A Medical Device Daily

InGenesis Medical Staffing (San Antonio) said the U.S. Army has awarded the CONUS Dental-South East Region contract to one of its InGenesis Aora (IA) joint ventures. The single-vendor, five-year contract – valued at about $110 million – would place an estimated 270 dentists and other dental ancillary providers at 10 Army facilities in five states.

Specifically, IA healthcare employees will work at U.S. Army Dental Treatment Facilities operating in Georgia (Fort Stewart, Fort Benning, Hunter Army Airfield, Fort McPhearson, Fort Gordon); Alabama (Fort Rucker, Redstone); Mississippi (Camp Shelby); Kentucky (Fort Campbell); and South Carolina (Fort Jackson).

The U.S. Army Medical Command Center for Health Care Contracting notified the company on June 22 that it had won the award, which goes into effect Oct. 1.

"InGenesis looks forward to providing first-class dental health care to Army servicemen and women as well as their families," said Veronica Edwards, president/CEO of InGenesis. "It's important for our troops to have access to all kinds of expert dental services to keep them in optimal health and maintain the overall 'readiness' of America's military."

Edwards said she expects the majority of employees now holding these dental positions will re-apply for their jobs and transition from the existing vendor(s) to IA. If additional personnel are needed, IA will find them via its extensive candidate databases and other targeted, nationwide recruiting efforts, the company said.

The CONUS contract was awarded just two weeks after InGenesis reported another IA joint venture had won 12 Army contracts (part of a $1.2 billion multiple-vendor award) placing physicians, nurses and ancillary healthcare providers in military facilities nationwide. Earlier this year IA landed two other substantial contracts: a $97.5 million single award staffing dental assistants at Navy facilities on the West Coast; and a contract worth nearly $186 million placing healthcare professionals at Navy facilities on the East Coast.

IA is comprised of InGenesis Medical Staffing and The Arora Group (Gaithersburg, Maryland), a national medical staffing firm.

In other agreements/contracts news:

• Flamel Technologies (Lyon, France) said it has entered into two new feasibility agreements to apply its Medusa platform with two additional companies. One program is designed to deliver a controlled release of a marketed hormone; the other is a Medusa formulation of a therapeutic peptide. The company said it is currently working on 19 feasibility programs with 15 partner companies.

Flamel Technologies is a biopharmaceutical company principally engaged in the development of two polymer-based delivery technologies for medical applications. Micropump is a controlled release and taste-masking technology for the oral administration of small molecule drugs. Flamel's Medusa technology is designed to deliver controlled-release formulations of therapeutic proteins, peptides, and other molecules.

• CareMedic Systems (St. Petersburg, Florida) and Healthland (Glenwood, Minnesota) reported an expanded partnership to provide additional value to the healthcare industry. Under the new agreement, Healthland will recommend CareMedic's Audit Management solution to its client base. Currently, Healthland offers CareMedic's direct-access Medicare solution and its claims and compliance management applications.

CareMedic, a provider of end-to-end revenue cycle solutions, developed Audit Management in response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rollout of the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program. Under the RAC program, independent contractors perform both automated and complex audits of historical paid Medicare claims to identify overpayments, which are then "taken back" by CMS. Audit Management not only assists in tracking record requests, deadlines and appeals, but identifies potential risk and includes RAC-specific edits to prevent future problems, the company said.

Healthland specializes in solutions designed to enable small community hospitals to deliver the best in healthcare by helping to create one patient chart across the community, be it a hospital, clinic, home healthcare or long term care facility. According to the company, the outcome of its integrated applications is increased operational efficiencies, improved departmental and organizational communication, and reduced cost, due to more effectively managing patient records and optimizing reimbursement while ensuring regulatory compliance.