Reuse and the Powerful Potential of MMIS Partnerships

September 2, 2016

Categories: Thought Leadership

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State Medicaid Management Information Systems (MMIS) process claims for over 70 million Medicaid beneficiaries a year across all 50 states. The complexity of the task is difficult to fathom, and the resources required to keep the technology behind it up-to-date are costly. This has made procuring, implementing and operating Medicaid systems difficult for governments that are forced to rely on limited resources and strained budgets. But based on what we are seeing in the industry, things are looking up.

 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to solve these funding dilemmas by encouraging States to create regional and multi-state partnerships that permit the reuse of Medicaid technology. We discuss reuse as a part of our recent ‘Demystifying Modularity’ white paper, but the real-world applications of the ‘leverage condition’ discussed at the recent Medicaid Enterprise Systems Conference (MESC) provided additional clarity. 

In their third letter to State Medicaid Directors, CMS announced that it will formalize the reuse of Medicaid artifacts, and States that leverage pre-existing modules will receive Enhanced Match Federal Funding. This is a major component of the MMIS certification process (discussed in last week’s blog). 

During one of the MESC presentations on “What Are States Learning about Reuse?”, CMS cited the partnership between Michigan and Illinois as ‘the furthest along’ example of reuse at work. To support this claim, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers announced the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was selected as a finalist for the State IT Recognition Award in the Cross Boundary Collaboration and Partnership category. The State of Illinois has already taken advantage of the Michigan MMIS platform by rolling out three of its Medicaid modules. Final phases will be implemented in 2017 for Michigan and 2018 for Illinois.

Upon examination, it is clear why CMS is pushing multi-governance models that reuse MMIS components across States. The partnership between Michigan and Illinois has saved the state of Illinois 67 percent on implementation costs and a projected 40 percent savings in operational costs (over a five-year period). As the host state, Michigan has reduced its operational costs by 20 percent. These savings speak to the progress that can be made through partnerships between States and agencies.

CNSI is proud to be at the forefront of the reuse movement. We look forward to facilitating more multi-State partnerships that will improve outcomes for both tax payers and Medicaid beneficiaries. 

 

This blog entry was written by Troy Kallman, Marketing Communications Coordinator at CNSI.