The Convergence Conference in the pre-pandemic days was a unique opportunity for the CMS IT leadership and staff to discuss key priorities with the vendor community. The extended family gathering allowed vendors to hear from some of the CMS Centers and Office IT leads and gave contractors a chance to do live demos to CMS staff in a crowded, hot, but vibrant environment. Last year’s event was virtual because of COVID-19 and lacked the energy of past Convergence gatherings but was still informative and well-attended. This year the Conference was again virtual and ran into stiff competition with both HIMSS ’21 and the MESC (National Medicaid IT Conference) competing for vendor hearts and minds during the same week.
As someone who has worked as both a vendor and government official, it strikes me that both sides are missing opportunities to educate each other at Convergence.
From the CMS perspective:
As I said many times when I worked there — the Agency IT leadership wants the vendor community to step up and help them solve problems or at least assist CMS to better meet the tremendous challenges of running the largest payer, regulator, and influencer in US Healthcare. Unfortunately, too many in the vendor community continue to focus on showcasing their capabilities, not problem-solving. Many of the white papers and videos produced for the conference amounted to little more than pure sales pitches or as I would say as a government official, “trash-ready material.” Bring some vision to the table and demonstrate innovative ways to improve the Agency and help them serve their beneficiaries and other stakeholders better. Provide examples from CMS or other agencies, where you have innovated and truly helped solve key mission challenges. Now that I’ve become a recent Medicare beneficiary, I have had to deal with the program’s shortcomings on a personal level and can tell you that there is ample opportunity for improvement.
For CMS:
I appreciate you hosting this event each year, but where were the key Centers, besides CCSQ? Does anyone in the vendor community really care about the new procurement system? You have a great opportunity to educate and inform.
Here are some ideas to consider for Convergence ’22: