Transforming how Medicaid and CHIP data were leveraged
Summary
CMCS needed to better leverage Medicaid and CHIP data to improve decision-making and outcomes, but its systems and practices were fragmented and difficult to scale. We partnered with CMCS to introduce modern product, data, and delivery practices across the MACBIS portfolio, enabling the organization to operate more cohesively and use data more effectively.
The challenge
CMCS is responsible for delivering and managing Medicaid and CHIP programs that serve more than 80 million people nationwide. This work depends on timely, reliable, and high-quality data.
However, the systems supporting this work — the Medicaid and CHIP Business Information Systems (MACBIS) portfolio — had evolved in silos. Many systems served overlapping users and managed similar data, yet lacked coordination, shared standards, and a cohesive strategy.
As a result, the organization struggled with:
- Fragmented product strategy and ownership
- Disjointed user experiences across systems
- Low engineering quality and significant technical debt
- Slow release cycles and limited ability to adapt
- Poor data quality and limited data sharing across systems
CMCS needed to move beyond isolated system improvements and adopt a more integrated, modern approach to managing products, data, and delivery at scale.
The solution
We partnered with CMCS to design and implement a transformation approach that combined immediate improvements with long-term capability building.
Our work focused on establishing a more cohesive operating model across the MACBIS portfolio:
- Defined and introduced a product-based approach to managing systems, shifting from siloed projects to outcome-oriented product ownership
- Designed and conducted maturity assessments to benchmark current capabilities and prioritize the highest-impact improvements
- Facilitated the co-creation of a playbook that established shared principles for modern digital and data practices
- Conducted a service design engagement to map the full MACBIS ecosystem, revealing how users interacted across systems and where critical gaps existed
- Introduced practices such as OKRs, product canvases, agile roadmaps, and product health checks to improve decision-making and execution
We complemented these changes with hands-on coaching, training, and capacity building across the organization to accelerate adoption and ensure sustainability.
This approach helped shift CMCS from fragmented system management to a more integrated, product-driven model for delivering data and technology services.
The results
- Jumpstarted large-scale digital and data transformation across the MACBIS ecosystem
- Established a product-based, outcome-oriented approach to managing systems and services
- Identified and prioritized strategic opportunities to improve end-to-end user experience and data integration
- Positioned CMCS to better leverage data to inform policy, program design, and operational decisions