(a) The Secretary of the Health and Welfare Agency shall be responsible for oversight of the contract for fiscal intermediary services awarded by the State Department of Health Services to Computer Sciences Corporation. The director of the department shall confer with the secretary of the agency regarding the progress made in implementing the contract.

(b) Within four months of enactment of this section, the State Director of Health Services shall contract for an 18-month period with a qualified systems engineering firm that has the ability to work at the software level to acquire the system produced by Computer Sciences Corporation for the purposes of monitoring the contract awarded by the department to Computer Sciences Corporation and ascertaining if the system meets contract requirements.

(c) The systems engineering firm shall monitor compliance with all provisions contained within the above-mentioned contract between the department and Computer Sciences Corporation.

(d) The contract shall:

(1) Require the firm to conduct an evaluation of Computer Sciences Corporation contract compliance, including design or operational deficiencies, and, within four months of the award of the monitoring contract, to report on this evaluation to the Secretary of the Health and Welfare Agency and the State Director of Health Services, who shall forward this report to the Legislature.

(2) Include provisions to permit the firm to develop specific remedies for design and operation deficiencies in the state owned Medi-Cal fiscal intermediary system.

(3) Require the firm to develop, install and operate the type of monitoring and control system required by the contract.

(4) Require production by the firm within one year of a detailed work plan and budget for managing the contract with Computer Sciences Corporation, including job descriptions, staffing levels and organizational controls in order to continue operation of the monitoring and control system at a high level of efficiency and expertise.

(5) Preclude the firm from bidding (or from being a major subcontractor to a prime bidder) on any subsequent contract for fiscal intermediary services for a period of five years from the date of the contract.

(e) If all requested documentation records and deliverables required in the contract between the department and Computer Sciences Corporation are not made available, as specified in that contract, to the designated systems engineering firm, the Secretary of the Health and Welfare Agency, the State Department of Health Services or the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, whichever has so requested, all applicable penalties and fines available under the contract shall be evoked by the State Department of Health Services.

(f) Subject to the approval of the Secretary of Health and Welfare, the State Director of Health Services shall have the authority to enter into a subsequent fiscal intermediary monitoring contract to be in effect upon the expiration of the one-year contract called for in subdivision (b) and to be based upon findings and recommendations produced under subdivision (d).

(Added by Stats. 1981, Ch. 1039, Sec. 2.)