Courtney Garnes

Courtney Garnes serves as a Contracting Officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), where she plays a critical role in executing the agency’s mission to expand equitable healthcare access through strategic procurement. She manages the full lifecycle of acquisitions for health insurance administration and operational support services, ensuring compliance with federal regulations and alignment with CMS’s data-driven policy objectives. Her portfolio primarily encompasses contracts for direct health and medical insurance carrier services, as well as management consulting support to enhance program efficiency and system modernization. Garnes ensures all procurements uphold transparency, accountability, and adherence to statutory requirements under the Federal Acquisition Regulation. Garnes collaborates with a diverse array of contractors, primarily large-scale health insurance carriers and administrative management consultants with deep expertise in federal healthcare systems. Her working relationships are characterized by long-term, performance-based partnerships that emphasize outcomes over inputs, with a focus on vendors capable of delivering scalable, compliant, and interoperable solutions across Medicare, Medicaid, and the Health Insurance Marketplace. She engages with industry leaders who demonstrate proven experience in regulatory reporting, claims processing, and health information technology integration. Garnes’s procurement strategy reflects a strong preference for full and open competition, with 100% of her acquisitions conducted without set-asides. While she does not prioritize socioeconomic programs such as 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB, her approach ensures rigorous evaluation of vendor capability, capacity, and past performance, maintaining a high standard of value and compliance across all contracts. Her primary industry focus lies in NAICS 524114 (Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers), which accounts for 87.5% of her portfolio, reflecting CMS’s reliance on private-sector insurers to deliver coverage. The remaining 12.5% centers on NAICS 541611 (Administrative Management Consulting), where she procures strategic advisory services to optimize program operations, policy analysis, and technology modernization initiatives. Her expertise lies at the intersection of insurance operations, regulatory compliance, and healthcare systems integration.