The contract was announced last May, 2010, a contract worth $34 million. There are some good things happening here, like the comparison of duplicate payments 
and some potential fraud analysis.
CMS Outsourcing Creation of “Meaningful Use” Database to Northrop Grumman in a $34 Million Contract
Hospitals and doctors will be identified as “meaningful use” users, and retain all payment and incentive information. I realize that some government data functions have to be contracted and outsourced and the fact that this one can’t be fit in and the cost of the contract stymies me with a health insurance data partner involved. Northrop Grumman's partners in the job are Companion Data 
Services, Columbia, S.C, a provider of healthcare insurance data centers and applications and InnovTech, Ashburn, VA, so part of the outsourced contract gets outsourced further to perhaps gain some “hot code” (aka algorithms) that can look for inconsistencies.
Defense contractors, with those budgets going down are also now more focused on their software houses to keep revenue rolling in.
I hope with this contract that the government does in fact have the opportunity to “own it” and not just be one more outsourced contract that is in the hands of private industry. They need to own and control the data. BD
Northrop Grumman will continue to maintain the NLR database as it collects, updates, and processes information that is integral to participants in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. Through the compiling of provider-specific information, the repository ensures data confidentiality and combats fraud while it disseminates, tracks and reports on EHR incentive payments to eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals.
The NLR task order was awarded to Northrop Grumman's Information Systems sector in May 2010 under the Enterprise System Development indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract.
Northrop Grumman introduces national health data repository | Healthcare IT News
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