Sr. Medicaid Policy Strategist

About A1M

A1M Solutions is a woman-owned small business driven by the aspiration to provide value to our customers, employees, partners, and community while remaining aligned to our guiding principles of foundational values, deliberate focus, and empathetic connection.

A1M’s mission is to preserve and improve government healthcare programs that are lifelines for underserved people in the United States, including people in poverty, elderly people, members of ethnic and racial minorities, immigrants, and refugees. We look for projects with nation-wide impact at the intersection of policy, data, and user experience design.

Besides building useful and usable digital services, A1M helps teams improve their agile, user-centered design practices – or helps them get started. Our goal is not just to build sustainable public services, but also to leave our teaming partners and customers more skilled and more confident in the future.

Policy at A1M

Policy Strategists at A1M are responsible for providing high-level subject matter expertise to foster integration of policy and domain knowledge with programs and systems. This includes the analysis of complex problems and policies, making recommendations, developing alternative solutions, and drafting and working with design and engineering teams to execute implementation plans. Policy Strategists provide guidance to high levels of management, teaming partners, and government clients and stakeholders. Coaching and education are core parts of the job.

Policy Strategists at A1M work in cross-functional, cross-organizational teams, often with designers, developers and product managers. It’s wonderful if you’ve got a background in user experience design or engineering – but not mandatory. However, human-centered, agile practices are crucial to the overall success of our government projects, so an interest and willingness to learn these practices is a must.

About this Role

A1M Solutions is seeking a Senior Policy Strategist with Medicaid or CHIP experience to work on exciting projects. The ideal candidate will have a passion for improving government programs and processes, and working in collaborative teams.

The Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS), Data Systems Group (DSG) provides oversight, funding, technical assistance, and guidance to state Medicaid agencies for the Medicaid Information Technology (IT) Enterprise.

In this role, you will be working directly with the Division of State Systems to assist in state oversight work. This includes:

• leading the Implementation of IT strategies that delivered projects on schedule and within budget
• Coordinating project team members and developing schedules and individual responsibilities
• Developing and presenting stakeholders reports on progress as well as problems and solutions

Key Skills include:

Project Management and Organization skills to lead, coordinate and engage across multiple groups ensuring the work gets done by respective timelines. Monitor and manage the roll-out of HCBS policy changes and understand their impact on various products within the MACBIS ecosystem.

Communication and Coordination: create a communication plan identifying all the stakeholders and products impacted by the change. Act as a liaison between DSG, and business groups to facilitate communication and coordination of HCBS initiatives. Ensure transparency, traceability, and accountability throughout the process.

Collaboration with teams to ensure alignment of HCBS requirements with existing systems and processes. Develop and maintain relationships with stakeholders at all levels to ensure effective implementation of HCBS initiatives.

Who We Are Looking For

• We are looking to hire a Senior Policy Strategist with strong project management skills
• The position is fully remote, however occasional travel for in-person meetings at CMS offices in Baltimore, MD is necessary
• Ability to operate independently, identify and manage their own work
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Previously government experience working on data, policy, and implementation initiatives
• Excellent relationship management skills with multiple stakeholders

Essential Functions of the Position

• You are flexible and responsive to changes or issues that arise; quickly identifying, assessing, and acting on new information or situations as they occur.
• You possess a strong sense of ownership over delivery and that it meets the clients’ and users’ needs.
• You can take loosely defined requirements and make fast, informed decisions.
• Have an adaptive, empathetic, collaborative, and positive mindset.
• Establish a vision and ensure all stakeholders have a shared understanding of objectives, goals, and metrics.
• Help develop a communications strategy.
• Skilled at breaking down problems and building consensus.
• Identify and proactively monitor and address risks.

Skills and Responsibilities

• Helps prioritize and assist with overall planning, design, and implementation strategies for new policies impacting CMCS.
• Provides policy expertise: how it is used, how it relates to the systems or products within our contracts.
• Communicates Medicaid (HCBS) program insight and requirements to CMCS stakeholders, DSG, and product teams.
• Analyzes laws and policy documents and explains how relevant policy influences and impacts user research and the design and development of systems or products.
• Understands how policy shapes the direction of healthcare organizations.
• Educates and informs team members, partners, and other stakeholders on relevant and applicable Medicaid, CHIP, Basic Health Program (BHP), or Health Insurance Exchange programs and policy information.
• Bring knowledge of state Medicaid and CHIP operations to guide product strategy and inform research plans.
• Participate in user research and provide analysis of the research findings from a domain expertise perspective.
• Contributes to usability testing and gives feedback on wireframes, mockups, etc. as a realistic test user.
• Builds relationships with policy owners in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) or with other key stakeholders when needed
• Writes, edits, and prioritizes policy-related content according to audience needs.
• Develops briefing papers for government customers.

Leadership

• Sets the vision for project, including establishing short- and long-term goals and objectives.
• Creates work plans and breaks down tasks and helps develop a communications strategy supporting project goals.
• Shows value in frequent and iterative deliverables.
• Establishes metrics to measure outcomes.
• Coordinates internal program reviews.

Strategic thinking

• Provides thought leadership and consultation to help customers achieve their vision and goals
• Able to differentiate between client requirements and requests in order to deliver on effective program strategy
• Excellent oral and writing communication, interpersonal, storytelling, and analytical skills, including the ability to present concepts and complex technical material clearly and persuasively to colleagues, partners, stakeholders, and senior executives.

Delivery

• Utilizes strong project management skills to manage risks, build mitigation plans and break down work into actionable and measurable tasks
• Delivers value within target timelines while balancing competing priorities
• Breaks down projects into doable chunks
• Strong attention to detail, problem-solving, and organizational skills
• Scopes work to manage timelines and commitments to customers
• Ensures documentation is kept up to date and available for customers
• Support team members in their work

Relationship management

• Demonstrates extensive experience building cooperative relationships and coalitions with empathy, creativity, situational awareness, and tact
• Works closely with government components in a leadership role, effectively navigating and resolving conflicting priorities from stakeholders
• Provides excellent people skills with a focus on building relationships
• Communicates back to company leadership on contract status, results, and needs for the contract’s success
• Acts as the main point of contact for customer
• Acts as a point of escalation for issues or conflicts

Bonus experience

• Lived experience navigating government services benefits for yourself or on behalf of others
• Experience working with a social impact-focused team or in civic tech
• Experience working in government consulting engagements

Qualifications:

7 years of relevant professional experience and a Bachelor’s degree in political science, public policy, law, or a related field. Must already have legal authorization to work within the US.

Has worked for or in government agencies for a considerable time; and/or has substantial knowledge and insight of domain relevant to the job; can develop strategy and contribute valuable insight for certain areas.

Your resume or portfolio should demonstrate:

• Collaboration with government (preferably state Medicaid) agency stakeholders
• Working knowledge of statutes, regulations, policies, and operations pertaining to the Medicaid program
• Critical thinking about how policy is applied to desired outcomes
• Strong communication skills (verbal, presentation, and written) to help others relate to and understand program and policy information

As well as:

• Familiarity with the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS), and/or state Medicaid agencies
• Experience with government health and human services programs - either through using them or developing them

Nice, but not necessary:

• Collaborating with product teams, other CMCS policy stakeholders, designers and engineers
• Conducting user research that inform the design of systems, process, workflows, or products
• Working with distributed, cross-functional product teams
• Previous work in state or federal government

Requirements

• Our contracts require employees to work from the United States. That includes all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, and all US territories.
• A1M employees must have been residents in the United States for 3 of the past 5 years.
• Due to tax reasons, A1M employees cannot reside in New York state.
• You must already have legal authorization to work within the US and not require ongoing visa sponsorship to maintain legal authorization to work.
• Our partners primarily work on Eastern Standard Time (EST), and will require flexibility in your hours if you reside outside of EST. We do offer flexibility for non-work-related life responsibilities during the day.
• Employees may be requested to occasionally travel, when it’s safe to do so.
• Because A1M employees have access to government data and systems, new hires will need to complete a Public Trust form. Public Trust is a type of background investigation, but it is not a security clearance. Depending on the role, you must complete either the Standard Form 85 (SF85) or 85P (SF85P) questionnaire. You will at the very least get asked questions about where you’ve lived, worked, went to school, military history, police records, and substance use. You’ll also need to have your fingerprints taken.

Benefits

• Our benefits include health insurance, retirement, short-term disability insurance, accident insurance, and paid time off. We also provide a stipend for wellness-related activities.
• We regularly donate to employee-selected causes and non-profit organizations as part of our commitment to social benefit.
• Employees may use up to 20 hrs per year of company time to volunteer in their communities.

This is a full-time, permanent position. The salary range for this role is $140,000 - $150,000

Equal Employment Opportunity

A1M Solutions is building a culturally diverse and pluralistic organization committed to working in a multicultural environment where differences are valued and respected.  Women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.

A1M Solutions is an equal-opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.

Salary : $150,000