State CIOs advised to focus on Medicaid system modernization

A new issue brief from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers is urging CIOs to get involved with the Medicaid systems upgrades happening in their states. The brief, "The MITA Touch: State CIOs and Medicaid IT Transformation," describes the Medicaid Information Technology Architecture being developed by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. MITA is not merely a technical architecture, but also entails standardizing information and streamlining business processe, according to the brief. "State CIOs must understand that this can be a daunting task and will require considerable collaboration between state agencies and vendors, and a substantial modernization of current IT systems and also business practices and processes," the brief states.