CMS announces vendor commitments, open-source verification tools and roughly $600 million in vendor savings to help states implement Medicaid work requirements

Administrator Oz and senior CMS officials onstage announced a set of vendor commitments and technical tools intended to help states implement the Working Families Tax Cut legislation’s community engagement requirements for Medicaid.

At a briefing where officials introduced their implementation team, Dan Brillman, deputy administrator and director of Medicaid and CHIP, said the savings tied to the vendor offers are ‘‘$600,000,000’’ and described a mix of fixed fees, no‑cost licenses and discounted professional services meant to reduce state implementation costs. Brillman said several providers offered ‘‘no cost integrations with SNAP and Medicaid,’’ which would allow compliance checks to be automated for beneficiaries who already meet SNAP work requirements.

Amy Gleason, who leads CMS technology efforts referenced by officials, outlined an open‑source eligibility tool (referred to in the briefing as the EMI/IME product) that CMS has piloted with states and vendors. She said the product provides APIs that allow applicants to verify income by logging into payroll services and enables automated queries so beneficiaries who remain in the same job or school do not have to repeatedly re‑submit documents. In pilot tests, Gleason reported, ‘‘over 80 percent of people that have tried have been able to verify their information in less than 5 minutes.’’

Grant Thomas said CMS worked with the General Services Administration to create clearer procurement pathways by placing qualifying community‑engagement vendors on a GSA schedule so states can ‘‘more quickly procure technology solutions at transparent prices.’’ Dan Brillman added that most vendors’ pledges extend through 2028 and include cloud‑based, reusable software packages provided at no cost in initial years.

CMS said it will publish a fact sheet with details on the vendors on the GSA schedule and the specific offerings of the 10 vendors named at the briefing. Dan Brillman said the fact sheet and vendor list will be public and transparent.

Why it matters: Officials said standardized technical and functional requirements and vendor commitments are intended to reduce customization costs and administrative burden for states, improve beneficiary experience and let states use available grant funding (noted at the briefing as ranging from $2,000,000 to $20,000,000 per state) to implement systems.

What’s next: CMS will publish the vendor fact sheet and state‑facing guidance; officials emphasized states retain choice over procurement and can adopt the open‑source tool or other vendor solutions. The publicly released transcript of the briefing did not include a date for the event.