1. WSS & NC FAST Town Hall Briefing
February 2013

2. Agenda Project Update Spotlight Topics: Reporting Help Desk
System Performance and Performance Monitoring
Training
Reception
Case Routing, Work Queues, and Roles
Task Utilization
Universal Worker and Evidence Management
Next Steps and Best Practices

3. Project Update

4. P1 Update All counties have gone to Hard Launch – Stage 1
98 counties have fully converted
Two counties remain to be converted in March
Mecklenburg
Forsyth
Supported 428,732 issuances for active FNS and SNAP cases in January, representing approximately $306M in FNS benefits issued since go-live
Received over 15,100 Help Desk tickets since go-live of which over 14,600 have been responded to and closed
Working to address open ticket backlog
NC FAST continues to provide On-Site Support (OSS) to assist counties through the transition

5. P1 Deployment Status

6. ePASS Update
ePASS should be able to accept applications for FNS beginning in March-April; specific date to be determined
Applications received will appear in the NC FAST online applications work queue
Supervisors will need to subscribe appropriate workers to the online applications and withdrawals work queues prior to ePASS upgrade
Specific details to come
Confirming an approach to “pilot” the new ePASS application functionality before widespread use
Counties will need to make a determination about how much they want to publicize the availability of this ePASS enhancement to the general public

7. P2&6 Overview Detailed Design is complete
System development is well underway and is targeted to be completed in April
Training material development is in process
Will be delivered in 2 waves – similar to Project 1
Will rely more extensively on distance learning than Project 1
Test script development is wrapping up and test execution is in process
Would like counties to be involved in testing activities
Formal testing
Sandbox access

8. Wanted: Test Resources
Looking for at least 10 resources
Commitment Period: March 1 through June 15, 2013
Looking for 100% dedication to NC FAST
If not 100% dedicated, then specific allotted time period’s ex. 2/3 full days a week.
Seeking program knowledgeable, independent, problem-solving individuals to execute test scripts – predominantly in the areas of Medicaid and Special Assistance, experience with FNS/SNAP welcomed.
Preferred that resources be on-site throughout testing duration, MINIMALLY required to be on-site for 2 weeks at start of testing and for periodic check-points.

9. Health Benefit Exchange Update
North Carolina has elected to use the federal portal for initial intake of applications under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
Applications received through the federal portal will be transmitted via interface to NC FAST
Health Benefit Exchange integration web-based training will be made available to all 100 counties in September 2013 in preparation for October 1 deadline to begin accepting ACA applications
Additional information will be provided in the next few months as the team analyzes implications of ACA on the counties

10. P4 Update
Received notification that DHHS did not receive US HHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF)/Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) federal partner approval to expedite NC FAST Project 4 –Children Services
DHHS will continue to work with ACF/CMS to clearly define the cost allocation methodology
DHHS management decided to suspend expediting the project
Will slow the effort until assured of 90/10 funding
Will be able to gear up quickly if DHHS gets positive results in the future
Appears that the process may take some time given the magnitude of federal partner questions
If approval is not received in time to expedite Project 4, Project 4 will return to its original implementation timeframe
Planned timeframe to implement Project 4 is now 7/1/14 to 6/30/16

11. Document Management
With the deployment of Project 2 and 6, document management functionality will be available through the evidence screens
Will support all case types in NC FAST
Use of NC FAST document management functionality is optional – yet encouraged
Counties will be responsible for procuring scanning hardware and software (usually bundled with the scanner)
Refer to January 7 communication on document management
Integration design document to be released within the next 60 days

12. P2&6 Implementation Schedule
January - May
June
July-Sept
Fall 2013
Early 2014
P2&6 Preparation
Pilot
Soft Launch
Hard Launch
Complete Roll Out
Optimization and Maintenance
WSS Town Hall Meetings
Foundation Workshops
WSS Leadership Summit
Change Discussion Guide Reviews
Readiness Assessments
Training Development
Testing
Statewide Web-based Training Delivery
Pilot Wave 1 Classroom Training Delivery
Pilot Go-live with Applications
Phase by Phase Web-based Training Delivery
Phase by phase Wave 1 Classroom Training Delivery
Rolling Go-live with Applications
Readiness Assessments for Hard Launch
Pilot Wave 2 Classroom Training
Pilot Conversion
Phase Web-based Training Delivery
Phase by Phase Wave 2 Classroom Training Delivery
Begin Rolling Go-live with Conversion and Recertifications
Conclude Phase by Phase Wave 2 Classroom Training
Complete Conversion
Complete Statewide Implementation
Continue system optimization
Support system maintenance
Note: The proposed P2&6 Implementation Schedule above is subject to change

13. P2&6 Implementation Plan
The implementation of P2&6 will follow a similar plan to that of P1, including the use of Pilot Counties and subsequent Phases of a Soft Launch and Hard Launch moving geographically across the state.
Legend
Primary Pilot
- 3 Counties
Secondary Pilot
- 11 Counties

14. Implementation Approach
Pilot
June 17 – 3 primary pilots
Remaining 97 counties will see screen changes; Web-based training will be provided to address these changes
Soft Launch
July – September – Geographically focused
Focuses on applications for persons not on active EIS cases
Will need to convert historical person data out of EIS to support this; no going back to EIS during implementation
Health Benefit Exchange
Web-based training in September for all 100 counties
Able to take ACA applications on October 1; benefits start January 1, 2014
Hard Launch
September – February 2014; conversion of active EIS cases

15. Conversion Approach Soft Launch Hard Launch
10 years of history including all IE segments and all associated data for persons on closed cases as well as providers and facilities will be converted from EIS
Converted twice a month by county in accordance with training schedule
Hard Launch
Pilot Hard Launch in September and begin statewide deployment in October
Active cases including 10 years of historical data and IE segments as well as pending applications will be converted
If the client has an existing FNS case in NC FAST, only additional data will be converted from EIS, no existing NC FAST evidence will be overwritten
The CNDS ID of the primary client will be used to convert and map cases into NC FAST, creating new Integrated Cases if one does not already exist
No income, resources or expenses, with the exception of medical expenses and life insurance, will be converted in the evidence dashboard
The amount of post-conversion cleanup that is required is expected to be less than during P1 but will vary depending upon the type of case
Cases will be converted from the caseworker’s EIS District Number in EIS to their NCID in NC FAST, keeping caseloads intact

16. Training Approach
1 day Foundation Workshops will be delivered in March-April 2013
Hands on planning session
Regional locations across the state
Practical work products to assist with county readiness for P2&6
P2&6 Training will be delivered in 3 primary segments:
Web-based Training – Delivered prior to classroom training waves
Also addresses system changes introduced at Pilot
Wave 1 Classroom Training – 2 ½ days prior to soft launch
HBE – Web-based training delivered in September 2013
Wave 2 Classroom Training – 2 ½ days prior to hard launch
Additional Web-based training scenarios beyond what is covered in formal training will be developed and posted in FAST Help.

17. Spotlight Topics

18. Reporting A top concern among county users Actions taken:
Coordinated a working session between NC FAST project team, DSS Reporting team, CSDW team, and select group of counties
Identified several “quick wins” to support pulling data out of CSDW
Continue to work with CSDW and DSS Reporting team to meet county needs:
Publishing reusable queries
“Data Dictionary” for CSDW
Clarifying how NC FAST dashboards pull data
NC FAST continuing to facilitate discussions between DSS reporting, CSDW and select group of counties
18,000 cases assigned to owners with “no access” role

19. Help Desk
Increasing coordination among Tier 1, Tier 2, County Readiness, and Training teams
Consolidating Tier 1 and 2 Help Desk under one roof
Considering rotating Tier 1 staff through a period of on-site support to increase understanding of county operations
Exploring options for increasing staff supporting Help Desk operations
Strongly recommend establishing a single point of contact at the county level for Help Desk contact
Reduces number of redundant tickets
Increases system knowledge at county level; promotes county-level troubleshooting
Provides county with a better sense of county support needs and staff progress up the learning curve

20. System Performance
NC FAST is aware that several counties are experiencing poor performance when using NC FAST
Performance monitoring software has been made available to all 100 counties and is in the process of being installed
Many performance issues have been tied to county bandwidth issues
The project has encountered a few instances of performance issues on the central servers which have been resolved
Project leadership monitors system performance throughout the day and will seek to proactively notify counties when performance degradation is identified
Counties should consider implications of adding additional Project 2 and 6 users on overall county network performance

21. System Monitoring Status
Still need performance monitoring software installed in the following counties:
Guilford
Perquimans
Scotland
Wilkes

22. Reception
All counties must begin utilizing Reception functionality with deployment of Project 2 and 6
Must begin using Reception at county soft launch
Use of Reception required to meet federal Medicaid reporting requirements
Should consider suspending further use of county Reception work management systems, unless there is a compelling reason to continue their use

23. Case Routing, Work Queues, and Roles
Once a transaction is recorded at Reception, the Reception worker must either assign the task to a work queue or a specific worker to move it along the process
Supervisors currently have the ability to subscribe users to work queues
Will need to subscribe staff who will process ePASS applications to work queues prior to ePASS upgrade
Instructions for subscribing workers or units to work queues can be found in FAST Help
A few additional security roles will be added with Project 2 and 6
No major changes in direction
The intent is to continue to support and work towards a Universal Worker concept
Workers who fill multiple roles will need to continue to have their security roles changed to match current duties

24. Task Utilization NC FAST does not support “case banking”
Confusion may result from the term “task management”
In the WSS context, “task management” has sometimes been used synonymously with “case banking”
Confusion may arise because NC FAST does support the management of caseloads through system generated tasks
Bottom line: Workers must be assigned to cases to receive important alerts and reminders which are sent to the case owner via system-generated tasks
Refer to DCDL dated February 8, 2013

25. Universal Worker
NC FAST is being designed, and security roles are being configured, with the vision that one worker manages a household
Project 2 and 6 will not have program-specific security roles
Additional roles may be added, but the same eligibility worker and eligibility supervisor roles will be leveraged across programs
A single integrated application (IEG) drives the need to adopt an integrated interview with customers
In most cases, evidence is managed at the integrated case level
Changes will ripple across all product delivery cases within the household
Counties need to plan ahead for this transition
Long Term Care and Adult Care Homes could continue to be maintained by a siloed team, since there is usually only one program per household

26. Evidence Management

27. Next Steps and Best Practices

28. System Functionality Impacts
With the deployment of Project 2 and 6, brand new functionality as well as enhancements to the existing NC FAST will be released:
Screening for all economic service programs can be done in NC FAST
Additional questions in the Intelligent Evidence Gathering (IEG) interview script
New evidence types will be available in the evidence dashboard
Reception function must be used to adhere to Medicaid reporting requirements
Smart Panel will be activated to provide guidance to caseworkers
Supervisor Dashboard reports will be enhanced to show data for multiple programs
Multiple Product Delivery Cases if clients receive more than one benefit or service
Changes to evidence may impact all Product Delivery Cases for a client and subsequently drives the need to adopt a Universal Caseworker.
Counties will have the ability to begin attaching documentation, such as the required verifications, directly into NC FAST
NC FAST will automatically generate important tasks for caseworkers to work in order to keep cases current

29. Preparation Activities
Create NCIDs for all users, ensuring each has the dhhs_ncfastprd_user role enabled on their NCID
Ensure that all cases are assigned to real workers in EIS so they can be mapped to NCIDs in NC FAST at conversion
EIS District Worker Number is the source field in EIS for mapping
Displayed as “District” on screen in EIS
Validate the EIS district number to NCID mapping
Complete the cleanup of any cases identified in the pre-conversion reports
Ensure that all computers and networks meet the published minimum system requirements

30. Best Practices
Expose Medicaid and Work First staff to FNS; consider cycling new hires through FNS prior to staffing in another program area
Cross-train staff on policies and concepts for all programs
Consider organizational changes to support a transition to a Universal Worker Model:
Establish a common intake unit
Explore creation of multi-disciplinary teams to support caseloads so staff have easy access to people with knowledge across all programs
Consider any potential job reclassifications that may be required
Determine if any physical changes to your DSS office are required
Fill all vacant positions and eliminate all case processing backlogs
Create a budget for overtime and/or temporary staff
Actively participate in all NC FAST preparatory activities

31. Best Practices (cont’d)
Establish one point of contact with the Help Desk
Get involved in Project 2 and 6 testing activities
Plan ahead for network and hardware upgrades, based on Project 1 experience
Consider impacts of utilizing Document Management on network performance
Reconsider need to purchase document management software
Reconsider use of Reception functionality in the near term to get familiar with the functionality
Align certification periods between FNS and Medicaid cases

32. Next Steps
Review Change Discussion Guide – to be mailed in the next few weeks
Attend Foundation Workshops
Purpose: Day long planning workshop focused on defining action items stemming from review of Change Discussion Guide
Timeframe: March/April 2013
Audience: Focused on leaders and decision makers
Location: Regional sites across the state
WSS Statewide Conference
April in Raleigh
Readiness Assessments
Pre-Soft Launch
Pre-Hard Launch