Medicare & Medicaid Enlist TopCoder for National Healthcare Provider Challenge Series

GLASTONBURY, Conn., May 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TopCoder®, Inc., the world's largest competitive Community of digital creators today announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has selected the TopCoder Open Innovation platform to launch a Challenge series of competitions to develop applications capable of reducing inefficiency, improving quality and lowering overall cost of the screening process at the state and national level of the public healthcare system.

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The CMS Provider Screening Innovator Challenge will apply the process of Open Innovation to the goals of improving the abilities of states to streamline operations, screen providers, and reduce overall fraud and abuse by developing a multi-state, multi-program provider screening software application which would be capable of risk scoring, credentialing validation, identity authentication, and sanction checks, while lowering burden on providers and reducing administrative and infrastructure expenses for States and Federal programs. More information about the Medicaid and CHIP programs and CMS Provider Screening Challenge, visit www.medicaid.gov .

Community participants will be tasked to develop software applications that can be integrated into a shared services solution to deliver a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective provider-screening capability for multiple States or possibly for the entire nation. The opportunity to contribute to a matter of national urgency will draw many individuals and teams from diverse fields within the general public. Beyond cash prizes, the recognition and satisfaction that comes with making a real impact will drive substantial participation.

"State level IT departments have been reliant on costly, resource-hungry and inefficient systems provided by incumbent technology providers for far too long," said Rob Hughes, President and COO of TopCoder, Inc. "By focusing a Community of digital creators and technologists who are trained and active with all current technologies, the Federal government will provide states with the most direct access to powerful solutions at a fraction of the cost."

The CMS Provider Screening Innovator Challenge is a partnership between CMS, NASA, TopCoder, Harvard Business School and the State of Minnesota. Powered by TopCoder, it will be administered by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration's (NASA) Federal Center of Excellence (CoE) for Collaborative Innovation and is presented as part of the Partnership for Program Integrity Innovation program. The partnership is in accordance with the National Aeronautics and Space Act (51 U.S.C. 20113(e)) and The Economy Act (31 U.S.C. 1535).

About CMS

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. CMS is the federal agency which administers Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program. Provides information for health professionals, regional governments, and consumers. Additional information regarding CMS and it's programs is available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/

About TopCoder, Inc.

TopCoder is the world's largest Open Innovation Community of digital creators with over 400,000 members representing algorithmists, software developers and creative artists from over 200 countries. The TopCoder Open Innovation Community creates digital assets including analytics, software and creative designs and solutions for a wide-ranging client base through a competitive, rigorous, standards based methodology. Combined with our extremely talented community this groundbreaking methodology results in superior outcomes for our clients. For more information about sponsoring TopCoder events and utilizing TopCoder's software services and platforms, visit www.topcoder.com.

TopCoder is a registered trademark of TopCoder, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Jim McKeown
TopCoder, Inc.
860.633.5540
[email protected]

SOURCE TopCoder, Inc.