Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a sub-agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, administers Medicare and Medicaid claims processing, payment systems, and program-integrity operations through a mix of direct federal contracts and state-administered grant programs. CMS operates across the full federal health insurance and public-health funding spectrum, from national Medicare administrative operations to state Medicaid enterprise systems and public-health initiatives.

CMS awarded 11,607 federal contracts with a combined potential value of $172.35 billion since 1982, with $123.08 billion obligated across the portfolio. Recent contract activity runs at 264 awards in 2023, 270 in 2024, 199 in 2025, 202 in 2026, and one award recorded with a date in 2027. The agency fields 2,344 distinct prime contractors across its portfolio. Contract competition is highly fragmented on award count (top five primes account for 12 percent of recent awards over the last five years), though moderately concentrated by potential value (top five hold 4 percent of combined potential value by recent window). The Mitre Corporation leads by recent award count with 49 awards totaling $707.1 million combined potential value; General Dynamics Information Technology, Inc. leads by recent potential value with 17 awards worth $3.22 billion. Carahsoft Technology Corp, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., Index Analytics LLC, and Mathematica Inc. also hold material recent positions. The vast majority of CMS contract awards—83 percent—carry no set-aside designation. Small-business set-asides account for 9 percent of awards, followed by 8(a) sole-source awards at 6 percent; all other set-aside categories (HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned, women-owned, and buy-Indian) collectively represent fewer than 1 percent of awards.

CMS distributed 18,309 federal grants with a combined federal obligation of $24.123 trillion since 1992. Recent grant cadence runs at 389 awards in 2022, 266 in 2023, 334 in 2024, 443 in 2025, and 8 year-to-date in 2026. The agency funds 1,186 distinct grant recipients. Grant recipients are highly concentrated by federal dollars (top five account for 26 percent of federal dollars obligated over the last five years), while award-count concentration is highly fragmented (top five represent 11 percent of recent awards). California Department of Health Care Services dominates by federal dollars with 19 awards totaling $3.805 trillion; Illinois Department of Healthcare & Family Services, Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services, and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services round out the top five. Grants are predominantly Formula Grants (57 percent of awards), followed by Project Grants (21 percent), Block Grants (15 percent), and Cooperative Agreements (6 percent).

Recent contract opportunities include the Medicare Administrative Contractor Jurisdiction 8 solicitation for Indiana and Michigan claims processing (due November 2, 2026), the Qualified Independent Contractor Program information request (due November 5, 2026), and fraud-defense contractor RFI seeking innovative investigation and integrity solutions (due November 4, 2026). CMS also solicits National Provider Directory data-sourcing and aggregation services (due August 28, 2026, with Phase 2 Q&A released) and Medicaid Enterprise Systems IT Standards feedback (due September 25, 2026). No recent grant opportunities are listed in the source material.

The Medicare Service Center answers your questions about Medicare topics, manages your orders of Medicare publications, provides detailed information about the Medicare managed care plans in your area, shares Medicare health plan quality and customer satisfaction information. Contact the Center to obtain the phone number to your state Medicaid office.