Specifications include, but are not limited to: The focus of this RFP is supporting the improvement in the LTSS customer experience from the point of entry forward. Each of the EOHHS agencies responsible for managing an HCBS program is, in effect, a door into the LTSS system. From the perspective of eligibility and service payment, the door a person enters should not matter: all eligibility determinations for public LTSS are processed through the Bridges IES and all payments for services are made through the MMIS. However, as noted above, the LTSS agencies maintain their own unique processes and CIMSs and these are principally for performing an array of essential “ancillary” eligibility functions -- information and referral, application assistance, functional assessments and service planning and authorization. These functions are all required to gain access to services; they are only referred to as ancillary because they have traditionally been performed outside of Bridges and the MMIS, and either manually or using one or another of the legacy CIMSs. However, how they are performed and to what effect varies significantly by agency “door” and, as such, is one of one of the most formidable challenges the State faces to advancing the person-centered principles of NWD.
