ISF has worked for more than two decades to develop and support the Management Information Payment System (MIPS) for the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Child Nutrition Programs, which administers USDA subsidized Child Care Food, After-school Snack, and Homeless Children Nutrition programs.
Understanding MIPS
In January 1998, the Bureau of Child Nutrition Programs and ISF began development of MIPS — an Internet-based system that processes federal food claims submitted by independent, home, and childcare centers in Florida to ensure proper nutrition for low-income children. MIPS supports two core business processes: Application Processing and Payment Claim Processing. Using this system, any eligible childcare provider in Florida can update contact information or submit monthly claims for payment reimbursement via the Internet. To retrieve data, Bureau management and the approved childcare sites are able to generate selected reports over the Web. Statewide performance measurements are also captured in the system.
MIPS processes $176 million in annual federal food claims submitted by more than 6,000 sites or facilities. Any eligible Florida childcare provider can submit reimbursement claims using the internet, thereby enabling children in Florida to receive nutritious meals and snacks.
ISF provided a thorough business process review to address the need for updates to the system.
ISF analyzed the business processes within the Bureau and gathered information about use cases from the field and the need to accommodate a wide range of hardware and technology that is in place in childcare facilities. While the roles and duties of CCFP staff intersected and overlapped with more than one of the processes reviewed, each process was reviewed and analyzed as independent of the others. This process review focused on improving office efficiencies through process improvement and process automation. For our analysis, we reviewed existing documentation, organized and facilitated interviews and work sessions to gather information about the current state of the system and the desired future state, completed a market scan to identify possible optimization solutions, and developed a detailed implementation plan to assist the Department in carrying out the updates.