Obligation: $4,165,866.94
Department Name: HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF
Funding Agency: CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES
Number of Bidders: 1
Award ID: 75FCMC26F0036
Referenced IDV ID: 47QTCA18D00D0
Contract Vehicle: GSA MAS
RFP ID: 75FCMC26Q0024
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As part of the 2025 budget reconciliation bill (H.R. 1), the Working Families Tax Cut (WFTC) legislation introduced Community Engagement (CE) requirements for certain adult Medicaid enrollers as a condition of eligibility. These new requirements apply to any state and the District of Columbia that provides coverage to the adult expansion group under the state plan or similar adult group through certain Section 1115 waivers that allow states to test alternative approaches to Medicaid program delivery. States must comply with these new eligibility requirements by December 31, 2026. This new requirement could impact over 70 million enrollees across participating states.
Under current state partnerships, CMS is already piloting community engagement support activities in Louisiana and is about to begin similar work in Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Massachusetts. Further, CMS anticipates future engagement with Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York, West Virginia, and any other states that express interest.
CMS envisions the award of a task order under GSA Multiple Award Schedule for severable services, including a one (1) year base period followed by a one (1) year option period. The scope ofthis effort includes professional commercial agile services to provide targeted, outcome-driven Technical Assistance (TA) and product development services to CMS and its’ state partners as they work towards implementing community engagement requirements for certain adult Medicaid enrollees as mandated by the Working Families Tax Cut (WFTC) legislation. Such efforts would build upon those support activities described above.
Market Research:
The acquisition planners assessed multiple sources with experience in digital service delivery, state Medicaid systems, and agile software development through searching Government databases (such as GSA-library) and reviewing previous efforts for similar requirements. Through this research, the planners assessed that Skylight Inc. possesses a combination of required capabilities which are rare. These include the following:
• Proven rapid deployment capability: Built Telehealth.HHS.gov within weeks during the pandemic and modernized critical COVID-19 testing systems under extreme time pressure
• Specialized CMS/Medicaid expertise: Transformative work with MACBIS, CMCS portfolio management, CMMI rural hospital initiatives, eligibility systems, and cloud-native architecture
• Existing state partnerships: Established relationships with pilot states (Louisiana, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Massachusetts) and institutional knowledge of state Medicaid modernization across multiple jurisdictions
Skylight possesses an unusual set of qualifications which make them highly capable of successful performance and they are very interested in perfonning the needed work. While alternative sources may exist, urgency dictates the agency does not delay for the sake of additional research activities.
Actions to Increase Competition:
Following completion of this effort, it is unlikely that there will be a need for a follow-on effort. However, in the case that a need for a follow-on effort continues, CMS will take comprehensive actions to facilitate future competition. CMS will require detailed documentation of all processes, methodologies, lessons learned, and state-specific implementations to create a knowledge base enabling future contractor effectiveness. To prevent vendor lock-in, CMS will avoid proprietary solutions and maintain open standards and modular architecture that facilitate future transitions. CMS will engage industry through public forums and conferences, conduct ongoing market research to identify emerging capable sources, and consider small business participation. By January 2028, circumstances will support competitive procedures, and CMS will be well-positioned to conduct a competitive procurement with multiple capable sources should services be required beyond Option Period 1.
