April 2020 |  Vol. 5   No. 10

Deputy Director's Corner

All,

Please continue to check your email during April for messages from MHD leadership, the Director’s Office, the Governor’s Office, and the Office of Administration.  Please don’t wonder in silence about anything during this Coronavirus event.  Be sure to ask if you have questions that have not been answered.

Most importantly, take care of yourselves and each other.  Make time for phone calls with each other and with your teams.   Have a good start and stop routine, if you are working remotely.  Take regular breaks.  Make sure you get outside a little bit, too!  Don’t let the Spring go by without enjoying it.

If you need some ideas to enjoy with your families, April 1 is Sweet Potato Day, April 6 is International Pillow Fight Day, and April 7 is National No Housework Day.  On April 7, at 9:35 CST, you can see the spring’s first full moon, called a Pink Moon.  It is a supermoon, meaning it is at its closest approach to Earth in its orbit.

MHD is doing a fantastic job continuing to provide for the most vulnerable Missourians. 

MHD Unit Updates

MMIS

Tisha McGowan graduated from the Missouri Leadership Academy, Fall 2019 session.  Tisha’s capstone project focused on “Interviews that Work” – structured process for interviewing potential new staff.  Ashley Wilson is enrolled in the current Missouri Leadership Academy class.

CMS is releasing an updated national map reflecting the progress of all states on resolving top priority data quality issues for the Transformed – Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS).  Last fall, Missouri was in the “red” status, because Missouri had five or more open data quality issues.  Because of the hard work of MHD, ITSD, and Wipro staff, Missouri is now in the “green” status having only one open top priority data quality issue.

Constituent Services/Education/Managed Care Liaison Team update

Constituent Education is ramping up for Provider Workshop season.  We kick off the 2020 schedule with Applied Behavioral Analysis workshops led by Nikki Ashley with cameos by Dr. Martin and state consultants.  This workshop will be held at MPCA and is always well attended.   The provider workshop schedule can be found on our Education/Training page.  Any MHD personnel are welcome to attend. 

Constituent Education is also working on a face-lift,  adding a link to Clinical Services pre-certification information and removing outdated resources.  We are doing the same with the Managed Care Provider Information page.

Member Forum “revival” continues with reviewing the Participant handbook for clear, explanatory information for our participants, having a presence across the state at Head Start meetings, LPHA, and  WIC meetings, while partnering with the Managed Care plans to facilitate meaningful feedback from all our members (FFS and MC). 

TPL/Estate Recovery

Lois Sandbothe, Mandy Fulks, Tish McGowan, Shanon Holmes, and Jackie Hickman are attending SMART training.  The ShowMe SMART Project is not just about “project management,” it is about acquiring skills to make all of our IT related projects better and more successful.  This training series is an important part of the Governor’s “better government” agenda.  Better projects will help lead to better government so that we are meeting Missouri citizens’ expectations.

This training will familiarize staff with all the different aspects and sprints that they will endure in order to implement a successful project. As each sprint is finished, a slice of the project can be implemented ensuring the project as a whole stays on schedule.  This training can be applied to many different aspects of state government, ranging from a Request For Proposal (RFP) to a change in cubicles.

The TPL/Estate Recovery Unit is happy to announce Lindsey Knipp’s twins were born on February 27.  Houston weighed in at 6lbs, 15oz and Griffin  at 7lbs even.  Lindsey says they are all doing great, the boys sleep all the time and they have to wake them up to eat. Congratulations to Lindsey, Gabe and big brother Linkoln.

Program Operations

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved the State’s application for the Brain Injury Waiver (BIW). This new Waiver offers Home and Community-Based Services to participants with traumatic brain injuries who are between the ages of 21 and 65.  Eligible individuals must be assessed as meeting a nursing home level of care and in need of at least one of the services provided through the waiver.  Services that are available through the BIW include personal care, applied behavior analysis, assistive technology, environmental access and modification, neuropsychological evaluation, cognitive rehabilitation therapy, and occupational, physical and speech therapy. The Waiver has a limit of 20 participants based on budget allocations.  Participants are currently being evaluated for eligibility and enrolled.  Services are scheduled to begin May 1, 2020.

The Department of Health and Senior Services, Bureau of Special Health Care Needs (BSHCN) administers the BIW.  BSHCN provides service coordination services for participants served by the waiver. 

Services are accessed through referral to the BSHCN for BIW services for those participants ages 21 to 65 that meet the criteria for the waiver and desire to remain in and/or return to their homes.  Referrals are also accepted from health care providers, families, other state agencies, and other sources.  BSHCN staff complete assessments for waiver eligibility and services.

Staff News

Welcome Aboard

Tracy Sigg "rejoined" MHD on March 9 as a Budget Analyst III in the Finance Unit.  She worked for DSS for about 8 years and then transferred to the Attorney General’s Office, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, for about 1 year.  Tracy has lived in Jefferson City for about 11 years. She attended high school in St. Charles, MO and college in Columbia, MO.  She has a brother and sister that live in Missouri and her parents live in Florida.  Tracy's hobbies include crafting, geocaching, biking and going to state parks.  Her favorite thing to do is watch TV and hang with her cat, Bunny.

Jennifer Pettit joined our MHD family on March 24 as an AOSA in MMIS. She formerly worked at the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations in their workman's comp and self insurance unit.

Jennifer's hometown is Wardsville, where she attended Blair Oaks Public School.   She also attended Metro Business School.  She currently resides in Eugene.

Jennifer has a son and daughter, 2 grandson, a granddaughter, 1 sister and 4 brothers.  Jennifer says she enjoys drag racing and spending time with her grandkids.

Rebecca Carter joined MHD as a Medicaid Technician in the TPL unit of March 25.   She formerly worked in Child Support at FSD.

Shannon Simpson joined MHS as a Medicaid Clerk in the Medicare Buy-In unit on March 25. 

Shannon is joining us from Child Support. She has several years of experience with CSE and will be a great asset to the unit.         

Promotions & Staff Changes

• Teresa Wortmann was promoted to a Special Assistant Professional position on March 23. She will be overseeing the M.O.M. grant program.

Who's Who at MHD

Holly Hern works in MMIS as MHD's Privacy Officer.   She has worked for the state of Missouri for 19 years and 15 years have been at MHD. As MHD's privacy officer, Holly is responsible for researching breaches and disclosures as well as managing research requests for MHD data.   She is also the backup for MHD's Security Officer. When Holly was MHD's Security Officer, she enjoyed getting to know the new staff joining our division and helping them gain the access they needed to do their job.   She still gets to be a part of that in her current position as well as help educate new staff on how to protect themselves from external threats as well as the participants we serve. Holly enjoys movie nights with her family, crafting, baking cupcakes ( and watching Hallmark movies.  I speak from personal experience - Holly makes very delicious cupcakes!!

Erik Gernander works in the Third Party Liability/Cost Recovery unit as a Medicaid Technician.   He has worked for the state of Missouri for eight years, all with MHD. As a Medicaid Technician he helps to bring funds back into the Medicaid program via the Personal Funds Program.   Personal Funds are funds that Medicaid nursing home residents have remaining at the nursing home at the time of death.   The nursing home is required to send those to MHD and he coordinates and facilitates these cases. Erik says he does what he does to help the citizens of Missouri, both participants and taxpayers and to have the means to help provide for his family. Erik's interests and hobbies include theology, music and almost any kind of sports.  He especially likes soccer, Australian rules football, basketball and American football.

Kudos

Kudos go out to the following MHD employees:

• Dawn Pehle at MMAC was having issues identifying who could determine what the miscellaneous recoupments on the remittance were for, or where the MISC recoupments were coming from. Glenda Solari worked with Dawn to identify the source of the MISC recoupments. This work identified the proper contact so that providers can find this information when they need it. Thank you Glenda!
• Jessica Gallup was the MMIS liaison on the Encounter Data Workgroup (EDWG) project.  The EDWG recently completed a significant project. Mercer had identified some issues with Home State’s vision claims and Missouri Care’s dental claims during their last rate setting review. If you recall, Missouri Care had been informed of this issue on multiple occasions, which resulted in MHD sending them a third notice to fix it.

  Justin Clutter wrote:  Jessica Gallup was our MMIS liaison through this process and I’m sure we exhausted her with the multiple attempts at trying to get these claims to process without hitting exceptions. I’m not sure we would have gotten through it without her. She did an outstanding job helping us! 

  Bobbi Jo Garber wrote:  Jessica I want to express my appreciation for your diligence with this project!  This is very helpful and important work for the division.

Our heartfelt sympathy go out to the following MHD employees:

• Tami Jo Wilson on the loss of her father Wm. Lewis Wilson on March 5.
• Bridgette Hicks on the loss of her grandmother Doris Bridges Christopher on March 9.

MHD  Connection News

Its's hard to believe it is March already.  The year is sure flying by.

Our group is growing again!! Stacie Gibson and Sheana Wilcox joined MHD Connection last month.   Our team is "whole again."  Our members consist of Gail Luecke (Chairman),  Nanci Nikodym (Treasurer), Pam Burris, Nici Smith, Karen Pendleton, Stephanie Hunt, Bridgette Hicks, Stacie Gibson, Sheana Wilcox, and Carolyn Twardowski (secretary). 

Our Event Coordinators Pam Burris & Nici Smith are busy planning events for the year, including a Book & Craft Sale to be scheduled for a later date when we all return to the office with proceeds going to HALO (an organization for homeless and at-risk children).  Please feel free to share your great idea for other fundraisers, etc. with Pam, Nici or any of the MHD Connection committee members.

Save the Date:  The Summer Outing is scheduled for June 17, 2020. Also, the Annual Awards Luncheon is tentatively scheduled for December 9, 2020.   More info to come as the dates get closer.

MHD Connection Staff Forum

Forum's in 2020.  Here is what we have scheduled so far:

•  April 7 - EMMIS 101, presented by Jackie Bollinger - Will be rescheduled
•  May 6 - MEDES & FAMIS 101, presented by FSD - Reschedule TBD
•  June 24 -  Budget & Legislation Update, presented by Tony Brite
• July 22 - Wills and Estate Planning
•  September 10 - Behavioral Health Services, presented by Dr. Eric Martin
  and Amber McKenzie

If you have a particular subject you'd like to see in a Staff Forum, please let us know through the Employee Suggestion box or email. 

MHD Calendar

• 04-01  April Fool's Day
• 04-12  Easter

DYK that Friday's are known as "Red Friday" to support our Troops?  You can show your support by wearing red on a Friday.   For more info go to https://www.marineparents.com/redfriday.asp.

Area Happenings...

• The Central Missouri Renaissance Festival in Hatton previously scheduled for April and May are being postponed at this time.  The October 24 & 25 dates are currently still scheduled to happen.   For more information and/or directions check out their page on Facebook.