Commonwealth Medicine Helps Washington State Grapple with COVID-19

Commonwealth Medicine is now ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan Medical School. More information available here. This content has not been updated with the new name.

When the State of Washington became the nation’s first full-blown hot spot for COVID-19, the Washington Healthcare Authority called on Commonwealth Medicine to help manage time-sensitive logistical and administrative Medicaid challenges. These included leading the collaborative effort to evaluate and develop waiver proposal options for submission to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and implementing changes to the School District and Tribal Medicaid Administrative Claiming programs.

“Once Washington State obtained CMS approval for a waiver, we programmed and implemented these critical changes in unprecedented timeframes, which helped ease the level of stress on state staff members in an extraordinary moment,” said Rosemarie Bonaventura, deputy director, Federal Claiming, Healthcare Finance Solutions at Commonwealth Medicine.

Since 2011, Washington has relied on Commonwealth Medicine for the administration of random moment time studies for six different entities/groups, as well as the development and maintenance of Medicaid Administrative Claiming (MAC) software/systems and program consulting. Washington is one of 25 states around the country that Commonwealth Medicine serves with a wide variety of innovative healthcare policy, finance, and clinical solutions.

“We know it was a heavy lift, given that Commonwealth Medicine was providing the same services to multiple states, and the team and their families were experiencing the same strain and impact to their daily lives,” said Jason McGill, assistant director, Medicaid Program Operations and Integrity, State of Washington Healthcare Authority (HCA). “HCA is grateful for our partnership with Commonwealth Medicine. Their ability to deliver exceptional services and provide unparalleled customer service is truly commendable.”