Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) Jurisdiction 8 (J8) - Synopsis/Draft RFP / Presolicitation

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to obtain a Medicare Administrative Contractor (hereinafter referred to as “the contractor”) to provide specified health insurance benefit administration services, including Medicare claims processing and payment services, in support of the Medicare Program (also known as the Medicare Fee-For-Service or FFS) for Jurisdiction 8. Jurisdiction 8 encompasses the following states: Indiana and Michigan.

Prior to issuing the final solicitation, with this synopsis CMS is issuing a draft RFP (inclusive of the RFP and attachments) to allow potential offerors an opportunity to review the requirements and submit questions.

Consistent with the statement of work, the contractor shall perform numerous functions to support healthcare services for Medicare beneficiaries, which include performing claims-related activities and establishing relationships with providers of Medicare services, both institutional and professional, both in-patient (Part A) and out-patient (Part B). The contractor will perform the requirements of this contract in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, Medicare manuals, as well as CMS requirements to ensure the financial integrity of the Medicare FFS Program.

Pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 15, Contracting by Negotiation, CMS intends to conduct a full and open procurement to fulfill this need. Accordingly, the Contracting Officer will seek to award to the vendor whose proposal represents the best solution to CMS’ requirements at a fair and reasonable price.

Award will be made to the Offeror whose proposal offers the best overall value to the Government using FAR 15.103-1 Trade-off approach, which “…is appropriate when it may be in the Government’s best interest to consider award to other than the lowest priced offeror or other than the highest technically rated offeror …”; affording the Government the most advantageous balance of cost and technical factors as defined in the upcoming solicitation.

The resulting contract is anticipated to include a base year plus eight (8) one-year options. The NAICS code applicable to this procurement is 524114, Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers, with a small business size standard of $47.0 million.

All questions concerning the procurement must be submitted electronically in response to this Draft RFP via email in Microsoft Excel format to the following address: MAC_Procurement@cms.hhs.gov by 10:00 AM EST, August 17, 2026. Technical questions submitted by telephone or verbally will not be honored. The offeror shall group questions together, i.e., by relevant solicitation section or attachment.

Submission of questions shall include at a minimum, company name, address, point of contact, email address and phone number. Offerors shall submit questions in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, as set forth in Attachment J.29.

Answers to questions CMS determines to be necessary for proposal preparation will be conveyed in the Final solicitation.

CMS anticipates releasing the Final solicitation for Jurisdiction 8 on or about October 1, 2026, with proposals due approximately November 2, 2026. Award is anticipated to be approximately September 2027. It will be the offeror’s responsibility to check the same site where the Draft solicitation is posted for the Final solicitation and closing date.

This solicitation is expected to be issued pending availability of funds.

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Update on 9/9/26

The J8 MAC draft solicitation notice is being updated to post the Questions and Answers from the draft solicitation so potential offerors have additional time to review them ahead of the final solicitation being released.

Additionally, several redlined solicitation attachments that were updated as a result of the Questions and Answers are being posted as well.

The redlined documents are as follows:

J.01 Statement of Work_Redline

J.21 Proposal Self-Check Tool_Redline

J.22 Basis of Estimate - Updated 9_3_2026 (Redline Item Number 338)

J.23 Government Provided Proposal Assumptions (GPPA)_Redline

J.23.A Audit & Reimbursement Tables - Updated 9_3_2026 (Redline)

J.23.B CSR-Handled Telephone Inquiries Table_Redline

J8 Sections B-M Q&A revised

The final solicitation will be released in the next two to three weeks, before the end of September 2026, and the due date of proposals will remain at November 2, 2026 11:00 am EST.

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Update on 9/22/2026

CMS has received 10 additional questions on the J8 MAC draft RFP (highlighted in yellow at the bottom of the document entitled “Draft RFP 75FCMC27R0001 QAs - additional QAs.”) and provided answers to them.  

The following documents have been attached to this updated Draft Solicitation Posting:

1. Draft RFP 75FCMC27R0001 QAs - additional QAs  

2. Word document version of the Subcontracting Plan entitled “HHS Subcontract Plan Template” – please note that CMS will not accept a Word Version submission of the subcontracting plan for J8.  The subcontracting plan must be submitted through SBCX link.

3. J.23 Government Provided Proposal Assumptions (GPPA)(002) Redline.  The update to this document notes the following: for proposal purposes, Offerors shall expect the TCEDI Gateway to be implemented prior to the start of the contract and propose accordingly.

4. J.22 Basis of Estimate - Updated 9_18_2026 (Redline)

CMS anticipates releasing the final J8 MAC proposal early next week (week of September 28th).