The U.S. Court of Federal Claims has denied two protests that were filed challenging a decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to award the Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) contract for Medicare Parts A and B in Jurisdiction E to Noridian Administrative Services. CMS and Noridian will now move forward to implement the new contract and expects this process to complete by mid-September 2013. We only hope that this will be a smooth transition and not a repeat of the 2008 fiasco when NHIC handed over its responsibilities to Palmetto GBA. Jurisdiction E (previously called Jurisdiction 1) covers California, Nevada and Hawaii, as well as the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Jurisdiction E includes over 3.5 million Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries, 500 Medicare hospitals and 86,500 physicians. MACs process Part A and Part B claims and perform other critical Medicare operational functions, including enrolling, educating and auditing Medicare providers. You can read more about MACs by clicking here.