Time & effort reporting: Compliance insights for health centers and nonprofits

Benchmarking doesn’t need to be time and resource consuming. Read on for four simple steps you can take to improve efficiency and maximize resources.

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before (from your Board of Trustees or Finance Committee): “I wish there was a way we could benchmark ourselves against our competitors.”

Have you ever wrestled with how to benchmark? Or struggled to identify what the Board wants to measure? Organizations can fall short on implementing effective methods to benchmark accurately. The good news? With a planned approach, you can overcome traditional obstacles and create tools to increase efficiency, improve operations and reporting, and maintain and monitor a comfortable risk level. All of this can help create a competitive advantage — and it  isn’t as hard as you might think.

Even with a structured process, remember that benchmarking data has pitfalls, including:

• Peer data can be difficult to find. Some industries are better than others at tracking this information. Some collect too much data that isn’t relevant, making it hard to find the data that is.
   
• The data can be dated. By the time you close your books for the year and data is available, you’re at least six months into the next fiscal year. Knowing this, you can still build year-over-year trending models that you can measure consistently.
   
• The underlying data may be tainted. As much as we’d like to rely on financial data from other organization and industry surveys, there’s no guarantee that all participants have applied accounting principles consistently, or calculated inputs (e.g., full-time equivalents) in the same way, making comparisons inaccurate.

Despite these pitfalls, benchmarking is a useful tool for your organization. Benchmarking lets you take stock of your current financial condition and risk profile, identify areas for improvement and find a realistic and measurable plan to strengthen your organization.

Here are four steps to take to start a successful benchmarking program and overcome these pitfalls:

1. Benchmark against yourself. Use year-over-year and month-to-month data to identify trends, inconsistencies and unexplained changes. Once you have the information, you can see where you want to direct improvement efforts.
2. Look to industry/peer data. We’d love to tell you that all financial statements and survey inputs are created equally, but we can’t. By understanding the source of your information, and the potential strengths and weaknesses in the data (e.g., too few peers, different size organizations and markets, etc.), you will better know how to use it. Understanding the data source allows you to weigh metrics that are more susceptible to inconsistencies.

3. Identify what is important to your organization and focus on it. Remove data points that have little relevance for your organization. Trying to address too many measures is one of the primary reasons benchmarking fails. Identify key metrics you will target, and watch them over time. Remember, keeping it simple allows you to put resources where you need them most.

4. Use the data as a tool to guide decisions. Identify aspects of the organization that lie beyond your risk tolerance and then define specific steps for improvement.

Once you take these steps, you can add other measurement strategies, including stress testing, monthly reporting, and use in budgeting and forecasting. By taking the time to create and use an effective methodology, this competitive advantage can be yours. Want to learn more? Check out our resources for not-for-profit organizations here.

Read this if your CFO has recently departed, or if you're looking for a replacement.

With the post-Covid labor shortage, “the Great Resignation,” an aging workforce, and ongoing staffing concerns, almost every industry is facing challenges in hiring talented staff. To address these challenges, many organizations are hiring temporary or interim help—even for C-suite positions such as Chief Financial Officers (CFOs).

You may be thinking, “The CFO is a key business partner in advising and collaborating with the CEO and developing a long-term strategy for the organization; why would I hire a contractor to fill this most-important role?” Hiring an interim CFO may be a good option to consider in certain circumstances. Here are three situations where temporary help might be the best solution for your organization.

Your organization has grown

If your company has grown since you created your finance department, or your controller isn’t ready or suited for a promotion, bringing on an interim CFO can be a natural next step in your company’s evolution, without having to make a long-term commitment. It can allow you to take the time and fully understand what you need from the role — and what kind of person is the best fit for your company’s future.

BerryDunn's Kathy Parker, leader of the Boston-based Outsourced Accounting group, has worked with many companies to help them through periods of transition. "As companies grow, many need team members at various skill levels, which requires more money to pay for multiple full-time roles," she shared. "Obtaining interim CFO services allows a company to access different skill levels while paying a fraction of the cost. As the company grows, they can always scale its resources; the beauty of this model is the flexibility."

If your company is looking for greater financial skill or advice to expand into a new market, or turn around an underperforming division, you may want to bring on an outsourced CFO with a specific set of objectives and timeline in mind. You can bring someone on board to develop growth strategies, make course corrections, bring in new financing, and update operational processes, without necessarily needing to keep those skills in the organization once they finish their assignment. Your company benefits from this very specific skill set without the expense of having a talented but expensive resource on your permanent payroll.

Your CFO has resigned

The best-laid succession plans often go astray. If that’s the case when your CFO departs, your organization may need to outsource the CFO function to fill the gap. When your company loses the leader of company-wide financial functions, you may need to find someone who can come in with those skills and get right to work. While they may need guidance and support on specifics to your company, they should be able to adapt quickly and keep financial operations running smoothly. Articulating short-term goals and setting deadlines for naming a new CFO can help lay the foundation for a successful engagement.

You don’t have the budget for a full-time CFO

If your company is the right size to have a part-time CFO, outsourcing CFO functions can be less expensive than bringing on a full-time in-house CFO. Depending on your operational and financial rhythms, you may need the CFO role full-time in parts of the year, and not in others. Initially, an interim CFO can bring a new perspective from a professional who is coming in with fresh eyes and experience outside of your company.

After the immediate need or initial crisis passes, you can review your options. Once the temporary CFO’s agreement expires, you can bring someone new in depending on your needs, or keep the contract CFO in place by extending their assignment.

Considerations for hiring an interim CFO

Making the decision between hiring someone full-time or bringing in temporary contract help can be difficult. Although it oversimplifies the decision a bit, a good rule of thumb is: the more strategic the role will be, the more important it is that you have a long-term person in the job. CFOs can have a wide range of duties, including, but not limited to:

• Financial risk management, including planning and record-keeping
• Management of compliance and regulatory requirements
• Creating and monitoring reliable control systems
• Debt and equity financing
• Financial reporting to the Board of Directors

If the focus is primarily overseeing the financial functions of the organization and/or developing a skilled finance department, you can rely — at least initially — on a CFO for hire.

Regardless of what you choose to do, your decision will have an impact on the financial health of your organization — from avoiding finance department dissatisfaction or turnover to capitalizing on new market opportunities. Getting outside advice or a more objective view may be an important part of making the right choice for your company.

BerryDunn can help whether you need extra assistance in your office during peak times or interim leadership support during periods of transition. We offer the expertise of a fully staffed accounting department for short-term assignments or long-term engagements―so you can focus on your business. Meet our interim assistance experts.

Read this if your company is considering outsourced information technology services.

For management, it’s the perennial question: Keep things in-house or outsource?

For management, it’s the perennial question: Keep things in-house or outsource? Most companies or organizations have outsourcing opportunities, from revenue cycle to payment processing to IT security. When deciding whether to outsource, you weigh the trade-offs and benefits by considering variables such as cost, internal expertise, cross coverage, and organizational risk.

In IT services, outsourcing may win out as technology becomes more complex. Maintaining expertise and depth for all the IT components in an environment can be resource-intensive.

Outsourced solutions allow IT teams to shift some of their focus from maintaining infrastructure to getting more value out of existing systems, increasing data analytics, and better linking technology to business objectives. The same can be applied to revenue cycle outsourcing, shifting the focus from getting clean bills out and cash coming in, to looking at the financial health of the organization, analyzing service lines, patient experience, or advancing projects.  

Once you’ve decided, there’s another question you need to ask
Lost sometimes in the discussion of whether to use outsourced services is how. Even after you’ve done your due diligence and chosen a great vendor, you need to stay involved. It can be easy to think, “Vendor XYZ is monitoring our servers or our days in AR, so we should be all set. I can stop worrying at night about our system reliability or our cash flow.” Not true.

You may be outsourcing a component of your technology environment or collections, but you are not outsourcing the accountability for it—from an internal administrative standpoint or (in many cases) from a legal standpoint.

Beware of a false state of confidence
No matter how clear the expectations and rules of engagement with your vendor at the onset of a partnership, circumstances can change—regulatory updates, technology advancements, and old-fashioned vendor neglect. In hiring the vendor, you are accountable for oversight of the partnership. Be actively engaged in the ongoing execution of the services. Also, periodically revisit the contract, make sure the vendor is following all terms, and confirm (with an outside audit, when appropriate) that you are getting the services you need.

Take, for example, server monitoring, which applies to every organization or company, large or small, with data on a server. When a managed service vendor wants to contract with you to provide monitoring services, the vendor’s salesperson will likely assure you that you need not worry about the stability of your server infrastructure, that the monitoring will catch issues before they occur, and that any issues that do arise will be resolved before the end user is impacted. Ideally, this is true, but you need to confirm.

Here’s how to stay involved with your vendor
Ask lots of questions. There’s never a question too small. Here are samples of how precisely you should drill down:

• What metrics will be monitored, specifically?
• Why do the metrics being monitored matter to our own business objectives?
• What thresholds must be met to notify us or produce an alert?
• What does exceeding a threshold mean to our business?
• Who on our team will be notified if an alert is warranted?
• What corrective action will be taken?

Ask uncomfortable questions
Being willing to ask challenging questions of your vendors, even when you are not an expert, is critical. You may feel uncomfortable but asking vendors to explain something to you in terms you understand is very reasonable. They’re the experts; you’re not expected to already understand every detail or you wouldn’t have needed to hire them. It’s their job to explain it to you. Without asking these questions, you may end up with a fairly generic solution that does produce a service or monitor something, but not necessarily all the things you need.

Ask obvious questions
You don’t want anything to slip by simply because you or the vendor took it for granted. It is common to assume that more is being done by a vendor than actually is. By asking even obvious questions, you can avoid this trap. All too often we conduct an IT assessment and are told that a vendor is providing a service, only to discover that the tasks are not happening as expected.

You are accountable for your whole team—in-house and outsourced members
An outsourced solution is an extension of your team. Taking an active and engaged role in an outsourcing partnership remains consistent with your management responsibilities. At the end of the day, management is responsible for achieving business objectives and mission. Regularly check in to make sure that the vendor stays focused on that same mission.

The Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020, which provides $8.3 billion in emergency funding for federal agencies to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, has earmarked $100 million for FQHCs to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 national emergency. Pre-award costs will be supported by this funding and may date back to January 20, 2020. We recommend tracking your expenditures related to the coronavirus to the best of your ability. This may be helpful or necessary in providing your organization much needed financial relief.  

As a reminder, FQHCs cannot bill Medicare for telehealth services under the PPS rate. Telehealth can be billed to Medicare under Part B with the FQHC as an originating site and reimbursement is approximately $26. If you do not have home visits on Form 5, be sure to add home visits to 5C as soon as possible.

Amidst rapid hourly changes in contending with the coronavirus and its far-reaching impacts, we are sharing some HRSA and CMS guidance that may be helpful to you: 

• HRSA PAL 2020-01 Telehealth and Health Center Scope of Project 
• HRSA PAL 2017-07 Temporary Privileging of Clinical Providers by FTCA Deemed Health Centers in Response to Certain Declared Emergency Situations
• HRSA PAL 2014-05 Updated Process for Requesting a Change in Scope to Add Temporary Sites in Response to Emergency Events
• CMS COVID-19 Emergency Declaration Health Care Providers Fact Sheet
• CMS Medicare Telemedicine Fact Sheet

Here is a link to HRSA FAQs related to COVID-19. 

Although we are working remotely, we are available to support you. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to any of us.

Here is a summary of information we have gleaned from recent CMS updates and guidance. 

COVID-19 stakeholder call - March 16 

CMS held a National Stakeholder Call on March 16, 2020 to update the healthcare community on the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation, which was declared a national emergency by President Trump on March 13, 2020.

Key takeaways:

• Administrator Verma reaffirmed the goal of reducing administrative barriers in the way of healthcare workers and agencies and to support them as best CMS is able.
• Acknowledging that there were questions on testing, Administrator Verma outlined that there will be a ramp-up in testing in conjunction with state and local governments. 
• CMS is relaxing clinician enrollment requirements for Medicare and making the same option available to states in their Medicaid programs.
• The administration has been clear that it wants agencies to focus on infection control efforts. CMS is designing a streamlined template to evaluate infection control.
• CMS sends guidance to Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) Organizations.

On March 17, 2020, CMS issued guidance to all Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) Organizations (POs) on accepted policies and standard procedures with respect to infection control.

Key takeaways:

• POs will need to create, apply, and sustain a documented infection control plan that involves procedures to recognize, examine, regulate, and avert infections in PACE centers
• POs will need to work to prevent infections within each participant’s place of residence, as well as implement procedures to record and develop corrective actions related to incidents of infection.
• CMS provides guidance that recognizes POs may need to undertake strategies that do not traditionally comply with CMS PACE program requirements in order to provide benefits while guarding from COVID-19. Some examples of this may include telehealth services.
• President Trump expands telehealth benefits for Medicare beneficiaries during COVID-19 outbreak.

CMS is expanding Medicare’s telehealth benefits under the 1135 waiver authority and the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act.

Key takeaways:

• Under the new 1135 waiver, Medicare can pay for office, hospital, and other visits provided via telehealth across the country and including in patient’s place of residence starting March 6, 2020. 
• Medicare telehealth visits: These visits are considered the same as in-person visits and are paid at the same rate as regular, in-person visits.
• Virtual check-ins: Virtual check-in services can only be reported when the billing practice has an established relationship with the member.  
• E-visits: Such services can only be reported when the billing practice has an established relationship with the patient.  

CMS coronavirus partner virtual toolkit

CMS has released a virtual toolkit to help stakeholders stay up-to-date on CMS materials available on COVID-19. Here is specific guidance from the toolkit designed for states and health plans:

• Medicaid.gov 
• Medicaid and CHIP Disaster Response Toolkit 
• Medicaid Telehealth

CMS approves first state request for 1135 Medicaid waiver in Florida and Washington

The 1135 waiver allows Florida and Washington to modify certain Medicaid program requirements, policies, operational procedures, and deadlines applicable to each state’s administration of its Medicaid program during the period of the national state of emergency to prevent further transmission of COVID-19. 

Key takeaways from Florida’s waiver

• Provider participation flexibilities for Medicaid and CHIP Waiver of Service Prior Authorization (PA) Requirements for fee-for-service delivery systems
• Waiver for Pre-Admission Screening and Annual Resident Review (PASRR) Level II Level II Assessments for 30 Days
• Waiver to allow evacuating facilities to provide services in alternative settings, such as a temporary shelter when a provider’s facility is inaccessible
• Waiver to temporarily delay scheduling for state fair hearing requests and appeal deadlines (NOTE: CMS was unable to waive all of Florida’s requested authorities in this area)

If you have questions or would like more information, we are here to help. Please contact us. 

The President signed The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (hereinafter the “Act”) into law on March 18th and the provisions are effective April 2nd. You can read the congressional summary here. There are two provisions of the Act that deal with paid leave provisions for employees. Here are some highlights for employers.

The provisions of the Act are only required for employers with fewer than 500 employees. Employers with over 499 employees are not required to provide the sick/family leave contained in the Act, but could voluntarily elect to follow the new rules. The expectation is that employers with over 499 employees are providing some level of sick/family leave benefits already. In any case, employers with over 499 employees are not eligible for the tax credits. 

Employers with fewer than 500 employees are required to provide employees with up to 80 hours of paid sick leave over a two-week period if the employee:

• Self-isolates because of a diagnosis with COVID-19, or to comply with a recommendation or order to quarantine;
• Obtains a medical diagnosis or care if the employee is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms;
• Needs to care for a family member who is self-isolating due to a COVID-19 diagnosis or quarantining due to COVID-19 symptoms; or
• Is caring for a child whose school has closed, or childcare provider is unavailable, due to COVID-19.

These rules apply to all employees regardless of the length of time they have worked for the employer. The 80-hours would be pro-rated for those employees who do not normally work a 40-hour week. 

Employees who take leave because they themselves are sick (i.e., the first two bullets above) can receive up to $511 per day, with an aggregate limit of $5,110. If, on the other hand, an employee takes leave to care for a child or other family member (i.e., the last two bullets above), the employee will be paid two-thirds (2/3) of their regular weekly wages up to a maximum of $200 per day, with an aggregate limit of $2,000.

Days when an individual receives pay from their employer (regular wages, sick pay, or other paid time off) or unemployment compensation do not count as leave days for the purposes of this benefit.

Family and Medical Leave Act

Employees who have been employed for at least 30-days also have the right to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The Act requires that 10 of these 12 weeks (i.e., after the sick leave discussed above is taken) be paid at a rate of no less than two-thirds of the employee’s usual rate of pay. Any leave taken under this portion of the ACT will be limited to $200 per day with an aggregate limit of $10,000.

Exemptions

The Secretary of Labor has the authority to issue regulations exempting: (1) certain healthcare providers and emergency responders from taking leave under the Act; and (2) small businesses with fewer than 50 employees from the requirements of the Act if it would jeopardize the viability of the business.

Expiration

The provisions of the Act are set to expire on December 31, 2020, and unused time will not carry over from one year to the next.

Tax credits 

The Act provides for refundable tax credits to help an employer cover the costs associated with providing paid emergency sick leave or paid FMLA. The tax credits work as follows:

• A refundable tax credit for employers equal to 100 percent of qualified family leave wages paid under the Act.
• A refundable tax credit for employers equal to 100 percent of qualified paid sick leave wages paid under the Act. 
• The tax credits are taken on Form 941 – Employer’s Quarterly Federal Income Tax Return filed for the calendar quarter when the leave is taken and reduce the employer’s portion of the Social Security taxes due. If the credit exceeds the employer’s total liability for Social Security taxes for all employees for any calendar quarter, the excess credit is refundable to the employer.

For more information

We are here to help. Please contact our benefit plan consultants if you have any questions or would like to discuss your specific situation. 

Editor's note: read this if you are a leader in an accountable care organization and interested in value-based contracting.

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and value-based payments: an introduction

With the goal of slowing the rising cost of healthcare while maintaining the delivery of high-quality care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and private payers utilize a number of different provider payment models. The primary approach to address increasing healthcare costs has been to move away from fee-for-service payment models—which incentivize increasing the volume of care provided—to value-based payment models, which hold providers accountable for both the cost and quality of care they provide. The models have the potential to lead to reduced revenue for some providers, an outcome that can be avoided by successfully attracting larger patient populations. 

Value-based payment model options 

CMS has been a driver in this transition by moving physician reimbursement from being solely based on the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) fee-for-service methodology to one that adds performance-based elements either through the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) or Advanced Alternative Payment Models (Advanced APMs):

• Providers that are MIPS eligible will have up to 9% of their RBRVS-based payments adjusted for four categories: quality, cost, clinical practice improvement activities, and promoting interoperability.
• Providers in an Advanced APM may earn an incentive payment based on their participation in an innovative payment model―with more opportunity for incentive rewards being given to those who take downside financial risk. 

On the hospital side, CMS developed the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program in order to move away from reimbursement based strictly on Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs). The Hospital VBP Program rewards hospitals with incentive payments based on the quality of care they provide to Medicare beneficiaries. 

ACO value-based payment models are APMs that typically incorporate quality and the total cost of care for all services for a specific population, rather than just a specific clinical condition or care episode. Under the ACO model, CMS contracts with providers to assume increasing financial risk and reward opportunities while also being held accountable for their quality performance managing defined sub-populations they serve. These types of models are also employed by private payers.

How can ACOs succeed with payment models constantly changing?

ACOs should proceed with caution as they enter models with accountability for financial risk such as the newly finalized CMS Pathways to Success program and certain private payer commercial models. In order to be successful in any model, it is critical that ACOs have an adequate foundation in place and a provider network built to provide coordinated care. Some of the key elements for your success include:

• Population data: Data for the ACO members that is a comprehensive record of their recent health utilization and spending history is critical.
• Eligibility reporting: Require that eligibility files are provided on a monthly basis, and understand the way in which members are attributed or assigned. 
• Claims data: Ensure accurate and complete claims data will be provided by payers monthly for the ACO members.
• Financial/quality reporting: Ensure creation of infrastructure to generate reporting from the population data on a timely basis. Without timely reporting, the actual performance against benchmarks will not be known until it is too late to take any action.
• Actuarial support: Validating spending targets and performance settlement should draw on the expertise of a qualified actuary.
• Clinical documentation: Ambulatory clinical documentation categorizes patients based on the complexity of their diagnoses, which can be a predictor of future health care costs and used to identify at risk members for care management, disease management, and other programs. 
• Population health management tools: Establish capabilities around population health management, specifically data aggregation and analysis that results in actionable recommendations
• Audit capability: Verify the accuracy of payer financial and quality reports including the risk adjustment methodology.

Success in value-based payment models will require ACOs to understand changes to their population and quickly respond to address quality, utilization, and cost trends. 

Phew! We did it—The Medicaid Enterprise Systems Conference (MESC) 2019 is one for the books! And, it was a great one. Here is my perspective on objectives and themes that will guide our work for the year.

Monday 

My day started in the fog—I live on an island in Maine, take a boat to get into Portland, and taxi to the airport. Luckily, I got to Portland, and, ultimately Chicago, on time and ready to go. 

Public Sector Technology Group (PSTG) meeting

At the PSTG meetings, we reviewed activities from the previous year and did some planning for the coming year. Areas for consideration included:

• Modernization Schedule
• Module Definitions
• Request for Proposal (RFP) Requirements
• National Association of State Procurement Officers

Julie Boughn, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Director, Data and Systems Group (DSG) introduced her new boss, Karen Shields, who is the Deputy Director for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) within CMS. Karen shared her words of wisdom and encouragement with us, while Julie reminded us that being successful in our work is about the people. CMS also underscored the goal of speeding up delivery of service to the Medicaid program and asking ourselves: “What is the problem we are trying to resolve?” 

CMS’ “You be the State” officer workshop

Kudos to CMS for creating this open environment of knowledge sharing and gathering input.  Areas for discussion and input included:

• APD Processes
• Outcomes-Based Certification
• Increasing and Enhancing Accountability

Tuesday
Opening Plenary

I was very touched by the Girls Inc. video describing the mission of Girls Inc. to inspire girls to be strong, smart, and bold. With organizations like this, and our awareness and action, I am optimistic for the future. Thank you to NESCSO for including this in their opening program.

John Doerr, author of Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth and famed investor, shared his thoughts on how to create focus and efficiency in what we do. Julie’s interview with him was excellent, and I appreciated how John’s Objectives and Key Results (OKR) process prompted Julie to create objectives for what we are trying to do. The objectives Julie shared with us:

• Improve the quality of our services for users and other stakeholders 
• Ensure high-quality data is available to manage the program and improve policy making 
• Improve procurement and delivery of Medicaid technology projects

Sessions

The sessions were well attended and although I can't detail each specific session I attended, I will note that I did enjoy using the app to guide me through the conference. NESCSO has uploaded the presentations. 

Auxiliary meetings

Whether formal or informal, meetings are one of the big values of the conference—relationships are key to everyone’s success, and meeting with attendees in one-on-one environments was incredibly productive. 

Poster session

The poster sessions were excellent. States are really into this event, and it is a great opportunity for the MESC community to engage with the states and see what is going on in the Medicaid Enterprise space.

Wednesday

Some memorable phrases heard in the sessions:

• Knowledge is power only if you share it
• We are in this together and want the same outcomes, so let’s share more
• Two challenges to partnering projects—the two “P”s—are purchasing and personnel
• Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good
• Small steps matter
• Sharing data is harder than it needs to be—keep in mind the reason for what you are doing

Our evening social event was another great opportunity to connect with the community at MESC and the view of Chicago was beautiful.

Julie Boughn challenged us to set a goal (objective) in the coming year, and, along with it, to target some key results in connection with that goal. Here are some of her conference reflections:

• Awesome
  • Several State Program and Policy leaders participated at MESC—impressed with Medicaid Director presence and participation
  • Smaller scoped projects are delivering in meeting the desired improved speed of delivery and quality
  • Increased program-technology alignment
• Not so awesome
  • Pending state-vendor divorces
  • Burden of checklists and State Self-Assessments (SS-As)—will have something to report next year
  • There are still some attempts at very large, multi-year replacement projects—there is going to be a lot of scrutiny on gaining outcomes. Cannot wait five years to change something.

OKRs and request for states and vendors

• Objective: Improve the quality of services for our users and other stakeholders
  • Key Result (KR): Through test results and audits, all States and CMS can state with precision, the overall accuracy of Medicaid eligibility systems.
  • KR: 100% of State electronic visit verification (EVV) systems are certified and producing annual performance data.
  • KR: 100% of States have used CMS-required testing guidance to produce testing results and evidence for their eligibility systems.
• Objective: Ensure high-quality data is available to manage the program and improve policy making
  • KR: Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) data is of sufficient quality that it is used to inform at least one key national Medicaid policy decision that all states have implemented.
  • KR:  Eliminate at least two state reporting requirements because T-MSIS data can be used instead.
  • KR: At least five states have used national or regional T-MSIS data to inform their own program oversite and/or policy-making decisions.
• Objective: Improve how Medicaid technology projects are procured and delivered
  • KR: Draft standard language for outcomes metrics for at least four Medicaid business areas.
  • KR:  Five states make use of the standard NASPO Medicaid procurement.
  • KR:  CMS reviews of RFPs and contracts using NASPO vehicle are completed within 10 business days.
  • KR:  Four states test using small incremental development phases for delivery of services.
• Request: Within 30 days, states/vendors will identify at least one action to take to help us achieve at least one of the KRs within the next two years.

Last thoughts

There is a lot to digest, and I am energized to carry on. There are many follow-up tasks we all have on our list. Before we know it, we’ll be back at next year’s MESC and can check in on how we are doing with the action we have chosen to help meet CMS’s requirements. See you in Boston!

Did you know that there was more than a 40% increase (from $4.3 billion to $6.0 billion) in civil penalties assessed by the IRS regarding employment tax, for the 2016 fiscal year?

A recent report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration calls for more cases to involve criminal investigation by the Department of Justice. This is significant because the requirements needed to prove a civil violation under Sec. 6672 are nearly identical to the requirements of a criminal violation under Sec. 7202, and a criminal violation can result, among other penalties, in imprisonment for up to five years.

The issue of employment taxes encompasses all businesses, even tax-exempt entities. For fiscal year 2016, employment tax issues were involved in over 26% of audits of exempt organizations. One main reason why employment tax is a major issue? Its role in funding our government: employment taxes make up $2.3 trillion dollars (70%) of the $3.3 trillion dollars collected by the IRS for fiscal year 2016.

And noncompliance is a major issue, with roughly $45.6 billion of unemployment taxes, interest and penalties still owed to the IRS as of December 2015. This trend of increasing noncompliance, combined with the vital role employment taxes has in funding our government helps explain why the IRS has increased focus and enforcement in this area.

Should your independent contractor truly be an employee? Did you properly report fringe benefits as taxable income to the individuals who received them? Knowing the answers to these questions can help you stay in compliance with the law. If you have any questions about your employment tax situation, or how we can help you ensure compliance on this and other tax issues, please contact your BerryDunn tax advisor.