The Technology Coding and Pricing Group (TCPG) and Hospital Ambulatory Policy Group (HAPG) within the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) use the Medicare Electronic Application Request Information System (MEARiS) to collect, track, and process applications for hospital coding and payment.

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MEARiS replaces a paper-based collection system, supporting greater communication and inter-team collaboration in addition cost savings for CMS, enhanced security, and streamlined deployment.

Bringing an Outdated System into the Modern Age

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The paper-based system for collecting applications resulted in extraneous paperwork, caused processing delays, required excessive manpower, and was expensive to maintain. Record maintenance, accessibility, sharing, and communication was limited to each record's physical existence, leading to increasing storage, upkeep, and manual handling staff costs. Reducing user burden on the technology vendors and teaching hospitals, industry partners, and CMS program staff was a high priority, as was integrating the application’s modules to allow all groups to work in tandem with one another.

Enabling Cross-Team Collaboration with a New Platform

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Softrams proposed a shift from a paper-based collection system to a user-focused digital platform that supports application submission, communication, and revision side by side with CMS review and processing procedures. In addition, a serverless architecture enables a pay-per-use cost model for the hosted services which has led to further cost savings, enhanced security, simpler packaging, and easier deployment. We unified functionality across the 14 system modules using a multi-tenancy design, allowing for rapid, real-time data processing and exchange for its growing userbase. 

Modernization Through Automation

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We created MEARiS as a web-based, workflow-driven system with serverless, cloud-based architecture that introduces top-tier flexibility through modern, open-source technologies.