Roswell Independent School District officials told the board Nov. 11 that the district switched its Medicaid-billing software from MaxCapture to a cloud-based program called Relay in September to improve tracking, reporting and revenue capture.

“Relay is a cloud-based program that has a lot more potential upgrades,” said Candace Gottlieb, the district’s Medicaid billing coordinator, describing the change that the district implemented Sept. 9 and the vendor trainings that followed. Gottlieb said Relay provides automatic alerts about late notes and can pull student data from PowerSchool and the district’s IEP system.

The district reported receiving its first payment from Relay in October, which staff estimated at about $40,000, and said Medicaid reimbursements for the district run “approximately $3.3 million to $3.6 million per year.”

Board members pressed staff on the speed of the rollout and the workload placed on special-education staff. “That’s a real short time to implement and train and then start doing it,” said Board Member Ryan Fridge, adding that one-day trainings typically are not enough for staff to become proficient.

Staff acknowledged the steep learning curve but said the district has tried to accommodate it. “We have put staff in certain departments that they’ve asked,” Gottlieb said, and the district is hiring additional help in a department with vacancies. She said staff were asked to keep notes in Word or Excel during the transition so information could be copy‑pasted into Relay per the vendor’s recommendation.

Sherry Gibson, head of special education, said Relay’s reporting tools will allow the district to see, “to the penny,” what Medicaid is reimbursing and to identify supervisors and staff who are behind in entering notes—an improvement over the previous system. Gibson said the program sends automatic notifications that alert administrators when entries are late and that the district is still working to pull all data from PowerSchool and IEP records into Relay.

Board members also asked whether staff are being paid overtime for the extra work. Gottlieb said the additional documentation time was expected to be built into staff schedules and that, where needed, the district is arranging help and has offered additional training sessions; she said some staff have not asked for extra assistance.

District administrators acknowledged the work load and the need to ensure timely billing. “We did ask if any staff felt their caseload needed to be reduced so they could complete billing in a more timely fashion,” an administrator said; staff said no one responded requesting caseload reductions and no disciplinary actions had been taken related to the new program.

Gottlieb and Gibson said the district will continue to request support from the vendor, use the vendor’s help desk and schedule follow-up training to smooth the transition. The board did not take action on the item; the presentation was provided for information and questions.