For many years, PreCheck and the National Healthcare Data Bank (NHDB) have utilized the General Services Administration (GSA) Excluded Parties List System (EPLS) on a daily basis to determine whether an individual or entity is excluded. The EPLS is a federal database containing the names of those individuals and entities that have been barred and excluded from doing business with the federal government. As recipients of federal healthcare dollars, the majority of our clients are required to screen applicants and employees to ensure they do not employ individuals who are excluded or debarred.

The GSA is the procurement agency for most federal agencies, with the exception of weapons and ammunitions for the Department of Defense. The GSA manages over 8,000 federal buildings, 210,000 vehicles and provides office space and transportation to federal employees. Last summer, the GSA announced that they were in the process of introducing a new System for Award Management (SAM). SAM will replace the EPLS and incorporate several other federal procurement systems into one new system.

The first phase of SAM will include the capabilities of Central Contractor Registration (CCR)/Federal Agency Registration (FedReg), Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS). In preparation for the launch, GSA conducted extensive testing internally and in coordination with federal agencies using the data from these systems in their own contracting, grants, finance and other departments.

SAM will reduce the burden on those seeking to do business with the government. Vendors will be able to log into one system to manage their entity information in one record, with one expiration data, through one streamlined business process. Federal agencies will be able to look in one place for entity pre-award information. Everyone will have fewer passwords to remember and see the benefits of data reuse as information is entered into SAM once and reused throughout the system.

PreCheck has kept abreast of these changes and has transitioned our SanctionCheck exclusions and sanctions screening service to SAM. The new SAM database is now operational and the old EPLS has been phased out on October 31, 2012. Stand-alone legacy systems such as the EPLS will be shut down by the federal government as they are added to SAM.