Rockville, MD – June 12, 2018 – CNSI, one of the nation’s leading health information technology providers, announced its Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Encounter Data Processing System (EDPS) NextGen solution officially went live June 10^th, 2018. This significant accomplishment comes after being selected as one of the 2018 FedHealthIT Innovation Awardees. Nominated and chosen by their peers, the award-winning programs are recognized for driving innovation and results across Veterans Affairs, numerous Health and Human Services operating divisions, including CMS. EDPS NextGen was selected for its innovative use of scalable cloud-based technology that increases timeliness, capacity, and accuracy.
EDPS NextGen will be recognized at the 4^th annual 2018 FedHealthIT Innovation awards on June 12^th, 2018 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
“CNSI has a long history with the CMS EDPS project—previously as a subcontractor for five years. Now, as the prime, we bring our next generation health IT solutions along with our exceptional client services,” said Vijay Mishra, Senior Vice President, Federal Programs at CNSI. “We are thrilled to have our program recognized by FedHealthIT for its ability to reduce administrative costs, eliminate the burden of data reconciliation, and enable near real-time processing of Medicare Advantage (MA) part C encounter data.
EDPS NextGen was designed to process tens of millions of encounter data – a record of claims containing clinical and diagnostic information, generated by health care providers during visits by MA Part C beneficiaries – weekly, in an efficient and cost-effective manner. The CNSI-engineered system leverages scalable cloud infrastructure to process and adjudicate the MA encounter data records in near real-time and eliminate about 25 system cycle hours per week compared to the legacy EDPS.
“In 2017, CMS EDPS processed more than 800 million encounters. With this launch, EDPS NextGen will support near real-time processing of more than 1.5 billion encounters on an annual basis,” said Gift Tee, Director of the Division of Encounter Data and Risk Adjustment Operations for CMS. “We are focused on leveraging technology to better achieve CMS’ objectives and goals for the Medicare Advantage program.  Working with CNSI, we were able to do just that by implementing a system that is built for future capacity, efficient, and cost effective,” said Mr. Tee
About FedHealthIT Innovation Awards
The 4^th annual 2018 FedHealthIT Innovation awards will be held on June 12^th, 2018 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.  This event brings together more than 300 Federal Health leaders from Government and industry to help celebrate and recognize 26 of the top Federal Health programs and the teams behind these innovative efforts in support of Veterans Affairs, Military Health, Health and Human Services, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Nominated and chosen by their peers, these 26 programs stood out from the rest based on their willingness to take on achievable risk and, more importantly, to deliver real results in support of their mission. Meet the award winning program executives who are driving consensus, leading their agencies towards effective transformation and evolving technologies. Celebrate the programs that are achieving unparalleled access and elevating functional efficiencies through models that are modern, secure, and scalable.
About CNSI
CNSI delivers a broad range of health information technology (IT) enterprise solutions and customizable products to a diverse base of federal and state agencies. We align, build, and manage innovative, high-quality, cost-effective solutions that help clients achieve their mission, enhance business performance, and improve the health for over 28 million Americans. Formed in 1994, CNSI is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, with locations throughout the U.S. and India. CNSI employs a world-class team of technologists, program managers, and subject matter experts, all of whom have experience with large scale mission-critical IT implementations. CNSI’s website is: http://www.cns-inc.com.
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In a health crisis as complex as the opioid epidemic, accurate collection and analysis of data is critical. In a recent article, The Washington Post recognized that in battling America’s opioid crisis, a lack of accurate information is causing medical leaders to over-correct the issue, harming non-addicts. As the former surgeon general, Vivek H. Murthy, so eloquently said, “We have to be careful of using a blunt instrument where a fine scalpel is needed.” That fine tuning happens when big data turns into data-based precision medicine. 

Data, meet Human. Human, meet Data.

Rockville, Maryland – June 5, 2018 – CNSI, a leading business solutions provider with vast experience developing and delivering innovative health care management technology, announced today that CRN^_®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named CNSI to its 2018 Solution Provider 500 List. The Solution Provider 500 is CRN’s annual ranking of the largest technology integrators, solution providers and IT consultants in North America by revenue.
The SP500 is CRN’s predominant channel partner award list, serving as the industry standard for recognition of the most successful solution provider companies in the channel since 1995. CNSI earned a ranking of 126 on CRN’s 2018 list.
“We are very excited to be among the top IT solutions providers in North America,” said Adnan Ahmed, CNSI Co-President. “There are so many great companies on this list that have had a hand in changing the world, companies that continue to inspire us here at CNSI. We are incredibly humbled to be among these leaders. This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees. I look forward to continuing to move up the list in years to come as we continue to grow and thrive.”
“CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list spotlights the North American IT channel partner organizations that have earned the highest revenue over the past year, providing a valuable resource to vendors looking for top solution providers to partner with,” said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. “We extend our sincerest congratulations to each of these top-performing solution providers and look forward to their future pursuits and successes.”
A sampling from the 2018 Solution Provider 500 list will be featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine and at www.CRN.com/sp500.
About CNSI
CNSI delivers a broad portfolio of information technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions to a diverse base of federal, state and local government agencies, and commercial enterprises. The firm helps clients improve business performance and align IT with their mission and business objectives. CNSI has established strong domain expertise in prominent industries, including Health, Defense and National Security, Government IT and Enterprise Mobility. CNSI employs a world-class team of technologists, program managers, and subject matter experts, all of whom have experience with large scale mission-critical IT implementations. Formed in 1994, CNSI is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, with locations throughout the U.S. and India. CNSI’s website is: http://www.cns-inc.com

About the Channel Company
The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com
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Who are the most influential leaders in health? We set out to find out, and our discovery led to 10 experts who are moving the needle and disrupting the health care space.
This inaugural list makes one thing clear: these executives achieved significant milestones and goals in short periods of time, thanks to their strong leadership. What they all have in common: possessing the know-how to navigate the complexities of the health industry, including challenges that come in the form of regulation and policy.
Challenging the status quo isn’t easy, but these executives bucked the trend and not only succeeded in driving progress but acted as catalysts for transformational change. We’re proud to shine the spotlight on these influencers and encourage you to follow their journeys.
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Vijay Mishra, SVP, Federal Programs, CNSI
CNSI, a leading business solutions provider with vast experience developing and delivering innovative health care management technology, recently announced it sold a majority interest to Alvarez & Marsal Capital, a middle-market private equity firm with a strategic association with Alvarez & Marsal. Vijay Mishra has used nearly two decades of experience to drive growth in the federal space, and increase the trust of customers in the public sector.
Why Watch:
Translation of Mishra’s technical expertise into real operational benefits for clients has resulted in wins nearing $250 million in new business over the past year alone for CNSI. Clients include the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the department of Labor and Veterans Affairs. By leveraging deep domain knowledge in emerging technology areas, such as cloud, data analytics, and claims adjudication, Mishra has succeeded in modernizing legacy systems through innovative solutions that reduce administrative costs, eliminate data redundancy and improve health outcomes for millions of Americans. He plans to continue his successful service in the health care field for a long time to come.

This article was originally published by WashingtonExec on May 30, 2018. 

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which gives lawmakers, government officials, and healthcare experts an opportunity to reflect on the most pressing mental health issues. The stigma associated with mental illness has long prevented the issue from receiving the attention it deserves.
The opioid epidemic is certainly top-of-mind this year, ravaging communities, destroying lives, and killing Americans daily. The staggering statistics associated with opioid abuse have made addressing this epidemic a top priority for almost every Medicaid agency in the country. With more than 115 Americans dying every day from opioids, this epidemic, and the mental health issues that help fuel it, have become too great to ignore.
Now is the time for the health IT community and Medicaid agencies to work together to solve the problem. The Medicaid industry is not alone in the fight – and the only way to combat this growing epidemic is to join forces. If we leverage the data provided by the Medicaid community and the technology developed within the health IT community, we give ourselves a fighting chance to finally tackle this public health crisis.
As the Medicaid community knows all too well, the hundreds of thousands of prescriptions Medicaid beneficiaries are prescribed every day are routed through insurers, resulting in a trove of data. We can use this information to identify where, when, and how opioid abuse is occurring or—better yet—likely to occur. The problem with this data is that the technology to analyze that much information didn’t exist—until now.
CNSI and IBM Watson Health teamed up with the State of Michigan to develop an addiction-identification tool that sorts through health information datasets in Medicaid claims to identify outliers that may be indicative of addictive behavior – such as mental health-related diagnoses, frequent visits to several pharmacies and prescribers, or early prescription refills. By combining the Medicaid administrative data with pharmacy and clinical datasets, the solution can find patterns of opioid abusers at both the client and prescriber level.
Even more, this solution can be used to identify when a patient is most likely to succumb to addiction – ideally preventing an addiction before it even begins.
With reports showing Medicaid beneficiaries are 10 times more likely to abuse substances than the general population, this sort of predictive analytics can be key to solving the growing opioid epidemic. It’s time we focused on how our two industries can play a role in solving the crisis.
Mental illnesses can be incredibly difficult to treat but opioid addiction is preventable. With solutions like the one in Michigan, we can ensure more people get the help they need before they become another casualty.
This article was originally published by Mostly Medicaid on Wednesday, May 30, 2018. 

Our nation’s opioid problem has quickly escalated from a crisis to a full-blown epidemic. As the death toll continues to rise, government officials are beginning to rely on the health IT industry for effective strategies to alleviate this national emergency. Especially in the hardest hit states, the need for technology that allows for real-time medical updates to state and federal officials who make policy recommendations has never been greater.

Luckily, in New Hampshire – where the rate of opioid overdoses in the state is three times higher than the national average – CNSI helped develop the nation’s first cause-of-death mobile application to do just that.  Launched in January 2017, the New Hampshire Electronic Cause of Death app, or simply “NeCoD” allows medical examiners to certify and describe deaths via a mobile app. The information is then uploaded to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention twice a day, beating the old pen-and-paper method by months!

In the past, a cause of death report may have only listed “drug overdose,” but in NeCoD, the user is prompted to provide more detail – the specific type of drug and volume, for instance. Armed with a deeper understanding of the death – or a string of deaths – policy makers can respond more effectively. In this example, officials may recognize the spread of a new type of drug and relay that information to local law enforcement and health care workers.

Importantly, the system becomes a two-way street. If CDC officials begin to see a pattern in the data, they can insert their own questions into the app so particular concerns are addressed on the ground. In the age of the opioid crisis, the quick transfer of accurate information could prove incredibly important. With the surge of deaths related to addiction and overdose, it’s vital that policymakers have up-to-date details on the crisis.

We are extremely proud of this innovative technology and look forward to ways in which it can be adapted to increase efficiencies and help save lives.

The Concord Monitor was good enough to dedicate a whole article to NeCoD. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Rockville, MD – May 8, 2018 – CNSI, one of the world’s leading business solutions providers with vast experience developing and delivering innovative information health care management technology solutions, was presented with two awards from the Alliance for Workplace Excellence (AWE): the 2018 AWE Workplace Excellence Seal of Approval and the 2018 AWE Health & Wellness Award. For the third consecutive year, the health IT company was recognized for its exceptional commitment to workplace quality and employee health and wellness. The awards recognize CNSI’s commitment to creating and implementing innovative programs for its employees.
AWE applicants undergo a comprehensive evaluation process to be considered for these awards. The winners demonstrate outstanding commitment to balanced leadership and the overall success of their workforce. They are assessed in the following areas:
​  *  Total rewards programs and benefits
​  *  Innovative corporate culture
​  *  Family and employee-friendly policies and programs
​  *  Employee growth and learning opportunities
​  *  Commitment to corporate, social, and civic responsibility
​  *  Diversity and inclusion practices
​  *  Flexible work environment
  *  Safety and security 
CNSI was awarded the AWE Workplace Excellence Seal of Approval Award for its outstanding commitment to workplace quality, including diversity practices and work-life balance programs. CNSI is proud of its diverse employee population, and through the monthly newsletter, CNSI acknowledges a variety of cultural holidays and employee celebrations to increase cultural awareness. In addition, the company works hard to create an inclusive environment where people feel valued by continuously reviewing and expanding benefits, hosting employee engagement events, and providing an online recognition program.
The AWE Health and Wellness Seal of Approval Award recognizes CNSI programs that promote a healthy lifestyle. Within iCare – the umbrella under which all corporate social responsibility initiatives fall – CNSI has implemented a wellness program that has created a positive atmosphere and resulted in noticeably increased employee morale and productivity. The program includes an onsite fitness center, company-sponsored sports team, annual 12-week health challenge where personal trainers are made, and an onsite flu shot clinic. Its health plan also offers employees an individualized program entitled “My Health Coach,” which allows for wellness consultations. Through the CNSI Wellness Tool Reimbursement Benefit, employees are granted up to $50 per year towards the purchase of a wellness item that promotes their personal wellness goals.
“At CNSI, we understand our greatest asset is our people, and we are dedicated to maintaining a workplace that focuses on diversity, work-life balance, and personal growth,” said Jaytee Kanwal, Co-President of CNSI. “We are honored to be recognized by AWE for our innovative programs that allow our employees to thrive both in and outside the office.”
About AWE
The Alliance for Workplace Excellence (AWE) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 1999 by Montgomery County, MD and Discovery Communications. Over the past 18 years, AWE has been dedicated to empowering employers to build excellence in the workplace as a means of supporting the quality of life for employees, their families, and the community at-large. AWE is dedicated to increasing the number of excellent workplaces within the business community through education and recognition, to enhance the quality of life of its citizens and empower economic growth.
About CNSI
CNSI delivers a broad range of health information technology (IT) enterprise solutions and customizable products to a diverse base of federal and state agencies. We align, build, and manage innovative, high-quality, cost-effective solutions that help clients achieve their mission, enhance business performance, and improve the health for over 30 million Americans. Formed in 1994, CNSI is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, with locations throughout the U.S. and India. CNSI employs a world-class team of technologists, program managers, and subject matter experts, all of whom have experience with large scale mission-critical IT implementations. CNSI’s website is: http://www.cns-inc.com.
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A smartphone app that lets medical examiners upload their autopsy findings is the latest move by New Hampshire to speed up sharing of medical information in hopes of more quickly spotting patterns of disease or other health issues.
The National Electronic Certification of Death or NeCOD – available for both Apple and Android systems for those with verified accounts – is being used via tablets in the office of the chief medical examiner and the 30 assistant deputy medical examiners who investigate deaths that are violent, untimely or of unknown cause. Physicians can certify a cause of death in more obvious cases.
“Although we cut our teeth in the medical examiners’ office because of the diversity and complexity of issues they face, we are rolling out this technology to all the certifying family physicians this year, through a series of in-house training opportunities,” said Stephen Wurtz, state registrar and director of the division of vital records. “Ultimately we’re going away from paper, and this is one of the first steps.”
New Hampshire has been one of the leading states in a push for electronic vital records. Wurtz said his office and counterparts from Utah and Washington, D.C., will be demonstrating programs at the National Center for Health Statistics annual meeting in June as part of efforts to create national standards for such programs – and, Wurtz added, increase the state’s chances for more federal funding to develop programs.
New Hampshire will be presenting material this week at the Centers for Disease Control’s Medical Examiners Implementers Workgroup. In particular, Wurtz said, New Hampshire’s application programming interfaces (APIs), which can promote interoperability among systems, are of interest in the field.
“The driving force behind this is the opiate crisis,” Wurtz said. The surge in deaths related to drugs brought home the need to have better surveillance methods for public health.
The app not only makes it easier and faster for health officials to see the cause of death in a case, to see if it correlates with other cases, it also provides an opportunity for more information to eventually be shared about the many factors that can lead to the end of a life.
“Right now you go into the doctor and he takes all sorts of notes and your file is maybe two inches thick, but when it comes to the death record, all the doctor can think of is one line,” said Wurtz. “This can give doctors the ability to mine their own records and report back the incidents, life events, that may have led up to the cause of death.”
“We know the immediate cause – it’s the other conditions that have led up to the death that we lack. I may drop dead because of a heart attack, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have diabetes and everything else, that led up to the immediate cause,” he said. “This can improve the timeliness of reporting and the quality of reporting.”
Digitizing the process through apps will make it easier for death certificates and other medical data to be shared between states, since health problems don’t stop at the border.
“From the CDC standpoint, they’re excited about being able to get their hands on this data … to mine down to what really is happening in the field,” Wurtz said.
“The driving force behind this is the opiate crisis,” Wurtz said. The surge in deaths related to drugs brought home the need to have better surveillance methods for public health.
The app not only makes it easier and faster for health officials to see the cause of death in a case, to see if it correlates with other cases, it also provides an opportunity for more information to eventually be shared about the many factors that can lead to the end of a life.
“Right now you go into the doctor and he takes all sorts of notes and your file is maybe two inches thick, but when it comes to the death record, all the doctor can think of is one line,” said Wurtz. “This can give doctors the ability to mine their own records and report back the incidents, life events, that may have led up to the cause of death.”
“We know the immediate cause – it’s the other conditions that have led up to the death that we lack. I may drop dead because of a heart attack, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have diabetes and everything else, that led up to the immediate cause,” he said. “This can improve the timeliness of reporting and the quality of reporting.”
Digitizing the process through apps will make it easier for death certificates and other medical data to be shared between states, since health problems don’t stop at the border.
“From the CDC standpoint, they’re excited about being able to get their hands on this data … to mine down to what really is happening in the field,” Wurtz said.
Original article was published by Concord Monitor on Monday, May 7, 2018.