Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should develop formal procedures that include specific steps to be taken in the APD review process, including how CMS will document the review (including the name of the reviewer, date of review, and what was reviewed); what documentation should be retained after the review; as well as decision-making criteria for approval or denial decisions for state Medicaid IT funding requests. (Recommendation 1)
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should, as part of the APD review process and prior to approval, verify that all of the required information (e.g. alternatives analysis, feasibility study, and cost benefit analysis) is included in the funding request. (Recommendation 2)
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should ensure that all APD-related artifacts are retained within the designated CMS document management system, including documentation of key information from meetings and email communications with the states, the MITA self-assessment and independent verification and validation reports, when creating APD decision packages. (Recommendation 3)
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should require analysts to maintain relevant MMIS and E&E system artifacts based on the entire system life cycle instead of individual APDs. (Recommendation 4)
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should, in consultation with the HHS and CMS CIOs, develop a documented, comprehensive, and risk-based process for how CMS will select IT projects for technical assistance and provide recommendations to states to assist them in improving the performance of the systems, with consideration to those that are high-cost and performing poorly. (Recommendation 5)
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should encourage state Medicaid program officials to consider involving state CIOs in overseeing Medicaid IT projects. (Recommendation 6)
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should establish a timeline for implementing the outcome-based certification process for MMIS and E&E systems. (Recommendation 7)
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: The Administrator of CMS should establish documented procedures for how the results of the outcome-based certification process will be used for conducting oversight and making funding decisions. The procedures should include specific steps that CMCS will take to oversee individual state MMIS and E&E projects and how it will demonstrate that the steps have been taken. (Recommendation 8)
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: Prior to approving funding for MMIS and E&E systems, the Administrator of CMS should identify areas of duplication or common functionality, such as core MMIS modules, in order to facilitate sharing, leveraging, or reusing Medicaid technologies. CMS should share the results of the review with the state or territory requesting federal funding for a duplicative or similar project and take steps to encourage states to share, leverage, or reuse Medicaid technologies, where possible. (Recommendation 9)
Agency: Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Status: Open
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
