Day 1 Go/No-Go Decision

Issued September 29, 2023 — after Steering Committee go/no-go decision, close of business Friday. This is the formal authorization to proceed with Day 1 cutover operations. All readiness criteria have been met. The decision is GO.

Integration Cutover Authorization

1. Decision Summary

This decision is based on the Day 1 Readiness Assessment (Artifact 29) dated September 26, 2023, reviewed and confirmed by the Steering Committee on September 29, 2023. All eight workstreams report readiness. No critical blockers remain. The program is operationally ready to execute cutover and transition to Day 1 operations.

Decision authority: D. Ashmore, Executive Sponsor and CFO, ACME Health, approved by Steering Committee.

Effective immediately upon this signature. All cutover teams are authorized to proceed with planned activities per the Cutover Runbook (referenced in Artifact 29, §3). No further approval is required unless the Incident Commander invokes contingency procedures (see §5 below).

2. Readiness Verification

Readiness was verified against six go/no-go criteria. All six are confirmed met as of September 29, 2023 close of business:

3. Risk Acceptance

The Steering Committee acknowledges and accepts the following risks in proceeding with Day 1 cutover:

Risk 1: Unverified EMPI Band Volumes. The steward capacity plan is sized against the deal-model split of 65% deterministic, 27% probabilistic auto and 8% clerical review. That split has never been measured against Cumberland Valley's actual member file, because antitrust rules bar member-level examination before close. Every rehearsal validated the engine, not the population. The Committee is therefore authorizing cutover on an assumption it has had no lawful means of testing, and the assumption sits underneath a staffed workstream and a schedule.

This is accepted because the alternative is not available: there is no version of this transaction in which the acquirer profiles the file first and commits afterward. It is accepted on three conditions. First, full profiling is scheduled as the first substantive post-close data activity and is not to be deferred behind operational work. Second, the review band is treated as an open estimating exposure in the risk register from Day 1 rather than closed out at cutover. Third, if profiling returns a materially wider band than assumed, the response is escalated as a change request against the schedule and the TSA term, not absorbed by pressing the steward team harder — a review queue worked faster produces false merges, and a false merge is the one error that nothing in normal operations surfaces.

Risk 2: Billing GL Mapping Discrepancy. Three low-volume revenue codes (pharmacy rebates, direct mail campaigns, admin fees) could not be validated against the target GL structure by cutover. These items represent <0.5% of revenue. The program accepts this risk because: (a) the transactions are not yet closed, (b) post-close reconciliation will identify discrepancies, and (c) GL corrections can be made with audit trail. However, this item carries a target resolution date of October 13, 2023, two weeks post-close.

Risk 3: Member Support Load. Day 1 support volumes are expected to be high (members with enrollment questions, ID card issues, claims status inquiries). The support team is staffed for 24/7 coverage and has prepared runbooks for common scenarios. However, if call volume exceeds capacity by >50%, additional vendor support may need to be contracted mid-week. This risk is accepted as manageable given the prepared escalation procedures.

4. Cutover Authorization & Conditions

The following conditions apply to Day 1 cutover:

1. Cutover teams proceed per the Cutover Runbook. No deviations from documented procedures are permitted without Incident Commander approval.
2. All cutover activities occur during the authorized window: Friday September 29, 2023 5:00 PM ET through Monday October 2, 2023 7:00 AM ET. No go-live activities occur outside this window.
3. Incident command structure activates at Monday 7:00 AM. The Program Manager chairs; the Sponsor has escalation authority. All escalations to Steering Committee go through the Sponsor.
4. Data reconciliation reports are generated Saturday morning and Sunday evening. Any discrepancies must be explained before market open Monday.
5. The GL mapping discrepancy (Workstream 5) is formally tracked. Post-close reconciliation carries a target completion date of October 13, 2023, two business weeks after close. The CFO is notified immediately upon completion.
6. No member-facing system changes occur after Friday 6:00 PM. All changes freeze during the monitoring window (Sunday 8:00 AM–Monday 7:00 AM). Emergency fixes only, with Incident Commander approval.

5. Escalation Authority & Contingency

Incident Commander Authority (C. Tyrrell, Program Manager): During the cutover window and Day 1 operations, the Incident Commander has authority to:

• Approve emergency fixes or workarounds to operational issues.
• Reallocate support resources to P1 issues.
• Authorize post-close process adjustments (e.g., extended support hours, temporary manual processes).
• Invoke contingency procedures (delay) if an unresolvable critical issue emerges.

Contingency (Delay) Scenario: If a critical issue emerges during the cutover window that cannot be resolved within 2 hours, the Incident Commander may recommend a delay. The delay decision requires:

1. Incident Commander identifies the issue and confirms it cannot be remediated in 2 hours.
2. Incident Commander briefs the Executive Sponsor (D. Ashmore, CFO) with the issue, impact, and recommended delay duration.
3. Sponsor authorizes the delay (typically 24–48 hours) and notifies Steering Committee and TSA provider (G. Threadgill, Cheatham Mutual).
4. All systems rollback to pre-cutover state. Teams stand down and rest. Cutover window is re-scheduled for the following Monday or Wednesday (approved by Steering Committee).
5. Root cause analysis is completed before the rescheduled cutover window. If the root cause cannot be resolved, escalation to Steering Committee for go/delay/abort decision.

The TSA window accommodates one delay with no impact to schedule. A second delay would compress the TSA term and require Sponsor escalation to determine whether to absorb the compression or extend the TSA contract.

No abort scenario is anticipated. The readiness assessment did not surface any issues that would warrant cancellation of the acquisition. If an abort becomes necessary, it is a Steering Committee decision made only after all contingency options have been exhausted.

Related artifacts: 29 — Day 1 Readiness Assessment · 9 — Integration Management Plan · 44 — Change Control Log