MITA and its Governance Board

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q1. What is the MITA Governance Board's role?
To provide strategic direction and tactical oversight for MITA, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) originally established the MITA Governance Board (MGB) on December 14, 2016. The Board is being revitalized in 2023 with a new focus on updating the MITA framework to reflect current business and technical best practices in Medicaid. The Board is a cohesive, effective group that will ensure MITA continues evolving to support a common Medicaid business and information technology framework for states and vendors.
• Q2. What is the structure and makeup of the MITA Governance Board? The MITA governance board is made up of representatives from state, vendor, and federal agencies and is led by a MITA Governance Board Chair who sets the vision, agenda, and facilitates the monthly board meetings. All representatives are volunteers and serve
• Q3. Is MITA still required? Yes, per Regulation 42 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) § 433.112, MITA is a condition for enhanced funding and requires states that are receiving Federal Financial Participation (FFP) to align to and show increasing maturity in MITA. This rule is still in effect for MITA 3.0, the latest version. (Please see Q9 for additional information).
• Q.4. What is the status of the member guidance from MITA 3.0? MITA 3.1 includes guidance for Member Management and was completed by the MITA Governance Board (MGB) in the past but not released; member management guidance will be incorporated into the next version of MITA.
• Q.5. What are the workgroups authorized by the MGB? There are currently four workgroups that the MGB voted to form. Each has a specific role which is to analyze, review and provide recommendations to the MGB to help with developing the new version of MITA. The four groups are summarized below:
  • MITA Interoperability – This group will promote the principles of interoperability and open standards in Medicaid, including Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR) and produce products and guidance to help Medicaid agencies along their journey towards interoperability.
  • State Self-Assessment (SS-A) – This group will spearhead the development of a re-imagined SS-A that is less burdensome and more useful to states and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
  • Role of Business Architecture, Information Architecture, and Technical Architecture in MITA – This group will redefine the role of the Business, Information, and Technical Architectures (BA, IA, & TA) in the guidance and documentation in the next version of MITA. MITA Communications – This workgroup will focus on increasing interest and awareness of MITA, provide ongoing updates about status and changes in MITA, and determine a more effective way to publish MITA guidance.
• Q6. Where can I get information on what updates are happening with the MGB and the MITA workgroups? You can get updates by joining the MITA email list (send an email to MITAGovBoard@cms.hhs.gov) and visiting the MITA GitHub site - https://tinyurl.com/GitHubMITA.
• Q7 Is the SS-A still required? Yes, under current regulations at 42 C.F.R. §433.112(b)(11) and §433.116(b), (c), and (i), and guidance issued by CMS in 2014, states are required to submit a MITA SS-A in support of their request for enhanced federal matching for their Medicaid Enterprise System (MES) expenditures. As part of CMS’ focus on outcomes and reducing administrative burden, if preferred, the state can work with their CMS State Officer to get approval for an alternative format for the MITA SS-A. CMS recommends that states make annual updates to their SS-A and whenever there is a significant change to the state’s MES.
• Q8. What is the timeline for the release of the next version of MITA and SS-A? We are actively working on developing roadmaps and timelines in the MGB workgroups. These timelines will be published once they are approved by MGB and then the final approval from CMS.
• Q9. How is this work different or tie-in with the previous SS-A work, such as the MES Investment Toolkit Proposal? The SS-A Workgroup is reimagining the SS-A with awareness of and building upon what went before, such as the toolkit and the work completed in Kentucky using an alternative SS-A route (Please see Q9 for additional information).
   

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