Companion Data Services Awarded Contract for Medicare Data Center Operations.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded a six-year contract valued at more than $200 million to Companion Data Services, LLC for data center operations that support Medicare claims processing across the United States.

The contract involves electronic data processing and hosting operations to accommodate approximately 650 million fee-for-service claims submitted annually by hospitals, physicians and other providers in 30 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The award to Companion Data Services (CDS) represents the majority share of a CMS task order for the processing of 841 million Medicare claims per year.

The contract will result in about 40 new jobs at CDS' program management office in Dallas, Texas, and 10 new positions at its data center in Columbia, S.C. The additional workload means approximately 54 percent of all Medicare claims will be processed through CDS' data center by January 2008.

The award is part of CMS' plan to consolidate its more than 20 current data centers in order to modernize Medicare operations, expand electronic services, bolster security and lower costs.

In 2006, CMS awarded a 10-year contract to three companies to operate new enterprise data centers: CDS, EDS and IBM. The contract qualifies those companies to compete for task orders with a total value of $1.9 billion. The award to CDS is the largest under the contract thus far.

"We are excited about working with CMS and our partners to enhance the efficiency, security and standardization of Medicare data processing and hosting, and to help Medicare meet the demands of a growing claims workload," said Steve Hammons, CDS' chief operating officer. "This award represents a continuation of our parent company's more than 40-year commitment to serving Medicare and its beneficiaries."

About CDS

Companion Data Services (www.companiondataservices.com) is focused on providing information technology services to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). From its Columbia, S.C., headquarters, CDS, a wholly owned subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, and the corporate Information Systems Division provide state-of-the-art healthcare insurance application systems and one of the largest healthcare insurance data centers in the world in support of Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, the Federal Employee Program and Medicare Advantage health plans, as well as other private health plans.

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans.