Practice Areas > Financial Management Services in Self Direction Programs
Annkissam develops tools for Financial Management Services (FMS) in Self Direction programs. We provide unparalleled value to organizations: we have both robust technical capacity and serious expertise in FMS operations and policy. Our tools and expertise support Financial Management Service providers in a variety of models, including those that provide services as a Government Fiscal/Employer Agent, Sub-Agent to a Government Fiscal/Employer Agent, Vendor Fiscal/Employer Agent and Agency with Choice.
Annkissam’s Chief Operating Officer, Mollie Murphy is nationally recognized for her work in FMS. She currently serves as a the Director of Financial Management Services at Boston College’s National Resource Center for Participant-Directed Services.
Our experience working in Financial Management Services for Self-Directed programs provides us with deep expertise in FMS operations, data management and policy. We have worked with a variety of Self-Directed models, from Cash and Counseling programs to Personal Care Attendant State Plan programs. Recently, Annkissam has supported FMS providers in Community Living Programs and Veterans-Directed Home and Community-Based Services programs.
We regularly navigate Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor rules and procedures for Self-Directed programs. We have enabled organizations to maintain compliance with State Labor, Income Tax and Workers’ Compensation rules and regulations. We have also worked to develop systems that integrate with State Medicaid billing requirements.
What are Self Direction Programs?
Self Direction is a service model that empowers public program participants and their families by expanding their degree of choice and control over the long-term services and supports they need to live at home. You may know a Self Direction program under a different name, such as:
- Consumer Direction
- Participant Direction
- Veterans-Directed Care
- Community Living Program
- Nursing Home Diversion
- Consumer-Directed Options
What are Financial Management Services in Self Direction Programs?
Self-direction programs offer participants choice of and control over their long-term services and supports. However, as we know, with choice and control come responsibilities. Financial Management Services (FMS) support participants with certain financial responsibilities, like those related to being an employer of workers and managing a budget for services.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) define Financial
Management Services as: A service/function that assists the family or participant to:
- manage and direct the distribution of funds contained in the participant-directed budget;
- facilitate the employment of staff by the family or participant by performing as the participant’s agent such employer responsibilities as processing payroll, withholding and filing federal, state, and local taxes, and making tax payments to appropriate tax authorities; and
- perform fiscal accounting and provide expenditure reports to the participant and/or family and state authorities.
Annkissam supports providers of FMS services in Self-Directed programs to execute their responsibilities efficiently and effectively, while maintaining compliance with a myriad of Federal, State and Local requirements. We also support FMS providers to offer program participants the highest quality of FMS so that participants can make the most of the Self-Directed programs.