6 Tips for Exploring “Medicaid Match” Funding for APCDs

Thinking about ways to capture additional federal dollars to fund your state’s health care data operations? Partnering with your state’s Medicaid department on an Advanced Planning Document (APD) request may be a route to consider. Here’s a few tips discussed in our recent webinar co-hosted with the Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC) and slide deck:

1. Review Recent CMS Guidance: Recent guidance has paved the way for state APCD’s applying for enhanced federal financial participation. States should review 42 CFR Part 433, the CMS State Medicaid Director Letter from 2016, and Jessica Kahn’s presentation to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.
2. Develop Strong Partnerships: Build close working relationship with members of your state’s Medicaid team and your regional Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) office.
3. Start Early: You cannot overestimate the amount of time the process might take. Cultivating relationships, drafting the proposal and awaiting CMS approval can each take longer than expected. Be prepared for delays and take advantage of the relationships and learnings gained along the way.
4. Make Clear Connections to Value: Develop strong use cases for how the APCD data would benefit Medicaid operations, analyses, and reporting. As always, leave the jargon at home and focus on the what, why and how.
5. Create a Shared Narrative: It is crucial to make every partner organization and department have a shared understanding of the project’s opportunities, priorities and guardrails. Shaping these key messages into common talking points will demonstrate the cohesiveness of your plan and provide the best opportunity for effective communications with CMS.
6. Prepare for Questions: CMS will have a lot of specific questions for you to answer, so it is important to be prepared for the detail required to answer them. Consider developing a list of possible questions you might receive and think about ways you might answer them. Share your thoughts with your partners and see if they would answer them similarly.

If you would like more information regarding Medicaid Match Funding, please take a look at the presentation.