Award: CMS Medicare Coverage Tools

Recently, Ad Hoc was awarded a task order from The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for Medicare Coverage Tools. The program centers around developing a replacement for the current Medicare Plan Finder (MPF).

The MPF system allows beneficiaries to find, compare, and ultimately enroll in Medicare Health Plans (Part C), and Prescription Drug Plans (Part D). The current system provides a pricing engine and enrollment transaction processing, including an Administrative Console and Online Enrollment Center.

The new features and functionality, collectively referred to as the Medicare Coverage Tools (MCT), are described by CMS as a “best-of-breed plan comparison and shopping digital user experience, with strong support for modern use cases like mobile accessibility / responsive design and third-party Application Program Interface (API) integrations that will be delivered iteratively according to a multi-year product development roadmap”.

Part of the RFP process revolved around a “solutioning exercise”, centered around building out a modern standalone tool that would meet the needs of beneficiaries. We view this kind of exercise— where vendors demonstrate how they’d solve real problems— as a positive new element in procuring of government digital services for the federal government.

Our user research, design, and engineering teams put together a list of epics, architecture diagrams, API design specifications, release management and deployment pipeline, and other deliverables in our successful bid.

Ad Hoc proposed a product development process that centers around understanding beneficiaries desires when trying to make care decisions, tests our understanding early and often via a minimum viable product, and adds value to the experience with iterative product enhancements.

Ad Hoc has partnered with IMPAQ International to utilize their expertise in drug pricing and plan cost calculations. We’re excited to get to work!