DHHS Announces Realignment Plan for Division of Medical Assistance | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Raleigh, N.C. - DHHS is announcing its plans to realign the core functions of the Division of Medical Assistance (DMA), which administers North Carolina's Medicaid program. DMA will have a "flattened" organizational structure with five clearly defined and integrated functions, enhancing its operations and financial controls and increasing efficiency and effectiveness.

    This is the first division-wide realignment since the N.C. Medicaid program launched in 1978.

    "Our Medicaid program has operated in silos for too long and this lack of coordination has been very costly to North Carolina taxpayers," said Secretary Aldona Wos, M.D. "Medicaid's new organizational structure will foster greater collaboration and result in increased efficiency."

    DMA currently has a "siloed" organizational structure with only two sections, Finance and Operations, resulting in a functional misalignment and lack of coordination and collaboration. The new organizational design will enable DMA to address current challenges across five areas of focus:

• Finance: Support the new 'bottom-up' forecasting and budgeting processes, create operational programmatic areas of focus across the Budget, Finance and Accounting, and Forecasting, Planning, and Analysis units, and elevate actuarial services to serve as an enterprise function that will support the entire agency.
• Technology, Data and Business Processes: Elevate the Business Information Office to a direct report to the DMA Director and create dedicated units to support each operational programmatic area with data and analytics.
• Human Resource Management: Increase accountability through the grouping of logical functions, clarifying and documenting roles and responsibilities, and increasing accountability.
• Compliance and Oversight: Elevate and consolidate Compliance and Oversight functions into a single section which will be led by a dedicated leader responsible for ensuring enterprise application and adherence to a robust compliance program, including written policies consistent with the requirements of law and CMS directives, training, and monitoring and remediation of compliance issues.
• Strategy: Proactively identify risks and impacts, planning responses and operational programmatic changes, and future requirements in the Office of the Director.

    "We have been on a path toward a sustainable department over the last 20 months and we have built the foundation for a stronger Medicaid program," added Secretary Wos.

    This plan was presented to DMA employees yesterday. Today, Secretary Aldona Wos, M.D., and Medicaid Director Robin Cummings, M.D., will present this plan to the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee.

    Click here for a copy of the letter from Secretary Wos to the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee.

• Contact: news@dhhs.nc.gov
•     919-855-4840