armac armac coordinator training armac program overview reina farley, armac program specialist
TRANSCRIPT
ARMACARMAC Coordinator Training
ARMAC PROGRAM OVERVIEW
REINA FARLEY, ARMAC PROGRAM SPECIALIST
Required Duties for ARMAC Coordinators
Monitor and maintain Participant Roster for district Notify MITS of any changes to participants’ info
such as inactive and active status, cost data, emails, titles, etc.
Make sure all participants’ emails are verified and they are actively participating in the quarterly time study.
Yearly submission of Participant Roster Participants information is updated for the current
school year. All required training is completed before
submission. Roster is submitted by the deadline.
Required Duties for ARMAC Coordinators (continued)
New and Existing participant training All NEW participants are trained and tested
before submitting them to MITS to be added to the Time Study System.
All Existing participants complete the yearly required training by the due date each year.
Monitor quarterly Random Moments All emailed random moments are answered
within the 10 day period. All participants answer their moments correctly.
Moment Email Summaries – What are they for and why am I getting them?
Moment email summaries are sent to all ARMAC Coordinators who have access to the Time Study System.
These summaries are used to monitor the daily activity of the random moments for each quarter.
All random moments and moment email summaries are sent out at 6:00 AM
How do I check moments?
What does each tab mean? Incomplete – means the moment has been answered and is
waiting for MITS to code it. Missing – means the moment email has been sent out but
has not been answered yet. Rejected – means the moment has been sent, answered by
the participant, sent back to MITS for coding but it did not have enough information to code properly so MITS rejected it and sent it back to the participant with a question to be answered (to view the question you have to scroll through the “response history”)
Rejected and Incomplete - means the moment has been sent, answered by the participant, sent back to MITS for coding but it did not have enough information to code properly so MITS rejected it and sent it back to the participant with a question to be answered
Moment Email Summary example:
From: ADE Random Moment Time Study Admins [email protected]
To: (participants email address)
Sent Wednesday, September 28, 2014 6:00 AM
Subject: ***Important*** ARMAC District Coder Moment Summary
Daily Random Moments Summary Statistics for School District – (your district name)
Total Missing : 1
Total Incomplete : 0
Total Rejected And Incomplete : 0
Total Missing Moments for Today : 0
Yearly Rosters
Rosters are submitted at the beginning of each school year. All participant cost data, email, titles, names must be
updated each year.Additions or adjustments must be submitted on
the Additions and adjustment roster found on our website www.armits.org under the ARMAC section/general program information. (these forms are used after the roster is submitted at the beginning of the school year)
Any participants that need to be made inactive throughout the school year must be submitted on the Inactive participant roster also found on our website under the ARMAC section.
Yearly Participant Rosters
Participant Roster for ____ School Year - __________
Instructions: Please update the roster below with the data for the (current year) school year. Please remember to fill in the email addresses, position name and quarterly salaries and quarterly benefits for all participants. Please keep in mind that anyone whose funding is entirely derived from a federal funding source cannot be in the program. Please make sure ALL information is correct and completely filled in. Please note all NEW participants to be added must complete the online ARMAC Training and Post Test on our website www.armits.org under the ARMAC Section first.
District Name First Name Last Name Email Address Position NameCurrent Year- Quarterly Salary
Current Year- Quarterly Benefits
Yearly Requirements for ARMAC
Roster submission at the beginning of each school year.
All NEW Participants must be trained, tested and cost data submitted to be added to program.
All Existing participants must complete the annual training. (Due by Christmas Break of each year)
All participants must have a verified email address in the ARMAC Time Study System.
MITS must be notified of any changes to staff eligibility, cost data, email address, names and title changes throughout the year.
Quarterly Claim Certification signed by the Superintendent/Coop Director must be received via mail each quarter in order to receive reimbursement funds.
Importance of Deadlines
All steps must be completed prior to each quarter in order to have a successful claim.
Participants Trained Participants Tested (only NEW) Cost Data Submitted to MITS Participant’s email address verified in the Time
Study System.(this generally only applies to NEW Participants)
It is important for the roster to be current each quarter.
List of participants who need to be made inactive Name changes Email address changes (if the email is incorrect,
the participant will not receive their moment emails)
Updated cost data (if data changes from state to federal or if participants receive a pay increase)
When deadlines are not met
When changes to the district roster are not submitted on time, adjustments have to be made to the quarterly claim.
If participants are not trained, tested, information received and keyed into the system and their emails verified they will not be selective for the time study with all the rest of the active participants.
Moment emails will still go out to inactive participants if we are not notified to make them inactive in the system.
If participant moment emails are not answered, they are coded nonresponse and the district claim is decreased.
When a participant has two consecutive quarters of nonresponse moments their cost data is removed from the quarterly claim causing the claim to be decreased.
Contact Information
Reina Farley, ARMAC Program Specialist1420 W. Capitol Ave., Ste. 425Little Rock, AR 72201501-375-6487800-280-8300, option 2Fax – 501-375-6488Website: www.armits.org
ARMAC TRAINING
Lydia RobersonARMAC Training Specialist
ARMAC
www.armits.org
Register on Our Website
MITS Blog
Calendar & Upcoming Events
ARMAC Page
Why is ARMAC Training Required?
• Federal Regulations
• Helps participants understand the ARMAC program
• Gives precise information for MITS to code
• If annual training is not completed, it can affect your district’s reimbursement
New Participant Training & Testing
ARMAC Participant Training for New Participants
The ARMAC Training Post Test
Getting New Participants Entered Into the Time Study System
Quarter 1 Time Study Deadline
Annual Training for Existing Participants
ARMAC Annual Training
Eliminates the need to re-take the Post Test
Quick, Simple, and Online
Time Study Deadlines
Importance of the Training Database
Records & Retains All Testing Information
Creates Random ID Numbers
Documents All Annual Training
ARMAC Coordinator Access to the Training Database
Available Online for All ARMAC Coordinators
ARMAC Coordinator Access to Participant Testing at www.armits.org
See Who Has Tested and Trained in Your District
Contact Information
Lydia Roberson, ARMAC Training Specialist1420 W. Capitol Ave., Ste. 425Little Rock, AR 72201501-375-6487800-280-8300, option 2Fax – 501-375-6488Website: www.armits.org
ARMAC FINANCE
Jeanie DonaldsonTracy Starks
ARMAC
Reporting Participant Cost Data
Included participants should be from a state source of revenue.
Should be listed on the acceptable employee list.When reporting the salary and benefit cost,
please take the annual amount and divide it by 4. Fee-for-service employees/contractors are
allowed in the time study as long as they meet the above guidelines. Simply report the previous quarter cost to the district. This must be updated on a regular basis (see Quarterly timelines).
Please notify us as soon as you know a participant needs to be removed from the roster.
Verifying Emails
Cost data is only included in the district total once the participant verifies his or her email address.
This step is often overlooked and can greatly affect the outcome of the district claim.
Be sure to notify us of any email address changes.
Claim Calculation
The ARMAC reimbursement year follows the traditional state fiscal year (July 1 – June 30).
Typically operate a quarter behind (payments).Takes approximately 4-6 weeks to get paid from
CMS.Claim Calculation is based on the following
factors: County Medicaid eligibility percentage, District salary and benefit totals, State-wide unrestricted cost rate, State-wide discounted and non-discounted Medicaid
percentages, and 50% FFP rate.
Adjustments
Process we have to do on a regular basisBased on adjusted district costs after a claim
has already been determined.Typically based on incorrect information
being in the Time Study System… could be wrong costs, participant no longer working for the district, new funding stream, etc.
Amends current claim with the adjusted amounts.
Allowable Expenditures
We continue to side with the national recommendation of using it for health related activities and programming. The notion being that since these are the services ARMAC is measuring (and what you received reimbursement for), then that is how it should be used in the future.
Examples include, but not limited to the following: nursing supplies, nursing salaries, therapy supplies and salaries, computers for health related staff, health related training and or conferences, Coordinated School Health, School-Based Health Centers.
Miscellaneous Information
Catastrophic Occurrence is a state fund, thus employees being paid out of this can be in the program.
NSLA dollars are considered a state fund as well.
Though it is considered federal dollars, there is not a 27 month requirement to spend it.
A district does not have to claim Medicaid for direct services in order to claim for indirect services (ARMAC).
Common Participant Answers: Issues
Make sure to never answer with specific personal identifiable information such as a student’s name
Need more information than “conference”.. If a conference is health related, it has to be coded different which may make a difference in reimbursement
“eating lunch”.. If you are on duty eating lunch, this is a different code than if you are just eating lunch because it is your lunch hour
“school ends at 3:20”.. We understand, but if you are still working on something, it may be health related, please be more specific
“at my desk”.. Need more information “on the phone”.. For instance, if you are a nurse, this will prompt us to ask
more information, so please be more specific VERY IMPORTANT – if you receive a rejected response, it will look a lot like an
original response but you will have to scroll down and to see that it was rejected, we are currently working on re-formatting this, but a lot of times a participant will answer a rejected response the exact same way.. You will never receive a moment at the exact same time on the exact same date.. So if you notice this, that means it is a rejected response and we are looking for specification on your response
Contact Information
Medicaid In The Schools1420 W. Capitol Ave., Suite 425
Little Rock, AR 72201(501) 375 MITS (6487)