The purpose of this memo is to provide detailed guidance for operation of district level ARMAC programs.

The Arkansas Medicaid Administrative Claiming (ARMAC) program is a federally funded program administered by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This program provides school districts the ability to receive reimbursement for certain administrative services that address student health needs. ARMAC is the state’s online Random Moment Time Study (RMTS) system used to identify and categorize Medicaid administrative activities performed by Arkansas public school employees. The time study serves as the basis for developing claims for the cost of administrative activities that may be reimbursed by Medicaid. The ARMAC system utilizes the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) eFinance system to pre-populate the ARMAC database with District ARMAC Coordinator information and District ARMAC Participant salary and benefits costs. The DESE updates the ARMAC system at the beginning of each school year using information generated from eFinance.

Program details provided in this memo are intended for district administrators, business managers, and ARMAC Coordinators. This guidance should be taken into consideration for the 2020-2021 school year.

ARMAC Coordinator Designation and Responsibilities

Each participating school district is required to designate a district employee to act as the ARMAC Coordinator. This designation must be made using the MAC-C Job Assignment Code in eFinance. Districts must complete the ARMAC Coordinator designation no later than August 18, 2020. Only one ARMAC Coordinator may be designated per district. For more detailed guidance regarding the MAC-C job assignment designation in eFinance, see attached APSCN 5.2 Procedural Outline.

The key responsibility of the District ARMAC Coordinator is to oversee the daily operation of the ARMAC program and to ensure regulatory compliance. 

ARMAC Coordinator duties include:

• Working with the District Superintendent and business manager to develop the ARMAC participant roster, according to the following criteria:

• ARMAC participants must be employed by the district.
• ARMAC participants must be at least partially paid from a state funding source.
• ARMAC participants should include those employees whose job duties encompass some type of administrative oversight of health services for students. 
• See attached ARMAC Roster Recommendations.

• Ensuring the district’s ARMAC participant roster is updated in eFinance no later than August 18, 2020. Districts will have a one-week verification period to ensure the ARMAC Participant Roster is accurate prior to the DESE transferring roster data from eFinance into the ARMAC system
• Acting as the liaison to the DESE for ensuring district participants are compliant with ARMAC program requirements, such as completing the ARMAC training and responding to ARMAC random moments within the allotted timeframe
  • The Coordinator must oversee the submission of the signed quarterly ARMAC Reimbursement Certification form to the DESE. 
• Submitting the ARMAC Participant Adjustment form to the DESE when participant information changes during an active quarter, within five (5) days of the change
  • The purpose of the ARMAC Participant Adjustment Form is to make changes to the district’s roster throughout the school year after the initial Quarter One (1) pre-population. 
  • Districts should utilize the participant adjustment form to add and remove participants or to change information for existing participants (i.e. email, salary, benefits, funding source). 
  • The coordinator should ensure any roster changes submitted to the DESE are also reflected in eFinance.
  • Adjustment forms should be emailed to Richard Harper, DESE ARMAC Specialist, at Richard.Harper@arkansas.gov, within five (5) business days of the change.
  • See attached ARMAC Participant Adjustment Form
• Retaining any records pertaining to the responses provided by participants to the Random Moment Time Study, as well as all ARMAC official documentation including the participant quarterly roster, quarterly reimbursement certifications, and ARMAC participant adjustments

ARMAC Participant Designation and Responsibilities

Each participating school district is required to designate all district employees, who are at least partially paid from a state funding source and whose job duties most likely include some type of administrative oversight of health services for students, as ARMAC participants on the ARMAC Participant Roster. This designation must be made using the MAC-P Job Assignment Code in eFinance. Districts must complete the ARMAC Participant Roster designation for Quarter One (1) no later than August 18, 2020. For more detailed guidance regarding the MAC-P job assignment designation in eFinance, see attached APSCN 5.2 Procedural Outline.

ARMAC roster submissions are not accepted via hardcopy. The DESE will utilize information from eFinance to access each district’s participant roster information and pull the following information for each participant designated by the district.

• Employee ID
• Job Assignment Code
• Job Description
• Employee Last Name
• Employee First Name
• Employee Email Address
• Budget Unit
• Salary
• Benefits
• Primary Class Title

ARMAC Mandatory Participant & Coordinator Training

Federal CMS guidelines require all ARMAC participants and coordinators to annually complete a program specific training. On August 20, 2020, the DESE will pre-populate the ARMAC database for Quarter One (1) with information provided via eFinance. All ARMAC participants and coordinators, statewide, should receive an email from the ARMAC system containing a unique link which may only be used by the intended recipient. The email will prompt the recipient to complete the online ARMAC training module. Each participant will be required to successfully complete the ARMAC test prior to being included in the random moment time study. Participants must successfully complete the ARMAC training by August 28, 2020, or the district will not be included in the Quarter One (1) Random Moment Time Study.  ARMAC Coordinators must successfully complete the ARMAC training by August 28, 2020, or the district will be deemed ineligible for the Quarter One (1) Random Moment Time Study.

On the first day of each quarter, the DESE will update the ARMAC database with participant adjustment information received from districts during the previous quarter. Only newly designated ARMAC participants and coordinators will receive an email from the ARMAC system containing a unique link, which may only be used by the intended recipient. Participants not successfully completing the ARMAC training within five business days after the next scheduled quarter start-date, will not be included in the Quarter Random Moment Time Study. See the 2020-2021 Timeline portion of this memo for quarter start-date information.

ARMAC Roster Verification COGNOS Report

On August 20, 2020, the DESE will upload information provided by eFinance from the employee pay rate screen into the ARMAC database using the ARAMC Roster Verification report.

Participating districts will have one-week to review and make final participant adjustments to the district roster prior to each quarter beginning. See the 2020-2021 ARMAC Timeline portion of this memo for the quarterly verification dates. Districts should utilize the COGNOS report entitled ARMAC Roster Verification Report to assist with the roster verification process. ARMAC Coordinators and District Business Managers should review the following information provided on the COGNOS report for accuracy:

• The participant list is accurate (i.e. ensure all deactivated participants are no longer listed on the report and new participants appear on the report)
• All participant budget units are correct and 100% federally paid employees are not included
• All participant e-mail addresses reflect accurate information for each participant
• All participant Class Titles reflect accurate information for each participant

The ARMAC Roster Verification report should be generated during the quarterly roster verification period. A copy of the ARMAC Roster Verification Report should be kept on file.

COGNOS Report File Path: Public Folders>EFP>Personnel>ARMAC>ARMAC Roster Verification Report

NOTE: Effective beginning the 2020-20201 school year, the ARMAC roster will NOT be generated from Personnel Budgeting.

ARMAC Cost COGNOS Report

On October 1, 2020, the DESE will upload participant salary and benefit cost information provided by eFinance using September payroll data into the ARMAC database.

The ARMAC Cost Report should be generated by the district each quarter, one day after the ARMAC quarter end date.  See the 2020-2021 ARMAC Timeline portion of this memo. A copy of the ARMAC Cost report should be kept on file.

COGNOS Report File Path: Public Folders>EFP>Personnel>ARMAC>ARMAC Cost Report

ARMAC Dashboard Participant Status Report

The DESE will determine which employee costs to include in the quarterly claim based on each participant’s active status at the time moments are generated. Districts should download a copy of the ARMAC Participant Status report each quarter on the random moment release date. See the 2020-2021 Timeline portion of this memo for the random moment release dates. This report will assist districts with verifying claimable employee costs at the close of the quarter.

ARMAC Dashboard Report File Path: Participants>Export Excel (open the file using the prompts on the bottom left portion of the screen)

2020-2021 ARMAC Timeline

Attachments