Healthcare Policy Expert - Medicaid and CHIP

About A1M

A1M Solutions is a woman-owned small business driven by the aspiration to provide value to our customers, employees, partners, and community while remaining aligned to our guiding principles of foundational values, deliberate focus, and empathetic connection.

A1M’s mission is to preserve and improve government healthcare programs that are lifelines for underserved people in the United States, including people in poverty, elderly people, members of ethnic and racial minorities, immigrants, and refugees. We look for projects with nation-wide impact at the intersection of policy, data, and user experience design.

Besides building useful and usable digital services, A1M helps teams improve their agile, user-centered design practices – or helps them get started. Our goal is not just to build sustainable public services, but also to leave our teaming partners and customers more skilled and more confident in the future.

Policy and Government Operations at A1M

Policy Strategists at A1M are responsible for providing high-level subject matter expertise to foster integration of policy and domain knowledge with programs and systems. This includes the analysis of complex problems and policies, making recommendations, developing alternative solutions, and drafting and working with design and engineering teams to execute implementation plans. Policy Strategists provide guidance to high levels of management, teaming partners, and government clients and stakeholders. Coaching and education are core parts of the job.

Policy Strategists at A1M work in cross-functional, cross-organizational teams, often with designers, developers and product managers. It’s wonderful if you’ve got a background in user experience design or engineering – but not mandatory. However, human-centered, agile practices are crucial to the overall success of our government projects, so an interest and willingness to learn these practices is a must.

About this Role

A1M Solutions is seeking a Senior Policy Strategist with Medicaid or CHIP experience to work on exciting projects to help the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services. The ideal candidate will have a passion for improving government programs and processes, and working in collaborative teams.

Responsibilities:

• Provides policy expertise: how it is used, how it relates to the systems or products within our contracts.
• Helps prioritize and assist with overall design, development and implementation strategy for products and services.
• Communicates Medicaid program insight and requirements to UX researchers, designers and product strategists in order to guide decision-making.
• Analyzes laws and policy documents and explains how relevant policy influences and impacts user research and the design and development of systems or products.
• Understands how policy shapes the direction of healthcare organizations.
• Educates and informs team members, partners, and other stakeholders on relevant and applicable Medicaid, CHIP, Basic Health Program (BHP), or Health Insurance Exchange programs and policy information.
• Bring knowledge of state Medicaid, CHIP and BHP operations to guide product strategy and inform research plans.
• Participate in user research and provide analysis of the research findings from a domain expertise perspective.
• Contributes to usability testing and gives feedback on wireframes, mockups, etc. as a realistic test user.
• Builds relationships with policy owners in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) or with other key stakeholders when needed
• Writes, edits, and prioritizes policy-related content according to audience needs.
• Develops briefing papers for government customers.
• Active participation in client virtual meetings—including being on camera—is an essential function that helps strengthen trust and open communication.

Qualifications:

8+ years of relevant professional experience OR advanced degree in political science, public policy, law, or a related field. Must already have legal authorization to work within the US.

Has worked for or in government agencies for a considerable time; and/or has substantial knowledge and insight of domain relevant to the job; is able to develop strategy and contribute valuable insight for certain areas.

Your resume or portfolio should demonstrate:

• Collaboration with government (preferably state Medicaid) agency stakeholders
• Working knowledge of statute, regulations, policy, and operations pertaining to the Medicaid program
• Critical thinking about how policy is applied to desired outcomes
• Strong communication skills (verbal, presentation, and written) to help others relate to and understand program and policy information

As well as:

• Familiarity with the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS), and/or state Medicaid agencies
• Experience with government health and human services programs - either through using them or developing them

Nice, but not necessary:

• Collaborating with product teams, designers and engineers

• Conducting user research that inform the design of systems, process, workflows, or products

• Working with distributed, cross-functional product teams

• Previous work in state or federal government

• Our contracts require employees to work from the United States. That includes all 50 US states, the District of Columbia, and all US territories.

• A1M employees must have been residents in the United States for 3 of the past 5 years.

• Due to tax reasons, A1M employees cannot reside in New York state.

• You must already have legal authorization to work within the US and not require ongoing visa sponsorship to maintain legal authorization to work.

• You must be a permanent US resident.

• Because A1M employees have access to government data and systems, new hires will need to complete a Public Trust form. Public Trust is a type of background investigation, but it is not a security clearance. Depending on the role, you must complete either the Standard Form 85 (SF85) or 85P (SF85P) questionnaire. You will at the very least get asked questions about where you’ve lived, worked, went to school, military history, police records, and substance use. You’ll also need to have your fingerprints taken.

• Our partners primarily work on Eastern Standard Time (EST), and will require flexibility in your hours if you reside outside of EST. We do offer flexibility for non-work-related life responsibilities during the day.

• Active participation in client virtual meetings, including being on camera, is an essential function that helps strengthen trust and open communication.

• Our partners primarily work on Eastern Standard Time (EST), and will require flexibility in your hours if you reside outside of EST. We do offer flexibility for non-work-related life responsibilities during the day.

This is a full-time, permanent position. The salary range for this role is $140,000 – $165,000.

Equal Employment Opportunity

A1M Solutions is building a culturally diverse and pluralistic organization committed to working in a multicultural environment where differences are valued and respected.  Women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.

A1M Solutions is an equal-opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.

As a federal contractor and subcontractor, we certify that we do not operate any programs promoting DEI that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.

EEOC: Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal - Optimized for Screen Readers