Noridian Achieves NARA Complaince
Noridian consolidates more than 300,000 cubic feet of federal records and saves $1.43 million by partnering with Iron Mountain
With Noridian Administrative Services distributing nearly $17 billion each year to more than 88,000 healthcare providers as payment for the four million beneficiaries in its service area, it stands to reason that records management would be a key concern for the company. When the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) issued the 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1234 (formerly 36 CFR Part 1228, subpart K) — which created new security and fire safety requirements for federal record storage facilities — Noridian was ready to spring into action in order to beat the October 1, 2009, deadline for compliance.
For Noridian, anything other than complete compliance with 36 CFR Part 1234 was not an option. As a leading government contractor delivering critical Medicare and Medicaid services, the company’s success has always been directly linked with its ability to stay on the positive side of NARA regulations. So when the new mandates were announced, Noridian found itself at a crossroads, hoping to find the ideal path to a solution for the 300,000 cubic feet of non-compliant records it had scattered across 14 states.
According to Ken Roseth, Noridian’s assistant vice president of facilities, the company had three options: transform its own facilities for 36 CFR Part 1234 compliance, work with a local storage company or depend on the secure information management services of a trusted partner.
“After reviewing the regulations and determining what it would cost us to work with a local storage company or become compliant on our own, we realized we had to find a partner who could make compliance easier and more cost effective,” Roseth says. “We needed more than compliant federal record centers, though; we needed a company that had a national footprint and could support our operations across the country.”
Having provided document imaging, secure shredding and electronic and paper records storage services to Noridian since 1996, Iron Mountain was the top choice to help the company meet its compliance objectives. But with a deadline looming and a large number of documents requiring transport to compliant facilities, the two companies needed to work together quickly and cost-effectively to achieve Noridian’s goals.