Part 4 - Iowa Medicaid Enterprise

RFP MED-12-001 | Technical ProposalIowa Medicaid Enterprise System Service Procurement | MMIS and Core MMIS Operationstakeover. Team Noridian’s experience has brought forward the following key considerations indevelopment of the Transition to Operations Plan:• Collaborative Development. Collaborative development of a transition plan significantly decreasesrisk. Regardless of how much experience or how many times a single person has implemented asystem, collaboration with other resources is key to developing a low-risk implementation plan. Withthis consideration in mind, Team Noridian leverages the following staff to develop and review theTransition to Operations Plan:• System Implementation Manager• Account Manager• Quality Assurance Manager• Data Conversion Manager• Interface Manager• Testing Manager• Functional Manager• Business Analysts and Senior Business Analysts• Programmer / Analysts• Systems Infrastructure Support personnel• Database Support personnel• Department PMO and other IME Contractors• Team Noridian PMO• Provider Services Contractor• Training Manager and knowledge transfer team• Other staff, as appropriate• Iterative Development. Iterative development of the Transition to Operations Plan allows for a morerealistic plan then a monolithic single instance implementation plan that becomes obsolete later in thelife cycle. This iterative approach is explained in further detail later in this document.• Leverages Technology. Team Noridian’s approach leverages technology within the planningprocess. Predefined and ad hoc reports from the Project Portal containing issues and risks associatedwith the implementation are used by the Department and Team Noridian to ensure a smooth transitionoccurs. In addition, Team Noridian updates the detailed project work plan on a bi-weekly basis whichenables identification of what-if scenarios within the planning process (e.g., What if this iterationslips? How would it impact the implementation plan from a scheduling perspective?). Thisinformation is included in periodic published reports, such as the weekly status report, to provideimplementation planning progress along with the risk and identified dependency for Departmentreview and oversight.Contingency PlanningHaving worked with other large complex health care payment systems, Team Noridian knows there arenumerous risks associated with the MMIS implementation. There are a number of contingenciesdepending upon the identified risks. Each major risk has detailed contingency plans developed and inplace, ready for execution, prior to implementation. The Contingency Plan, which is delivered as part ofthe Transition to Operations Plan will be ready to execute in the event that any part of the system does notperform according to specifications. The Contingency Plan could involve leveraging portions or all of thelegacy system functionality in the instance of a catastrophic failure, or involve something as simple asadding additional staff to support the Provider Services contractor’s possible increase in provider inquirycalls. There could be instances where the Contingency Plan simply calls for delaying the implementationof certain functionality because it is not critical at go-live and the delay helps to reduce risk. For example,in the Washington MMIS implementation, the Contingency Plan called for delaying the implementation8 | 178