California Automated Consortium Eligibility System
Project Steering Committee
Meeting Minutes
February15, 2018
Location:Conference Rooms 331; 332 A/B
12440 Imperial Highway, 3rd Floor
Norwalk, CA 90650
Committee Members Present:
Region 1 – Rocio Aguiniga
Region 3 – Cindy Uetz
Region 4 – Brian Taing
Region 6 – Erma Thurman (via teleconference)
Region 7 – Debbie Walsh
Region 8 –Amy Alvarado
Corey Hanemoto
Luther Evans Jr.
Winna Crichlow
Committee Members Not Present:
Region 2 -Gilbert Ramos
Region 5 – Mary Ellen Arana
Facilitator:
John Boule, CalACES Executive Director
- Facilitator John Bouleconvened the meeting at 9:35a.m.
- Agenda Review
- Public opportunity to speak on items not on the Agenda.
- No comment
PSC Board Action Items
- Approve the Minutes of the January18, 2018, Project Steering Committee Meeting and Update of Action Items
Summary:The Consortium is seeking Committee approval of the January18, 2017,Project Steering Committee Meeting Minutes. Prior to approval, John Boule reviewed the status of outstanding Action Items from the Minutes.
Action Items from previous meeting:
Action Item 1- As needed
Action Item 2-Closed– Dorothy reviewed the BRM issue and explained CalACES will be moving forward with a 40-County design to create a mailing label and when the new SAR7 is released, we will revisit the SAR7 Process.
Action Item 3-Ongoing - Maria from CalACES South is currently drafting an SCR Process for the Analysts.
Action Item 4- Open – No update was given.
Action Item 5- Closed –The funding for the diapers is through supportive services and will be tracked by supportive services and the money is in the budget. Draft ACL says it is effective 4/1; we will not receive a final for a month or two and CalACES will not meet the targeted release date. Approximately 40-50 questions have been gathered (re: Mid-month, calculating age, what does participating mean?etc.) by the CalACES Project.
Action Item 6- Open – No update was given.
Action Item 7- Closed – This update was given under the M&O Application Update.
Action Items from this meeting:
Action Item 1- Open
Action Item 2- Closed
Action Item 3- Open
Action Item 4- Open
Action Item 5- Open
Motion to approve was made by Member Cindy Uetz.
Motion was seconded by Member Brian Taing.
Motion passed unanimously.
Informational Items
- CalACES/CalSAWS Planning
Summary:John Boule,Tom Hartman, Laura Chavez, and June Hutchisonreviewed present and future activities happening with the CalACES/CalSAWS Planning:
John Boule gave a brief background history on the delay of migration. The Extended Migration Planning team reviewed the handout.
- Migration Planning Activities
Summary: Dorothy Avila gave an update on the Integrated Change Control Process.
Update: Integrated Change Control Process
Dorothy presented a list of activities where the Change Control Team haveeither come to a resolution orresolved issues or that are still open. Dorothy reviewed some of the items that are still in progress.
- Work on test management in JIRA - replacement of LRS’ HPQC.
- Add Guiding Principles to CalACES Handbook. February targeted date for review.
- Communication Process, CalACES Informational Transmittal (CIT), release notes, etc…
- LRS contract changes - unified approach to change control process.
Seth briefly mentioned the following within Accenture:
- Accenture is working to unify teams/structure across the Consortium.
- Accenture is currently doing some background analysis on the gaps that have been created since side-by-side and working on bringing these analyses together, to be fed through the Committees and CCB process; the same thing has been done through a technology perspective.
- BOTs Discussion: Next Steps
Summary:Scot Bailey and Jason Horton gave the following update on the next steps for BOTs:
The implementation of BOTs has been delayed and is being scaled back. The first BOT CalACES will focus on is the Q & A BOT. This BOT will not interact with any customers.It is strictly for the workers and will just answer questions. Most questions will be related to system functionality. The BOTs will not be customizable by County. We are currently recruiting fora workgroup and the first meeting will be March 7, 2018. Outreach will be done so that County Workers know about the answer & A BOT. There is no county allocation or county purchase necessary.
- Governance & Implementation Status: Region 8
Summary: Region 8 RPMs gave an update on how they are settling into their new roles.
Region 8 provided a synopsis of goals reached so far:
Establishing effective communication with both bureaus (DPSS and DCFS):
- A presentation on the CalACES Project and discussion of the RPM’s roles was given at Bureau meetings.
- Request to Bureau Directors and Division Chiefs to designate PPOCs that will represent their section.
- Reviewing CITs/CRFIs to determine if they pertain to LA County and disseminate accordingly.
Reinforcing and re-emphasizing the importance of the Committee Process and:
- EnsuringRegion 8 has appropriate representation in each Committee and Workgroup.
- Ensure votes are submitted to the Consortium timely.
How the Region 8 RPMs are/will be supporting LA County:
- Began sending a detailed list to Region 8 bureaus of upcoming system changes that will be included in upcoming releases.
- Providing clarification regarding Consortium processes and LRS system functionality.
- M&O Application Update
Summary:Michele Peterson, Kelly Young, Elisa Miller and Jason Hortonprovided an update on recent M&O Project activities and their status.
Reviewed slide deck9-1 JPA-PSC Policy Update 021518.pptx
Reviewed slide deck 9-2 Automated Batch Disc for Medi-Cal.pptx
Automated Medi-Cal Discontinuance
- The Affordable Care Act has prompted the need for automated Medi-Cal discontinuancesand created a tremendous increase in the caseload count.
- Elisa shared the CalACES North statics on caseload count for Medi-Cal.
- In order for the Project to create the automated discontinuance, the Counties will need to do some work on their end in order for it to work correctly.
- Counties need to evaluate what their current business processes are associated with bar coding and entering receipt of verifications.
- CalACES North is working on phase I of generating packets for clients turning 65. For Phase II, the CalACES Project will be working together to look atautomated discontinuance leveraging the pre-existing process used by CalACES South for RE Packets.
- SCR 11086 has been created to automate Medi-Cal Discontinuances when the customer fails to return the RE Packet. This SCR is in the design phase. The release date has not been determined.
CCR- CDSS published an ACL on January 30thstating the delay of the LOC 2-4 rates. Cases for new Foster Care Applications taken on or after March 1st where the child is placed in an FFA placement,can be evaluated for and paidLOC 2-4 rates. C-IV and LRS have implemented this functionality already. The existing ARC, Foster Care, and Kin-GAP cases cannot be evaluated until May 1st. There is currently an interim process; a CIT was released explaining how to move forward through the system. LRS will have a place to allow the FFAs to get that rate as of March 1st. CDSS is working on an ACL for the AAP cases that cannot be paid with LOC rates for the period of 2011-2016.
CalWORKs EOA-Both systems have made functional changes to capture EOA payments. New categories have been added for CalWORKs, High School Graduation Award, and Education Stipend Need Types.Four additional pay codes are being added as well. Currently, both of the SCRs for C-IV and LRS are scheduled to be in the CCB packet for next week. A CIT was sent out explaining how the Counties will issue payments until the reporting ACL/CFL is published.The CIT instructs counties that they will need to manually track issuances and reporting outside the C-IV System.
MEDIL 17-15- Requires Medicare program to stop using the Health Insurance Claim (HIC) number to identify Medicare Beneficiaries. The current HIC number includes the customer's Social Security Number as part of the number.CMS has developed a new Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) that will replace the HIC beginning in April 2018 and will be fully implemented by December 2019.The joint design includesthe addition of an MBI field to the Medicare Detail Page,removal of the HIC number text box, and an update to the MEDS Interface transactions to include the MBI. There is a validation message to prevent users from saving the record without either number.
2018 FPL SCRs-The FPL values will be available in C-IV on March 1st and February 28th for LRS. Batch process will run March 10th and 11th for both systems; C-IV will need a down day March 10th. There is a memorandum call scheduled with the Counties, PPOCs, and committees for March 6th. Michele explained to Region 8 what a batch memorandum is.
Child Care MOU- the C-IV data has been sent to CDSS and LRS is currently working on their data to send over to CDSS. A request for another MOU to provide some data regarding a summer meals program was received, but the request was withdrawn.
ABAWDS- CalACES did receive the handbook and attended a kick-off call with CDSS (ABAWD Automation Group with SAWS). We will start going through our design. Outstanding Items- MEDS Code and Time Tracking.
Mitigating Gaps
- The two projects continue working together on designs for all SCRs.
- Staff are starting to look at what we can do now on the C-IV side to mitigate gaps: Discontinuance, Implementing Change Reasons andPhase II LRS SCRs that werecommitted to the committees.
- CalACES is working with OSI and DHCS to repurpose CalHEERS money that was under spent this fiscal year to use for migration gaps such as forms, reports, drop-down fields, label changes and Medi-Cal specific items.
Child Support Interface Update
C-IV met with Child Support to discuss a temporary file that was sent over to them for a Proof of Concept.
- Proof of Concept:
- Updating from C-IV into the Child Support System a series of eligibility history for each of the Child Support Cases. This allows for a pdf attachment to be applied to the case, so in the process of working the case history back into the system, they have reference materials.
- Child Support approved the proof of concept and said everything was fine.
- Butte County was the trial county and all data was sent over fine. The remaining 35 counties weresent their information on February 15, 2018.
John briefly talked about the lightweight statewide governance process for Child Support SAWS Interface.
- State Update
Summary: OSI Representatives and State Stakeholders provided an update on key initiatives and their status.
- EBT (Status & Communication Flow)
- Steve gave a background of the series of issues that took place with the EBT System and its Vendor (Conduent) and the specific reasons these incidents took place.
- The Department of Social Services, Office of Systems Integration, and Health and Human Services Agency have been in direct contact with the highest levels of the Conduent Corporation. OSI has reiterated California’s expectations and Conduent has reiterated their commitment and provided it in writing, explaining what’s occurred and how they are fixing it.
- OSI is in the process of assessing liquidated damages.
- Steve reviewed the efforts taking place to improvethe database and fix the EBT issues.
- Steve gave a high-level explanation of the OSI Communication Protocol.
- New EBT Vendor
- Completed five mock conversions with new vendor, beginning full testing phase, initial stages of system testing and will enter into UAT testing in March. The planned cut over date is June 22-24, 2018.
- The Certification Testing done with LRS and C-IV has been completed and all defects were resolved.
- Conference 2018 Update
Summary: Raychelle Menefee and Jennifer Smith gave an update on the working status of the 2018 Conference.
Jennifer Smith gave a high-level description of the hotels we visited and the next steps.
- Management Regional Site Visits
Summary: John Boule initiated a conversation regarding the Management Regional Site Visits.
Communication across the Consortium is taking place and PSC members are key in setting up the agendas, giving input on what you would like and what’s a value add.RPMs were challenged to think about what can be done differently. What types of things would add value to the meeting for the PSC Members and Directors? Looking at more business functions and what features in the system are being used and not used? Are there offices or Counties on the leading edge of some things that are doing well? How can we use this meeting to make it more business focused and less technology focused? A discussion commenced amongst the PSC members.
- Regional Updates/Sharing
Board Agenda
John Boule reviewed the JPA Board Agenda for February.
Sharing
Los Angeles is currently accepting applications for Disaster Cal Fresh for the month of December. Los Angeles is also pushing out the supplemental payments for the designated zip codes within the next couple of days.
- Adjourn Meeting
•John Boule adjourned the meeting at 1:30p.m.
Action Items from previous meeting / Assigned to / Due Date / Status- Provide as needed summary updates on critical policy efforts that are in different states of development at C-IV to ensure that County Executive Management is aware of the upcoming changes and if necessary allow them to exercise their influence with the Project and/or with oversight partners.
- Report on additional research regarding the BRM issue and options.
Dorothy Avila / Ongoing / Closed
- Provide an updated SCR Process to Committee Members and BAs.
- Find out what is the plan for FCED and inform PSC.
- Will confirm if there is money in the diaper fund this year for Counties.
- Take a look at cart options that the FACT/Tablet can be rested on and transported to help with ergonomics.
- Child Support: Proof of Concept Multi-Phase Approach Update
Action Items from this meeting / Assigned to / Due Date / Status
- Diaper Benefits: Status of questions, answers and rollout functionalityin both production systems.
- Send updated list for Integrated
- Add RPM level review for the CalACES Handbook and any documented Integrated Change Control Processes.
- Look into doing a C-IV Functional Presentation on things to remember regarding the Automated RE Process and email Cindy Uetz the Batch Reports.
- Send RPMs Child Support status on the impacted cases within each County.
- Provide Fact Sheets and Notification List to the CalACES Counties.
Next Meeting:
Project Steering Committee: In-Person
March15, 2018
9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Bodie/Sierra Conference Room
11290 Pyrites Way, Suite 150
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670