Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Awards Contract to Apex Data Solutions, LLC to Advance Apex’s Provider Directory Data Management and Interoperability Efforts

Apex has been awarded a sole source firm fixed price contract from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) National Artificial Intelligence Institute (NAII) to expand on Apex’s successful NAII 2021 AI Tech Sprint Use Case:  Provider Directory Interoperability.  

Under the contract, Apex Data Solutions, LLC (Apex) will work with teams from the VA, Health & Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) and the Department of Defense (DoD) to implement a technology framework around the VA’s and CMS’ Provider Directory database infrastructure to modernize existing legacy systems and applications to enable them to become interoperable.  Not only will this framework enable both the VA and CMS to more efficiently update and manage their respective Provider Directory Master Databases, by utilizing Apex’s Acceλerate Pro application, Apex will transform this raw data into shareable linked data operating in the context of a microservices framework that will enable consuming Enterprise Shared Services (ESS) to use this data more efficiently and cost-effectively. 

Key advances for both VA and CMS targeted under this contract include:  (i) enabling consuming ESS to query the Provider Directory Master Database for discreet searches/downloads, or other related queries, for any defined subset of the provider data, filtering out unwanted provider identities/data as well as demonstrating the advantages of utilizing linked data vs. current data formats utilized by the VA with respect to its Master Provider Directory database; (ii) enabling publish/subscribe (MQTT) support so that ESS consumers of this data can subscribe for updates to targeted subsets of provider identities independent of other ESS and wholly customizable to each ESS subscriber for its continuous and/or evolving enterprise or programmatic needs; and (iii) enabling the VA and CMS to reconcile provider directory data updates from Third Party Administrators (TPAs) in near real-time, to propagate these changes to the Master Directory and to ensure these updates are received by the subscribing ESS consumers.

The implementation of a microservices framework will improve CMS’ ability to update its National Plan & Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) National Provider Identifier (NPI) record database in near real-time.   Successful completion of this contract will also enhance patient utilization of community-based programs as well as offer a powerful tool to the VA and CMS to combat the billions of dollars lost annually to fraud, waste and abuse of such programs.   

“We are excited to work with our federal partners and test our technologies in this very important Interoperability problem space and we commend the NAII for its leadership in supporting these innovative efforts” said Greg Matton, CEO of Apex Data Solutions, LLC.  Apex’s successful Use Case efforts with the VA on Provider Directory Interoperability was the subject of a recent FedHealthIT 2022 Innovation Award.  Matton noted that Apex’s focus is on delivering a generalized approach to enterprise interoperability that is very different from the current industry practices involving open-API, point-to-point integration between disparate systems of record.  According to Matton, “the challenges of enterprise interoperability, especially in the healthcare sector, are very complex, but at some point, given the lack of industry progress, we have to reevaluate our assumptions and approaches.  At Apex, innovation is at the core of who we are and our technologies offer a new paradigm for decentralized data processing across organizational boundaries that we believe will offer significant advances in enterprise data interoperability and open new vistas for the application of emerging Artificial General Intelligence (“AGI”) tools, techniques and methods.”

Apex Data Solutions, LLC is a pioneer and leader in enterprise interoperability solutions and point-of-service data capture, data management, and reconciliation solutions. We develop and deliver scalable, extensible, and configurable technologies for transforming raw digital data collected during provider-customer encounters into structured data. Our innovative research & development efforts and the resulting technologies can be utilized by enterprise customers regardless of the industry.