Great news! The EIS-R Project is underway and making progress! This project update is the first of many that will occur over the next few years. A primary goal of the EIS-R Project Team is to share as much information as possible about the project’s status, the project schedule, and provide insight about the new EIS. Currently, the project is operating under an aggressive project schedule driven by time constraints levied upon states as part of the Affordable Care Act, and there has been a tremendous amount of work accomplished within the past few months to get the ball rolling. The purpose of this update is to inform every one of recent project events, and provide a high-level overview of the project schedule.
The EIS-R Program Office was established in December 2012. This included the establishment of a physical office in Room 1250 of the Frontier Building, and the hiring of a project staff. The project staff consists of the following personnel:
Berry Kirksey, EIS-R Program Manager
Kendrick Brooks, Deputy Project Manager
Amber Brubaker, Project Analyst
Butch Shapiro, Project Analyst
The responsibility of the Project Staff is to provide project management support for the duration of the project. This responsibility also includes vendor oversight, CMS and Departmental reporting, preparation for CMS Gate Reviews, and conducting EIS-R Project Team meetings.
The EIS-R Project Team is responsible for assisting with the project planning. This includes planning internal to the State as well as participating in joint planning activities with project vendors. The team’s role is essential to the project’s success. The project team consists of the following personnel:
Simon Taylor (DHSS IT Business App Mgr) Mary Riggen (DPA, Chief Program Analysis)
Jon Sherwood (HCS, Med Asst Admin) Paul Schoenborn (DHSS IT)
Char Ervin (DPA, Sys Ops) Laurie Maxwell (DPA, Sys Ops)
Jenny Belanger (DPA, SD&T) Bob Tomczak (DPA, Regional Mgr)
Clarissa Moon (DPA, Field Services) Terrance Ambler (DPA, Eligibility Technician)
Stacey DePriest (DPA, Eligibility Technician) Monica Windom (DPA, Policy)
April Carpenter-McVay (DPA, Policy) Stephanie Walden (Program Analysis)
Linda Walsh (HCS, MMIS Sys Mgr)
The scope of the EIS-R Project consists of three primary components. The technical services vendor is a key component of the project. This vendor will be the systems integrator for the replacement EIS. This vendor’s responsibilities include providing the final software product, conducting training, and performing the actual implementation of the new system. A Quality Assurance vendor will be hired as well. The QA vendor will perform an independent assessment of each deliverable provided by the technical services vendor. The QA vendor will work under the direction the EIS-R Project Staff. The diagram below provides a breakdown of the scope of the EIS-R Project.
Recently, the EIS-R Project Staff concluded a 2-month period of negotiation by signing a contract with Deloitte Consulting LLC for the design, development, and implementation (DDI) of the replacement EIS. The Department is extremely excited about the signing of this contract. This culminated a very successful procurement strategy designed to select a vendor who possessed a large amount of experience with eligibility system replacement projects. Deloitte is widely recognized as the industry leader in implementing eligibility systems. The company is in the process of relocating a highly-qualified staff of approximately 25 personnel to Anchorage. This staff will remain in place until the new system is successfully implemented and formally accepted by the State.
Deloitte will be implementing its NextGen product to replace the legacy EIS. This product is currently in operation or under development in 18 states. The replacement EIS will provide contemporary features and capabilities found in progressive information systems. Clients and Public Assistance staff will see a noticeable improvement in system efficiency and quality of service as a result of the new system. During the course of the project, this update will include screenshots of the new system so everyone can actually see aspects of it prior to implementation. As part of the implementation strategy, Deloitte’s Project Training Coordinator will work closely with DPA’s Staff Development & Training to ensure all of DPA’s training needs are met.
Right now, there are probably two ‘burning questions’ in everyone’s mind.
Burning Question #1: When is the new system going to be implemented?
The replacement EIS will be implemented in two releases. Release One will be divided into two releases: Release 1a and Release 1b. Release 1a will contain the federally-mandated Medicaid Eligibility determination functionality that must be operational by October 2013. The EIS-R Project Staff and Division leadership have worked closely with Deloitte to determine the Scope of Work for the first release. Requirements sessions for Release 1a began on March 11th. DPA personnel will begin User Acceptance Testing in August 2013. End-user training is scheduled to occur in September 2013. Tentatively, the Release 1a implementation is scheduled to occur on September 28th. During the timeframe between Release One and Release Two, Public Assistance personnel will utilize the legacy EIS and a scaled-down version of the NextGen product for the Medicaid Eligibility determination requirements. We are still conducting detailed project planning with Deloitte regarding Release One. More information about the training and implementation for this release will be provided in the upcoming weeks.
Release 1b is scheduled for December 2013. This release will be very minor. It will contain Renewal and Redetermination functionality in support of Release 1a.
Release Two will contain the remainder of the replacement EIS. This release will be extremely large in scope and size. Deloitte will begin a second series of requirements sessions in April to validate DPA’s business, policy, and technical requirements. These sessions will be followed by a 25-week series of design sessions which will run from June 2013 thru January 2014. User Acceptance Testing is expected to begin in September 2014 and conclude in January 2015. This will be followed by a 4-month pilot test at three locations. The pilot test will run from February thru May 2015. Locations will be selected that afford the best opportunity to validate the design of the replacement EIS prior to going operational. The locations of the pilot test will be determined in the next few months. The replacement EIS is scheduled to ‘Go-Live’ on June 1, 2015.
Beyond Release 2, the project will enter the Maintenance & Operations (M&O) Phase. M&O is a 4-year period in which the systems development support is transitioned from the vendor to State personnel. The transition of this support will be staggered over the duration of M&O. This approach is designed to ensure a seamless transition while concurrently mitigating the risk associated with the transition.
Many details of the project still require planning to ensure the EIS-R Project is a success. Since the recent signing of the contract, the EIS-R Project Staff have begun a series of meetings to iron out the remaining details. Additionally, a Notice of Intent to Award has been issued to Qualis Health to serve as the Quality Assurance vendor for the project. In this role, Qualis will provide an independent assessment of each deliverable provided by Deloitte for the EIS-R Project. The Project Staff is currently undergoing negotiations with Qualis Health and hope to have a contract signed in the near future.
Burning Question #2: What’s the status of the Name and Logo Contest for the replacement EIS?
The submissions were extremely creative. We appreciate the time and effort put forward by each contestant. We have received 105 submissions for the Name & Logo Contest. The project team is in the process of reviewing the submissions. There will be more information on the contest within the next week.
Stay tuned for the EIS-R Project Update!