Legislative mandates, including the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA), dictate development of new Information Technology (IT) initiatives that continue to improve customer services and satisfy ever-increasing claims processing demands. The Enterprise Data Center (EDC) program is one of the core IT modernization initiatives. The EDC program will implement an e-business architected infrastructure and acquire new data center capacity for traditional claims processing under direct CMS control.

The Part B Virginia claims processing region is scheduled to transition to the EDC serving TrailBlazer known as Companion Data Services (CDS), over the weekend of February 22, 2008.

Because data processing functions will be affected, the Multi-Carrier System (MCS) will not be available on Friday, February 22, 2008. In addition, online access will not be available through the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system; however, customer service representatives will be available to answer general inquiries.

Providers may continue to transmit claims during this period of transition and should expect no delays in payments.

Normal MCS access will resume on Monday morning, February 25, 2008.