NASHP developed the States Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development (AHEAD) Model Application Assistance Tool to help states understand and navigate the application requirements for the AHEAD Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
The Tool is an Excel workbook with tabs that reference the components of the application, making it a guide and checklist for states as they draft their applications. It also includes information to help states begin to consider items that must be addressed in the application, even if the specific details will be negotiated with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) after an award.
Get Expert Support on Your AHEAD Model Application
Is your state exploring or thinking about applying to the AHEAD Model?
NASHP and Mathematica, with the support of the Peterson Center on Healthcare, are partnering to provide expert consultation for a limited number of states seeking to apply to the model’s third cohort (application date: August 12, 2024). This assistance will include:
- Working with states to strengthen their applications with the goal of increasing their changes of selection
- Working through state-specific considerations, including readiness, governance, and details of model components
- Reviewing draft applications, project and budget narratives, and more
To request assistance, email Vicki Veltri at vveltri@nashp.org.
Sections of the Tool
Overview — Describes the purpose of the Tool.
General — Business Assessment — This tab includes information on the discrete requirements of the business assessment that states must complete to meet CMS requirements.
Specific App Requirements — This tab lays out the components of the full AHEAD application. The AHEAD application involves multiple components including business requirements, project and budget narratives, and the submission of documents tied to gubernatorial and stakeholder support, project staffing, and an optional methodological proposal for Medicare fee-for-service hospital global budgets.
Project Narrative — NASHP lays out the specific requirements of the project narrative and ties that directly to the criteria for evaluation of the project narrative and potential points awarded as described in the NOFO.
Budget Narrative — NASHP references the budget form to be completed, lays out the specific requirements of the budget narrative, and ties that directly to the criteria for evaluation of the budget narrative and potential points awarded as described in the NOFO.
Milestones — Cohort 1, Milestones — Cohort 2, and Milestones — Cohort 3 — These three tabs help states visualize the timeline of development and implementation of each of the subcomponents of the AHEAD model by including milestone timelines for each of the three AHEAD cohorts.
Negotiated Items — This tab includes some of the key items that a state and CMS will negotiate for the state agreement, and as part of pre-implementation and implementation of the AHEAD model components.
CMS Timeline Chart — This is a condensed timeline chart of the AHEAD model timeline from CMS.
