The purpose of this memo is to provide detailed guidance for
the operation of district-level ARMAC programs.
The Arkansas Medicaid Administrative Claiming (ARMAC)
program is a federally funded program administered by the Centers 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 benefit costs. The DESE will prepopulate 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 2022-2023 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. If districts ARMAC Coordinators have not been designated contact School Health Services Office no later than Monday, August 12, 2022. Only
one ARMAC Coordinator may be designated per district. For more detailed
guidance regarding the MAC-C job assignment designation in eFinance, see
the attachment entitled Job
Assignment-ARMAC Job Codes-20.11.
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.
- Ensuring the district’s ARMAC participant
roster is updated in eFinance no later than Tuesday, August 16, 2022. *For
more detailed guidance regarding recommended ARMAC participants, see the attachment
ARMAC Roster Recommendations.
- Check with the district technology
department to ensure ade.armac@ade.arkansas.gov is marked as a safe sender.
- Acting as the liaison to DESE for ensuring district
participants are compliant with the 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 DESE.
- Submitting the ARMAC Participant Adjustment Form to
DESE when participant information changes throughout the school year,
within five (5) days of the occurred 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 pre-population from eFinance.
- Districts should utilize the participant adjustment
form to add and remove participants or to change information for existing
participants (i.e. email, salary, benefits).
- The coordinator should ensure any roster changes
submitted to DESE are also reflected in eFinance.
- Adjustment forms should be emailed to the DESE ARMAC
Specialist, at ade.armacspecialist@ade.arkansas.gov. See the
attached ARMAC Participant Adjustment Form.
- Retaining any records pertinent 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 should designate all
district employees as ARMAC participants in eFinance who are at least partially paid from a state and/or local funding
source and whose job duties encompass some type of administrative oversight of
health services for students.
This designation must be made using the MAC-P Job Assignment
Code in eFinance. Districts must complete the ARMAC Participant Roster
designation process for quarter one (1) no later than Tuesday, August 16, 2022.
For more detailed guidance regarding the MAC-P job assignment designation in
eFinance, see the attachment entitled Job Assignment-ARMAC Job Codes-20.11.
ARMAC roster submissions are not accepted via email or
hardcopy. DESE will utilize eFinance to access each district’s participant
roster information. DESE will extract 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
- Job Class Code
ARMAC Mandatory Participant & Coordinator Training
Federal CMS guidelines require all ARMAC participants and
coordinators to complete a program-specific training, annually. On Monday,
August 22, 2022, 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 complete the ARMAC test prior to being
included in the random moment time study. Participants not completing the ARMAC
training by Friday, August 26, 2022, will not be included in the quarter one
(1) Random Moment Time Study. ARMAC Coordinators not completing the ARMAC
training by Friday, August 26, 2022, will deem the district ineligible for the
quarter one (1) Random Moment Time Study.
The DESE will update the ARMAC database with participant
adjustment information received from districts each quarter. Throughout the
school year, newly designated ARMAC participants and coordinators will receive
an email from the ARMAC system containing a unique training/testing link, which
may only be used by the intended recipient. Participants not completing the
ARMAC training within the designated testing period for each quarter, will not
be included in the quarter Random Moment Time Study. See the 2022-2023 Timeline
portion of this memo for quarterly testing period date information.
ARMAC Roster Verification COGNOS Report
On Monday, August 22, 2022, the DESE will upload information
generated from eFinance using the ARMAC Roster Verification COGNOS Report into
the ARMAC system.
Participating districts may make participant adjustments to
the district roster prior to each quarter using the adjustment form to DESE and
ensuring changes are reflected in eFinance.
See the 2022-2023 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 are correct; and
- All participant Class Titles are correct.
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. See the ARMAC
Important Dates portion of this memo for more information. . For more detailed
guidance regarding the ARMAC Roster Verification COGNOS Report, see the
attachment entitled ARMAC Important Dates.
Team Content>Financial Management
System>Personnel>ARMAC>ARMAC Roster Verification Report
ARMAC Cost COGNOS Report
On October 1, 2022, DESE will upload participant salary and
benefit costs information generated from eFinance using September 2022 payroll
data into the ARMAC system.
The ARMAC Cost Report should be generated by the district
each quarter, one day after the ARMAC quarter end date. See the 2022-2023
ARMAC Timeline portion of this memo. A copy of the ARMAC Cost Report should be
kept on file.
Team Content>Financial Management
System>Personnel>ARMAC>ARMAC Cost Report
Participants without salary and benefit amounts in the ARMAC
dashboard will not be included in the Quarter 3 time study.
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 from the ARMAC Dashboard each quarter on the
random moment release date. See the 2022-2023 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 each quarter.
Participants>Export Participants (open the file using
the prompts on the top right portion of the screen)
2022-2023 ARMAC Timeline
2022-2023 ARMAC Timeline
|
QUARTER
|
START DATE
|
END DATE
|
ROSTER VERIFICATION PERIOD
|
TESTING PERIOD
|
RANDOM MOMENT RELEASE DATE
|
1st
|
8/22/2022
|
9/30/2022
|
08/8/2022-08/16/2022
|
08/22/2022-08/26/2022
|
8/31/2022
|
2nd
|
10/3/2022
|
12/31/2022
|
9/26/2022-9/30/2022
|
10/3/2022-10/7/2022
|
10/10/2022
|
3rd
|
1/3/2023
|
3/31/2023
|
12/12/2022-12/16/2022
|
1/3/2023-1/9/2023
|
1/10/2023
|
4th
|
4/3/2023
|
Last Day of School
|
3/27/2023-3/31/2023
|
4/3/2023-4/7/2023
|
4/10/2023
|
ARMAC Webinar Sessions
The Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)
School Health Services Unit has scheduled the following webinars to review the
ARMAC program updates provided in this Commissioner’s memo. ARMAC Coordinators
and district business managers are encouraged to attend a webinar session.
Select a date below to register for the preferred webinar session. These
sessions will be recorded and available upon request.