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 2023-2024 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 Friday, August 11, 2023. 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
August 15, 2023. *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 August 15, 2023. 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 August 15, 2023, the DESE will pre-populate the ARMAC
database with coordinator information provided via eFinance. All ARMAC 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 coordinator to
complete the online ARMAC training module. Each coordinator will be required to
complete the ARMAC test prior to being included in the random moment time
study. After completing the ARMAC test,
coordinators will receive an email to set a password for ARMAC dashboard
access. ARMAC Coordinators not
completing the ARMAC training by August 21, 2023, will deem the district
ineligible for the quarter one (1) Random Moment Time Study.
On August 21, 2023, the DESE will pre-populate the ARMAC
database for quarter one (1) with participant information provided via
eFinance. All ARMAC participants, 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 August 25,
2023, will not be included in 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 2023-2024 ARMAC Timeline
portion of this memo for quarterly testing period date information.
ARMAC Roster Verification COGNOS Report
On August 21, 2023, 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 to
ensure ARMAC roster changes submitted to DESE are reflected in eFinance. See the 2023-2024 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 and Job Codes 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.
File Path: Team Content>Financial Management
System>Personnel>ARMAC>ARMAC Roster Verification Report
ARMAC Cost COGNOS Report
On October 2, 2023, DESE will upload participant salary and
benefit costs information generated from eFinance using September 2023 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 2023-2024
ARMAC Timeline portion of this memo. A copy of the ARMAC Cost Report should be
kept on file.
File Path: Team Content>Financial Management
System>Personnel>ARMAC>ARMAC Cost Report
Note: 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 2023-2024 ARMAC 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.
File Path: Participants>Export Participants (open
the file using the prompts on the top right portion of the screen)
2023-2024 ARMAC Timeline
2023-2024 ARMAC Timeline
|
QUARTER
|
START DATE
|
END DATE
|
ROSTER VERIFICATION PERIOD
|
TESTING PERIOD
|
RANDOM MOMENT RELEASE DATE
|
1st
|
8/21/2023
|
9/30/2023
|
08/7/2023-08/15/2023
|
08/21/2023-08/25/2023
|
8/30/2023
|
2nd
|
10/2/2023
|
12/31/2023
|
9/25/2023-9/29/2023
|
10/2/2023-10/6/2023
|
10/9/2023
|
3rd
|
1/2/2024
|
3/31/2024
|
12/11/2023-12/15/2023
|
1/2/2024-1/8/2024
|
1/9/2024
|
4th
|
4/1/2024
|
Last Day of School
|
3/25/2024-3/29/2024
|
4/1/2024-4/5/2024
|
4/8/2024
|
ARMAC Coordinator Webinar Session
The Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)
School Health Services Unit has scheduled the following webinar sessions to
review the ARMAC program updates provided in this commissioner’s memo and coordinator
training. New ARMAC coordinators
and district business managers are strongly encouraged to attend one of the
August 3rd webinar sessions. Click the date below to register for the preferred
webinar session.
Attachments