WPSI Gets 7-Year Contract to Administer Dual TRICARE/Medicare Claims

The Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corp. of Madison, WI received the follow-on TRICARE Dual Eligible Fiscal Intermediary Contract. It covers claims processing, customer service and administrative services for individuals who are eligible for both TRICARE (the US military health benefits program) and Medicare (the US public health benefits program). Future medical costs are a serious long term issue for both programs, but this move simply covers administrative necessities.

The contract includes a 12-month base period and 6 more 12-month option periods, for a total of 7 years if all options are exercised. The base period for transition is August 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008, and delivery for the TDEFIC for claims processing, customer service and administrative services will begin on July 1, 2008 if option 1 is exercised. The estimated delivery order value through the Option 1 period is $92.7 million.

This contract was competitively procured via the TRICARE Management Activity e-solicitation Web site, with 2 offers received by the Department of Defense TRICARE Management Activity (H94002-07-0001).

TLDHS & StrikeLink Urgent as Excalibur Approaches

Stauder Technologies‘ portable Target Location, Designation and Hand-off Systems (TLDHS) are used by forward observers; Sauder’s StrikeLink software is part of TLDHS, and is compatible with a number of targeting systems. StrikeLink determines the operator’s exact location and their designated target’s location, then uses secure digital transmission to send all this information to nearby artillery, aircraft, et. al. for prompt action. This approach seems simple, but it represents a significant step forward because it provides instant targeting data without transcription time or transcription errors, as opposed the manual process in current use. The software was 6 years in development, and the Marine Corps Systems Command finalized their decision to field it on June 1, 2006. See also a recent NAVAIR release covering tests with F/A-18 and AV-8 aircraft.

TDLHS will be used as the targeting device for BAE Bofors’ new GPS-guided XM982 Excalibur shell, which has been late to field owing to glitches but recently completed final testing. Excalibur shells will be fired from the lightweight M777A2 155mm howitzer, and will be fielded in Q3 (summer) FY 2007.

$6M for Child Development Center at Pearl Harbor

Nan, Inc. in Honolulu, Hawaii received $6 million on July 27, 2007, for firm-fixed-price Task Order #0022 under previously awarded indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity multiple award construction contract for the renovation of Building 1923 for a Child Development Center at Naval Station, Pearl Harbor.

Work will be performed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and is expected to be complete by November 2008. Three proposals were received for this task order by The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Hawaii in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (N62742-01-D-1343).