It’s the week between Christmas and the New Year. Everyone is busy recovering from food coma, planning gift certificate buying, and—of course—sharing their top moments of 2018. So, we thought we’d share our own…

One of our goals as a company is to ensure the well-being and happiness of our employees. Over the last year, we planned numerous in-office activities and philanthropic events to continue making CNSI a great place to work, while valuing what we can give back thanks to our iCare program. Here’s a list of just a few of our favorites from 2018:

10. Hosting quarterly wellness events at each project site, including self-defense and nutrition classes, health fairs, and desk meditation;
9. Participating in multiple technology and engineering career fairs, including the annual MD Bio Foundation, Inc. ATLAS event;
8. Hosting over 100 ‘agents of change’ our third annual (super fun, super cool) Bring Your Kids to Work Day event;
7. Honoring Veterans Memorial Day and Veterans Day through recognition and donations to local Veteran-focused organizations, including Fisher House and VFW Chapters;
6. Supporting disaster relief efforts from the flooding in Kerala, India to the 2018 tropical storms to the California fires; and
5. Celebrating the World Cup Tournament with ice cream, treats, and time with colleagues.

Having fun isn’t the only thing we accomplished over the last twelve months. When it comes to recognition, the company reached new heights, including:

4. Receiving the Alliance for Workplace Excellence Seal of Approval (third consecutive year);
3. Winning the Maryland Tech Council’s Government Contracting Company of the Year Award; and
2. Receiving the FedHealthIT’s Innovation Award for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s (CMS) NextGen Encounter Data Processing System (EDPS)

However, we’d continue to write below the fold if we listed every accomplishment of 2018. So, we will close with our biggest, most important accomplishment of the year…

1. Delivering innovative healthcare information technology that supports better care, better health at a lower cost to over 30 million Americans.

We did this in 2018 by managing modernized Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS) in four states, expanding our MMIS solutions to new clients, building our Opioid Predictive Analytics tool, and developing the nation’s first-ever, best-in-show, Electronic Cause of Death application for the state of New Hampshire. With all of this momentum over the last year and our new CEO, Todd Stottlemyer, taking the reins, there is no limit to what we can accomplish, provide and innovate in 2019. We look forward to reading your top ten and seeing you in the new year!

HELENA, Mont., Dec. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — NASPO ValuePoint is announcing the Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) – Provider Services Module nationwide contract. This contract offers a Provider Services module that is part of the overall initiative for individual states to replace aging legacy components of their Medicaid enterprise. The Provider Services module procurement is a multi-state cooperative procurement initiative through NASPO ValuePoint that provides an alternative to a long and complex solicitation process at the State level. Awarded vendors offer some of the best solutions for Provider Services available in the market today. The cooperative procurement process was also a boon to interested vendors as the CMS approved Master Agreements allow the six qualified contractors to market their product and negotiate Participating Addendums with individual participating states.

“The NASPO ValuePoint Provider Services procurement is a true innovation for the acquisition of Medicaid modular system components,” said Gene Hermanson, Medicaid Systems Operations Manager, Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. “This initiative was the result of a multi-state collaboration between six states to procure federally compliant Provider Services solutions to meet state specific needs. In addition to reduced procurement timelines, we expect many states to benefit from the proposed solutions that support key principles of modularity such as the acquisition of loosely coupled modules with open, documented interface and discrete, scalable, reusable components that are interoperable within the modular enterprise.”

Key benefits of new agreements:

1. This contract offers Master Agreements for Provider Services Modules for State’s Medicaid Management Information Systems.
2. This contract allows agreements that are available to state governments, the District of Columbia and territories of the United States, and government subdivisions (potentially cities or counties in need of the Provider Services Module).
3. Other Benefits of the Solicitation and Agreements:

• The RFP and all Master Agreements have been approved by CMS
• Predefined costs for participating states
• Six qualified and pre-approved Provider Services solutions
• Each state shall determine the best fit and best value to meet their business needs
• Comprehensive terms and conditions are included in all Master Agreements
• Robust Performance Standards are included in all agreements
• The RFP included comprehensive requirements to meet Provider Services needs
• MECT checklist items are mapped to requirements to support CMS certification
• Federally compliant and configurable solutions and agreements to address state specific laws and policies
• Prepared considerations for states executing a Participating Addendum
• Other benefits to be gained by State Medicaid agencies through NASPO ValuePoint multi-state cooperative procurement:
  • Greater vendor participation
  • Reduced procurement costs
  • Expedited procurement timelines
  • Increased procurement flexibility

4.  Expanded functionality through comprehensive multi-state requirements

Evaluation and Awarded Providers
This solicitation was opened on August 24, 2017, and closed on November 16, 2017. Nine proposals were received, with two of the original proposals being found non-responsive and eliminated from further consideration. The evaluation committee met in Portland, Oregon, the week of January 8-12, 2018, and reviewed the remaining seven proposals in Phase I – Technical Proposals. Six offerors qualified to move out of Phase I and moved on to Phase 2 – Product Demonstrations. The Phase 2 meetings were held in Portland the week of January 29 – February 2, 2018. At the end of Phase 2, all six offerors were qualified to receive a Master Agreement.

“MAXIMUS is pleased to be an approved Provider Services vendor in this cooperative procurement initiative to support the Medicaid program modernization for Montana and other participating states,” said Bruce Caswell, President and Chief Executive Officer at MAXIMUS. “Having earned CMS modular certification for our Provider Services system, we are committed to delivering high quality provider management services and self-service capabilities to our state clients, their medical providers and Medicaid beneficiaries.”

Awarded Vendors:
Client Network Services, Inc.
DXC Technology
Digital Harbor Inc.
HHS Technology Group LLC 
Maximus Human Services, Inc.
OptumInsight Inc.

“CNSI is thrilled to be part of this unique and groundbreaking group,” said Sharif Hussein, Chief Strategy Officer and President of Health and Human Services at CNSI. “Health IT, at its core, is about improving care and decreasing costs. When we can work with government to streamline the procurement process and share systems across state lines, solutions are delivered more quickly and cost efficiently. Taxpayers and patients both win.”

How to Act
States are required to sign a NASPO ValuePoint Participating Addendum to purchase from a NASPO ValuePoint Master Agreement. Find out if your state’s purchasing office has signed to participate here or contact us on how to fast track this opportunity via email at info@naspovaluepoint.org. Pricing details are in the Master Agreement listed on the contract portfolio page and vary depending on the provider and services. View current FAQs for this contract portfolio, including terms and conditions, for more details.

To learn more about these exceptional values of services, how you can participate, or to ask questions about these contracts, please contact NASPO ValuePoint at info@naspovaluepoint.org.

NASPO ValuePoint Mission
As states working together, we develop and manage public cooperative contracts. Through our purchasing power, we deliver best value for price, quality, and flexibility on terms acceptable to each individual state.

About NASPO ValuePoint
NASPO ValuePoint is a unified, nationally focused cooperative aggregating the demand of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the organized US territories, their political subdivisions and other eligible entities spurring best value, innovation and competition in the marketplace. The NASPO ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Organization (formerly WSCA-NASPO) provides the highest standard of excellence in public cooperative contracting. By leveraging the leadership and expertise of all states with the purchasing power of their public entities, NASPO ValuePoint delivers best value, reliable, competitively sourced contracts. Since 1992 NASPO ValuePoint has been the cooperative purchasing arm of NASPO (the National Association of State Procurement Officials) encouraging, fostering and guiding the nation’s most significant public contract cooperative.

For more information on this release, contact:
Amanda Graves
(859) 514-9824
agraves@naspovaluepoint.org

SOURCE NASPO ValuePoint | Read Original Post Here

It goes without saying, 2018 was a BIG year for CNSI. We continue to innovate and evolve in the Health IT space with the agility of a small start-up—even though we are now nearly 1,000 employees spread across the globe. This year has brought with it a new ownership team, new contracts, industry awards, and—most recently—a new CEO, Todd Stottlemyer. With all that change, it’s important to maintain a focus on the importance of leadership as a stabilizing force throughout the organization. 

Last week, Todd held an introductory all-employee town hall in which he introduced CNSI to his vision for the company as he becomes its new steward. He described working with employees up and down the corporate ladder to deeply understand CNSI’s culture and operations. When asked by one of the employees what Todd’s vision is for evolving CNSI’s culture, his response was not only strategic but heartfelt.

“Importantly, I start with creating a team of strong, servant leaders. And what this means is having leaders that are empathetic, good listeners, and understand that we are here to serve. Whether that is serving employee base, serving clients, serving their customers. When leaders lead, you have a strong culture and people will follow.” – Todd Stottlemyer, CNSI CEO

To reinforce the leadership theme that has permeated the last quarter of 2018, we held an all-day Technology leadership meeting this week. The day offered CNSI’s Technology leadership team a chance to learn from one another in a relaxed, collaborative environment. Featuring sessions like “voice of leadership,” “leadership in a matrixed environment,” and “role of a resource manager,” the event tailored the lessons directly to CNSI’s work environment.

At CNSI, we understand that leadership requires constant attention and care. And developing the next generation of leaders doesn’t just happen on its own. We’re committed to being around to improve the delivery and cost of health care for a long time, so we’re going to maintain our focus on leadership, day-in, day-out. This concept of leadership has and will continue to be an area of focus as we enter into the new year, begin new work, create new innovations.

Rockville, MD – December 5 – CNSI, a leading business solutions provider with vast experience developing and delivering innovative healthcare management technology solutions, announced today that Todd Stottlemyer has joined the company as chief executive officer, effective December 3, 2018.

“CNSI’s superior technologies have allowed it to disrupt an industry and earn significant market share,” said Alex Nivelle, principal at A&M Capital, CNSI’s majority owner. “We’re thrilled to have a proven leader like Todd join the team as we look forward to further innovation, growth, and success.”

Stottlemyer, a former executive with the Inova Health System, was previously responsible for the development and growth of all activities on the Inova Center for Personalized Health campus in Virginia. Recognized by the Washington Business Journal and Virginia Business Magazine for his longtime industry and community leadership, Stottlemyer is a highly regarded technology and health care executive. Prior to his role at Inova, Stottlemyer served as CEO of Acentia, LLC, a technology and management solutions company with a large portfolio of health clients.

“Health IT is such an incredibly dynamic industry right now,” said Stottlemyer. “There are so many companies trying to change the way we deliver care. CNSI immediately stuck out to me because of its culture of constant innovation and focus on delivering solutions that reduce healthcare costs and improve health for millions of Americans. That’s the kind of company I want to lead, and I am excited to get started.”

Prior to Acentia, Stottlemyer served as CEO of Apogen Technologies, president of McGuireWoods Consulting, CFO of BTG, and as a member of the senior executive team of BDM International.  Stottlemyer graduated from the College of William & Mary and later received a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.  Stottlemyer has served on numerous corporate and civic boards, including serving as chair of the board of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and as Rector (chair of the Board of Visitors) at William & Mary.

About CNSI

CNSI delivers a broad range of health information technology enterprise solutions and customizable products to a diverse base of state and federal agencies. We align, build, and manage innovative, high-quality, cost-effective solutions that help clients achieve their mission, enhance business performance, reduce costs, and improve the health for over 30 million Americans. Headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, with locations throughout the U.S. and India, CNSI employs a world-class team of technologists, program managers, and subject matter experts, all of whom have experience with large scale mission-critical information technology implementations. CNSI’s website is: http://www.cns-inc.com.

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In the opening keynote session for the annual National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) Conference, Health and Human Services Director, Alex Azar, focused heavily on the state of mental health in America. Specifically, he shared tragic stories of opioid addiction, staggering statistics on children with serious emotional disturbances, and the overall role Medicaid plays in addressing these critical public health issues.

It was also in this speech where Mr. Azar announced the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) expansion of its mental health treatment services—all with the goal of helping children and adults who have been diagnosed receive treatment earlier and in a better environment than before. The letter from CMS details existing and new opportunities for states for the ways in which they provide mental health services. By expanding this program, states can now authorize payment for short-term residential treatment with the commitment there will be quality care and upgrades to community-based services. But the expansion of services comes with a caveat.

“CMS is committed to providing more treatment options for serious mental illness (SMI), including more inpatient and residential options. However, states must also demonstrate their ability to address challenges—such as effectively fighting the raging opioid epidemic,” said Mr. Azar in his opening remarks.

Clearly, this is an important area of focus for state Medicaid directors with nearly half of the program’s spending going towards treatment for enrollees with behavioral health conditions. Even with this large number, many adults who struggle with a SMI—thirty-five percent still do not receive treatment.

So, yes. CMS can lead the charge by expanding this program. But it will be up to states to determine how they will close the gap on the country’s pressing mental health issues. Maybe this is why there were three additional sessions at NAMD focused specifically on this topic.

We commend CMS and NAMD for their focus in this area and look forward to seeing how this program helps states better the care CMS help better the care provided for a once undervalued field of healthcare. This step in the right direction will positively impact communities nationwide.

The U.S. just recently went through the 2018 mid-term elections, with voting day always occurring on the first Tuesday in November. But there is another national campaign that takes place the first week of this month—National Corporate Compliance and Ethics Week (NCCEW). Oddly enough, the two go hand-in-hand, especially for those in government contracting. With the first, the American people celebrate their right to choose candidates that best reflect their values. With the second, companies—such as CNSI—use this week to celebrate their own corporate values and their commitment to doing the business the right way—every day. And this comes from creating a strong culture of compliance.

So, how does a company create that culture?

Well, here at CNSI we incorporate compliance and ethics into everything we do—from the proposals we write, to the way we manage our projects, to the treatment of our employees, colleagues and clients to the communications we send. Throughout the year, we hold related trainings on hot compliance issues (e.g., creating a harassment-free workplace); schedule chat and chews for managers; and provide regular updates on company policies and best practices. NCCEW gives us the opportunity to spotlight the efforts from the past year.  

Speaking of years, we are in now on our fourth year of NCCEW participation. Throughout the week, CNSI has shared daily policy reminders, invited employees to play our “Escape Room” compliance quiz, updated our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, and distributed our annual Code of Ethics training. Tomorrow, we close out the week with our Compliance Champion Celebration. Since compliance is everyone’s responsibility, everyone is a champion—which means cupcakes, cool giveaways, and time with colleagues.

We also check in on other companies to see how they are supporting NCCEW. Have something cool and interesting your company is doing to create a culture of compliance? Share with us at @CNSICorp!

Every year, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) holds a conference to meet with representatives from federal, municipal, international government and non-profit organizations. Chief Information Officers (CIO) from all 50 states discuss industry challenges, best practices, and upcoming policy initiatives.

CNSI representatives heard first hand about the key issues facing CIOS, which include cybersecurity concerns, cloud adoption, impactful leadership, and up-and-coming technology.

One particularly noteworthy event was the release of the 2018 State CIO as Communicator: The Evolving Nature of Technology Leadership report, which focused–in part–on state cloud adoption. It is worth noting that 22 percent of officials have no plan in place.

According to the survey, cloud implementation has shown to be more difficult because of the work required to train employees on the new systems. An anonymous CIO respondent said in the survey that integrating the cloud system “Sounds great, and it is, but one thing it is not, is easy! There is so much more work involved than we anticipated.” As technology advances, states without a cloud strategy are missing out on significant savings, increased security, and other advantages.

The State of Michigan and CNSI understood the potential beyond cloud technology long before it was an industry buzz word, with their 2016 NASCIO award-winning Medicaid As A Service program. One of the top areas of focus as this initiative launched was governance. This means identifying clear roles, creating strong contract relationships, and leveraging pre-existing resources.  So, yes. Cloud implementations require work, but they can be done (and done well).

We will watch closely as state CIOs move forward with cloud adoption in other areas of government and be excited to see what advancements will be made before the next NASCIO conference.

In early October, HIMSS celebrated National Health IT Week. With webinars, in-person meetings, and multiple articles daily, there was quite a bit of content to cover. This content was collected and analyzed as part of a recent report that explored trends in the healthcare industry, which fell into nine categories:
* Electronic Health Records (EHR) * Cloud Computing * Interoperability * Blockchain * Telehealth * Supply Chain * Precision Medicine * Security * Patient-Generated Health Data

Despite the variety of focus areas, one common theme cropped up across all: integrated technology. While HIMSS and other leaders in healthcare IT recognize the advances made (e.g. paperless claims, blockchain etc.), they also recognize that these advancements can cause more complex issues. The biggest challenge being that the infrastructure of yesterday cannot support the needs of tomorrow.

“People are looking up and saying the infrastructure we put in place ten years ago isn’t robust enough today,” said Blain Newton, executive vice president of HIMSS Analytics. “What we’re seeing as far as a state of the market is acceleration beyond the EHR.”

For example, while EHRs are close to be universally adopted, only 2 percent of hospitals have a single-vendor enterprise with the average healthcare system connects with 15 vendors across all its business verticals. The lack of consistency between systems brings about the topic of interoperability, as made apparent with recent healthcare giant mergers such as CHI/Dignity and CVS Health/Aetna.

But–as we always say here at CNSI–where there is a challenge, there is an opportunity; where there is an opportunity, there is innovation.

Apparently HIMSS CEO Hal Wolf agrees. He recently announced that the organization will partner with with AcademyHealth on the next Health Datapalooza event to “ensure the secure and meaningful transformation of data into new capabilities that deliver innovation in health transformation.” We look forward to seeing what comes out of this event.

What do you think will help address this issue of integrated technology? Join the conversation on Twitter by tweeting along with @CNSICorp.

To counter our country’s opioid crisis, the government has been fighting to push the Support for Patients and Communities Act into a law, which would address the opioid epidemic by providing Medicaid recipients easier ways to receive inpatient care for substance abuse, blocking fentanyl from being imported through the mail and allowing more nurses to prescribe medication for opioid addiction.

The opioid crisis has affected millions of people worldwide. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there were nearly 70,000 overdose deaths across the country in 2017. In late September, a group of bipartisan committee leaders made a statement after the House and Senate reached an agreement on the bill saying, “while there is more work to be done, this bipartisan legislation takes an important step forward and will save lives.”

To echo what the committee leaders said, we know the only way to combat this issue impacting the country is by working together to develop innovative solutions. Like the one being used in the State of Michigan, where 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.

CNSI’s Sharif Hussein highlighted this breakthrough technology in a recent blog, “Making Communities Healthier: Health IT and the Opioid Addiction Crisis”, published as part of HIMSS National Health IT Week. This tool uses predictive analytics to identify patterns in our cloud-based Medicaid system that could be help identify potential addictive behavior. After that, specific medical claims are flagged for further manual review by the state’s management team and help hold irresponsible prescribers accountable.

Both this new legislation and solutions—like the one being used in Michigan—are key to helping prevent opioid addiction. Together, we are creating healthier individuals, communities, and country.

From electronic healthcare records to patient engagement apps, information technology offers solutions to some of healthcare’s most fundamental, long-term challenges. However, health IT can and should be leveraged for time-sensitive, specific issues. One could make the case that there is no issue more critical today than that of the opioid epidemic.

Read more on the HIMSS National Health IT Week Blog!