The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services awarded CGI Federal Inc. a $73.2 million contract to enhance and manage applications on three agency Web sites that enable Medicare beneficiaries to find information about their healthcare programs.
Through its Web sites, CMS aims to help those 65 and older make informed decisions about their health care coverage.
The three Web sites -- Medicare.gov, cms.hhs.gov, and MyMedicare.gov -- attract more than 500 million page views each year and serve as CMS' online communication channel for patients and healthcare providers, CGI said in a May 18 announcement.
Among current features of the sites, consumers can view health claims information, compare health and drug plans based on quality measures and estimated costs and create a report listing information that they can share with their healthcare providers. The sites also assist customer support specialists who run the 1-800-Medicare help lines.
CGI will update the Web sites according to agency directives or legislative mandates from Congress, and help make them easier to use.
"We continue to enhance the Web portal from a self-service perspective," said Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI Federal. "It's all about the empowerment of the beneficiary."
For instance, the "Hospital Compare" and "Nursing Home Compare" Web tools combine geographical data from Google maps with healthcare provider quality-of-care information to help consumers locate and assess healthcare facilities near them, Campbell said.
She cited a YouTube video in which HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius walks the public through the Medicare.gov Web site as an example of efforts on the part of the federal government to make the Web site easier to navigate and Medicare options easier to understand.
In the video, Sebelius demonstrates navigating and entering information into data fields with screen shots of the Web site.
To test the usability of online updates, CGI enlists feedback from Medicare beneficiaries, including testers of different ages and educational backgrounds, "to make sure that the user experience is one that crosses all domains of the population," Campbell said.
