Insights

Insights

Why small businesses are important to Noridian

By: Tara Odden, contract administration manager and small business liaison officer

At Noridian Healthcare Solutions, we are committed to enabling access to health care through our solutions. However, we rarely deliver these solutions alone. For all our federal contracts, we work closely with certified small businesses to meet our contract requirements and deliver an excellent experience to our customers. To celebrate National Small Business Week, April 30 – May 6, we want to highlight our commitment to combining forces with small business to better serve federal health care programs.

According to our director of federal market development, Albie Barclay, “Noridian has a long history of successfully working with small business partners. We believe that by combining the nimble and innovative mindset small businesses offer with the powerful market presence Noridian brings, we can create meaningful synergies together.”

One of our key small business initiatives is the Noridian Small Business Program which was created in March 2007 by our senior leadership team. The program’s purpose is to provide resources and flexibility to do what’s needed to grow small business participation throughout Noridian. As the small business liaison officer, I oversee the Noridian Small Business Program. Our key responsibilities, include:

  • Develop, prepare and execute subcontracting plans.
  • Monitor performance relative to contractual subcontracting requirements identified in our subcontracting plans.
  • Work with large business firms to comply with their subcontracting plans and reporting requirements.
  • Prepare and administer in-house training for staff involved in the procurement process.
  • Monitor compliance of in-house policies and procedures regarding small business utilization.
  • Coordinate with Noridian’s Small Business Specialist in the execution of this program to maximize the small business outreach and opportunities.

We focus on these areas because we believe it will help us successfully grow our list of viable small business partners while also helping us be good to work with because at the end of the day, it’s a partnership and we want companies to want to work with us. Collaborative, agile and trustworthy are a few words that our small business partners have used to describe working with us. We will strive to continue to be described in a similar way.

“Working with small businesses is key component of Noridian’s offerings. Over the years, Noridian has enjoyed working with like-minded small business to enhance the value we bring to our customers. As such, we continue efforts to stay connected with our partners and attend events to meet new small businesses,” says Christine Dunleavy, VP of channel management at Noridian.

If you’re interested in partnering with us, you can find us at these upcoming events:

We’re specifically interested in working with these types of small businesses:

  • Veteran-owned businesses
  • Small disadvantaged-owned businesses
  • HUBZone businesses
  • Woman-owned small businesses
  • Service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses

Although we currently do not have any open RFPs, you can find future ones listed on our website, which is where you can also start your partnership inquiry with us if interested.

Thank you to all our small business partners for helping us deliver our solutions. Although small is used to describe the size of your business – the impact you have on our work is massive.

About the author:
Tara Odden is the manager of contract administration and the small business liaison officer at Noridian Healthcare Solutions. Odden oversees the contract administration team and ensures compliance with contract terms and statement of work (SOW) requirements by providing subcontracting management oversight for all policies and procedures. As the small business liaison officer, she oversees the Noridian Small Business Program in collaboration with other Noridian employees.

Joining Noridian in 2005, Odden has worked in various roles at the company. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in health services administration and multiple training certifications, including Certification Subcontract Management and Operating Practices in Contract Administration with TwentyEighty Strategy Execution and Duke CE.