Maryland’s spending board approved Wednesday a $297 million contract with Falls Church-based IT company Computer Sciences Corp. that is expected to improve Maryland’s process for paying tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid claims each month.

The contract with CSC is being hailed by some of the state’s health care leaders as Maryland’s long-awaited move into a new high-tech age for determining the eligibility of the state’s Medicaid members. But the work also will result in the loss of about 80 jobs within the state’s health department.