October 2012 1 Social Services Institute Raleigh Convention Center - PDF document

October 2012 1

Social Services Institute Raleigh Convention Center Presenters: Annie Blacknall Kim Miller Connie McAdams October 25, 2012 October 2012 2 Thank you for inviting us to speak at your conference today. We are from the Subsidy Services Section at DCDEE. Individual introductions

SEEK Timeline, Changes on the Horizon and New Policies Introduced October 2012 3 We’ve been asked to talk to you today about our new SEEK timeline, other changes that are coming up in Subsidy, and new policies that are being developed. Please note that this is a high level overview and not intended as a detailed training. You will receive appropriate training as we approach full implementation. We’ll have plenty of time at the end of this presentation for your questions.

Overview • SEEK (Subsidized Early Education for Kids) • SCCRS (Subsidized Child Care Reimbursement System) • Other Subsidy Changes 4 October 2012 This presentation will provide an update on our progress with Subsidized Early Education for Kids, otherwise known as SEEK. We’ll talk to you about our current Subsidized Child Care Reimbursement System and other changes on the horizon for all of us involved with child care subsidies.

SEEK • History • Timeline • Administrative Terminal • Provider Web Portal 5 October 2012 We’ll give you a little history about this project and how we got to where we are today. But we aren’t going to focus on the past. My purpose today is to talk about the future and how we are moving forward with SEEK. We’ll look at some of the details of our newly revised timeline for SEEK implementation. I will show you what to expect from the SEEK Administrative Terminal and you’ll get to see what child care providers will see when they access their Provider Web Portal.

SCCRS • Changes in SCCRS • Phase II Screens 6 October 2012 You are all familiar with our Subsidized Child Care Reimbursement system which has been around for many years. There are some changes to SCCRS which are related to the implementation of SEEK. We’ll take a look at those and see what you can expect in Phase II.

Subsidy Changes • DCDEE Field Staff re-assignments • Subsidy Spending and Business Plans • Improper Payment Process • NC Fast • Integrated Eligibility • NC Pre-K • Statewide Waiting List • Subsidy Policy Revisions 7 October 2012 Finally, our presentation today will cover a variety of changes on the horizon for the Subsidy program. There have been changes in staff assignments which are affecting the way we do business in our Technical Assistance and Program Compliance Units. Responsibilities of staff in these units typically include working with you on your subsidy spending and business plans and handling improper payments. Changes at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are leading to our preparations for NC Fast and Integrated Eligibility. Legislative mandates are responsible for changes related to NC Pre-K and the possibility of a statewide waiting list. All of these things lead to necessary policy revisions, and we’ll talk about some of those too.

History October 2012 8 First, some history about SEEK. The system has been in the making since June 2009 when the Director of DCDEE, Deb Cassidy, and the Subsidy Section Chief, Ron Byrd, went to Oklahoma to learn about their automated attendance reporting system. ACS (now Xerox) was ultimately selected as the contractor for SEEK. Many months of meetings, negotiations and program development followed. During the summer and fall of 2011 parents across North Carolina began receiving SEEK cards like the one shown here, and Point of Service (POS) devices were installed in Child Care facilities. Phase I involved parents and providers learning the process of recording attendance by using SEEK cards in the POS devices. Phase I has also been an ongoing learning process for county and state level staff. Phase I was always intended as the “attendance recording” piece of the new system. Very soon the electronic attendance information will replace the paper attendance reports that providers are still submitting to you each month. Phase II will be the “payment” piece of the system. Complex and automated systems will use the attendance information gathered from swiped cards to calculate and issue payments to providers when Phase II is fully implemented.

Implementation • Extended timeline • SEEK is unique to North Carolina • DCDEE is committed to thorough testing 9 October 2012 All counties have been using Phase I of SEEK for several months now. Phase II has been delayed because additional time was needed to complete and fully develop the functionality of the system. SEEK is unique to North Carolina and we have been working closely with Xerox to tailor the system to our specific needs based on our policies. The payment structure in North Carolina is more complicated than that in other states. We pay based upon enrollment when the child is enrolled and attending regularly according to the family’s level of care. Other states pay only for days the child attends. DCDEE is committed to testing the system thoroughly so that we can be certain that it is working properly before we move to Phase II. That is when payment calculations based on SEEK card swipes and the direct deposit payments will begin. That piece must be absolutely accurate.

Timeline • October 2012: Phase I data conversion near completion • November 2012- April 2013: User Acceptance Testing (UAT) • May-June 2013: Pilot • July 2013: Group I Rollout • August 2013: Group II Rollout October 2012 10 We are now in the final days of the Phase I data clean-up and conversion. This process is scheduled to be completed very soon. That means all of the information in SCCRS is correct and formatted correctly to be used in the new SEEK system in Phase II. Once all of that data is transferred to SEEK, early in November, we will begin an extensive User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process to insure that everything is working correctly and that the SCCRS system and the SEEK system are communicating properly with each other. Test cases have been developed and staff from DCDEE and DIRM (Division of Resource Management) will use those realistic cases to take the system through the subsidy reimbursement process from “end to end” to verify that the systems are performing as expected. Any problems that arise during testing will be corrected before the pilot begins. SEEK is scheduled to be implemented in Pilot Counties in May and June 2013. This is the last step of quality control before the final implementation begins in July. Group I counties will rollout in July 2013 and Group II counties will rollout in August 2013. By September 1 of next year, all parents and providers in the subsidy system will be using SEEK cards and POS devices. Payments will no longer be made through your county offices. When SEEK is implemented in your county, providers will begin receiving their payments by direct deposit, twice per month, based on the attendance recorded through their POS devices.

SEEK Phase II Rollout Schedule 11 October 2012 This map shows the roll-out counties. The same three counties, Alexander, Lee, and Cabarrus will be our pilot counties. Most other counties, all of those shown in green, are scheduled to roll-out as group 1 in July 2013. The remaining 10 counties shown in blue are the group 2 counties.

NC SEEK Administrative Terminal Phase II October 2012 12 Let’s do a quick review of some of the screens you’ll see in the AT in Phase II. There have been some changes that will enhance the usability of the screens for you. Some screens are new, and some just have changes to the screens you’re already familiar with. Here are some preliminary mock-ups of the screens. 12 12

Provider Profile Phase II October 2012 13 Here’s a look at the Provider Profile Screen for Phase II. You’ll notice that the “Mailing Address” section of the screen has been moved from the bottom left to the bottom right. License Expiration Date has been removed, and facility status, star license level, and LPA have been added. There are also some additional navigation buttons added at the bottom of the screen.

Provider Payment Inquiry October 2012 14 The Provider Payment Inquiry screen allows the user to search for a Provider Payment Report. To access the Provider Payment Details Screen, select the appropriate month from the drop down menu and the 1 st or 2 nd Period and select the SEARCH button.

Provider Payment Details October 2012 15 The Provider Payment Details screen displays the Provider Payment Detail Report and shows payment amounts for all children being paid for this provider during the payment period, as well as provider level adjustments.

Provider Adjustment October 2012 16 This screen displays the provider adjustments. You will be able to make adjustments to provider payments at the provider level from this screen. When a DETAILS button is selected from the Provider Adjustments Screen, a new screen will display, allowing the AT user to view provider adjustment details and edit adjustment information. When the NEW button is selected from the Provider Adjustments screen, a new screen will display allowing the AT user to set up a 1 time or recurring manual payment adjustment.

Child Attendance Detail October 2012 17 This screen displays the child attendance information for the child selected.