CMS will likely go through with awarding a new national RAC contract to Connolly LLC, despite protests that were filed with the Government Accountability Office, according to a recent statement from Medicare billing consulting firm Mira Vista LLC.

CMS had awarded the contract for DMEPOS, Home Health and Hospice to Connolly, LLC (currently serving as the Jurisdiction C RAC) in December 2014. Then the current Jurisdiction A RAC, Performant Recovery Inc., filed two protest to dispute the contract with the GAO. This kept CMS from proceeding with the contract until the GAO rendered a decision on the protests.

Mira Vista reported that a search of the GAO bid protest docket revealed bid protests from Performant Recovery. Performant filed first, B-410999.1, on Jan. 6, and the second B-410999.2 on Feb. 17. Both cases are now listed with an outcome of dismissed, whichmeans that the GAO either determined the protest had a technical or procedural flaw, or because the agency took corrective action to address the protest’s concerns.

This status classification likely means that CMS will move forward with the award to Connolly, Mira Vista reported.

“It is unclear why the protests were dismissed specifically,” a statement from Mira Vista read. “The GAO website provides little to no information regarding a routine dismissal of a protest. As it stands, we do not have definitive information on next steps. However, we speculate that the contract will proceed with Connolly unless Performant Recovery takes the opportunity to submit another bid protest, if the timeliness of a protest is made viable through the dismissal process.”

 MiraVista noted it would continue to monitor the contract award.