The federal bureaucracy that runs Medicare and Medicaid has tapped four PR firms as its primary contractors for communications services over the next five years.

Following an eight-month review, incumbents Ketchum and Ogilvy PR Worldwide remain on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid roster, while Weber Shandwick expands on its current duties and Porter Novelli has been added to the mix.

Dr. Mark McClellan is administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Under government procurement rules, CMS, which is part of the Dept. of Health and Human Services, will choose from the four firms as projects and campaigns arise over the course of the primary year and four option years covered by the new contracts. The combined pacts have a ceiling of $300M, including all costs and fees incurred over that time.

Ketchum – which was criticized for its use of VNRs in promoting Medicare – Ogilvy, GCI Group and Academy for Educational Development had previously been the major PR contractors for the CMS. Weber Shandwick was one of four firms to win part of a research and communications RFP in October 2005 with the federal entity.

The new quartet will be called on to handle a swath of communications efforts, including earned media and press relations, Internet communications, grassroots outreach, press conferences, monitoring, marketing materials and paid media, among other tasks.