Medicaid system goes online in October
A multimillion-dollar IT project for
the state’s largest agency is on track to be completed this fall after
being delayed for years and costs rising from $62.5 million to more than
$97.9 million.
Department of Human Services officials said the state’s new Medicaid Management Information System project had experienced a series of delays and changes in its budget, missing a federal deadline of Oct. 1 last year to go live.
The tentative go-live date for the new system is Oct. 5.
DHS executive director Maggie Anderson said no further delays are anticipated.
“We have been doing a variety of training and outreach. This is a very intense time for us,” she said.
As of May 31, approximately $66.4 million had been spent on the project, of which $58.3 million was federal dollars. Of the total budget, about $85.5 million is from federal funds.
“There really hasn’t been a lot of feedback (yet) as far as the transition goes,” said Anderson, who expects to hear comments in the coming weeks from members of the Human Services and Information Technology committees.
In a July 20 letter to Medicaid providers statewide, the department announced the go-live date for the system, to be called the ND Health Enterprise MMIS. It will replace the system put in place more than 35 years ago.
A transition from the old system to the new began this month. Last week was the cutoff date for submitting new claim adjustments to the old system. The cutoff for providing paper claims to the old system is Tuesday, though there are exceptions for some providers. The cutoff for electronic claims is Sept. 2.
In the July letter, providers were told to plan for a potential gap in the payment of claims as the transition takes place.
Jenny Witham, IT Services director for DHS, said the delays resulted when the vendor, Xerox, took a long time designing and developing its system. Another included changes in the project’s scope and in federal law, most notably because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“It’s a very complex system. It’s just as complex as the MMIS in New York or California or any other large state. We just have a smaller volume,” Witham said.
Rep. Mark Owens, R-Grand Forks, chairman of the Interim Information Technology Committee, said the project had “slowed down and encountered adjustments” but committee members during the course of the project have been understanding of the situation.
“I didn’t sense a frustration with the lawmakers in the project. As a whole, they wanted progress,” he said.
Owens said the time for the project to come online is now and fine-tuning of the system can come later.
Department of Human Services officials said the state’s new Medicaid Management Information System project had experienced a series of delays and changes in its budget, missing a federal deadline of Oct. 1 last year to go live.
The tentative go-live date for the new system is Oct. 5.
DHS executive director Maggie Anderson said no further delays are anticipated.
“We have been doing a variety of training and outreach. This is a very intense time for us,” she said.
As of May 31, approximately $66.4 million had been spent on the project, of which $58.3 million was federal dollars. Of the total budget, about $85.5 million is from federal funds.
“There really hasn’t been a lot of feedback (yet) as far as the transition goes,” said Anderson, who expects to hear comments in the coming weeks from members of the Human Services and Information Technology committees.
In a July 20 letter to Medicaid providers statewide, the department announced the go-live date for the system, to be called the ND Health Enterprise MMIS. It will replace the system put in place more than 35 years ago.
A transition from the old system to the new began this month. Last week was the cutoff date for submitting new claim adjustments to the old system. The cutoff for providing paper claims to the old system is Tuesday, though there are exceptions for some providers. The cutoff for electronic claims is Sept. 2.
In the July letter, providers were told to plan for a potential gap in the payment of claims as the transition takes place.
Jenny Witham, IT Services director for DHS, said the delays resulted when the vendor, Xerox, took a long time designing and developing its system. Another included changes in the project’s scope and in federal law, most notably because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
“It’s a very complex system. It’s just as complex as the MMIS in New York or California or any other large state. We just have a smaller volume,” Witham said.
Rep. Mark Owens, R-Grand Forks, chairman of the Interim Information Technology Committee, said the project had “slowed down and encountered adjustments” but committee members during the course of the project have been understanding of the situation.
“I didn’t sense a frustration with the lawmakers in the project. As a whole, they wanted progress,” he said.
Owens said the time for the project to come online is now and fine-tuning of the system can come later.
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