Human Services – C!A: Change and Innovation Agency

Using data to help redetermine Medicaid Eligibility
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Using data to help redetermine Medicaid Eligibility

Using data to help redetermine Medicaid Eligibility

Capacity is a central concern for Medicaid agencies across the country as they redetermine coverage. The first step towards addressing this is to reduce the workload through ex parte resolutions. However, to truly empower the agency's workforce, it is crucial to equip them with the right tools and eliminate the need to search through multiple systems. While various data options exist, the key lies in proper curation - how we utilize, serve, and refine the data. By doing so, we unlock the full capacity of our existing workforce.

By Blake Shaw|September 2023|Categories: Business Process Redesign, PHE Unwinding|Tags: Blake Shaw, Capacity, Capacity Crisis, ex parte rates, Government, Human Services, Medicaid, No Touch Eligibility, PHE Unwinding, Public Health Emergency, Redeterminations, Workload|

Go with the Flow: Increase Capacity to Transform Your Child Support Program

Fueled by increasing demands to improve federal measures and strengthen parental engagement activities and at a time when programs are experiencing significant staff attrition, decreasing budgets, and stagnant collections, child support programs are under extreme pressure to rethink how they serve children and families.

How Will Your Child Welfare System Stack Up Against the Laws of Gravity
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How Will Your Child Welfare System Stack Up Against the Laws of Gravity

How Will Your Child Welfare System Stack Up Against the Laws of Gravity

Our child welfare systems can feel like we are in a game of Jenga. We are attempting to grow and expand our systems by moving pieces one by one - while stretching our limited capacity. But with each move, the entire system risks collapse, particularly with worker shortages.

By Sean Toole, Kelly Harder|May 2023|Categories: Business Process Redesign, Innovation, Measurement, Performance Improvement, Social Worker Staffing Shortages|Tags: Accountability, Accountability System, Accountable, Accuracy, Administrative Burden, Adoption, Analytics, Andi West, Assessment, Authoritative Data, Automation, Backlog, Batches, Benefits, Bill Bott, Blake Shaw, Bottlenecks, BPR, Broken System, Business Process Redesign, Call Center, Capacity, Capacity Crisis, Case flow, Case management, Case Manager, Caseflow, Caseloads, Caseworker, CCWIS, Change, Change Agent, Change Management, Child Abuse, Child Abuse Prevention Month, Child Protection, Child Welfare, Child welfare agencies, Children and Families, Children in Care, Churn, CIO, City, CMS, Constraint, Continuous Coverage, Continuous Enrollment, Continuous Improvement, County, COVID-19, Customer, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Service, CYA, Dashboard, Data, Do Good, Do more good, Documentation, Efficiencies, Efficient, Eligibility life cycle, Eligibility Systems, Eligibility Workers, Employees, Engagement, Enrollment, Extreme Government Makeover, Failure Demand, Family First, Family First Prevention Services Act, FFPSA, First Contact Resolution, Flow, Flow of Work, Foster Care, Foster care licensing, Foster Family, Governing, Government, Healthcare Exchange, Human Services, Human services agencies, Human-Centered Design, Idaho, Improvement, Increase Capacity, Innovate, Innovation, Insights, Investigations, IT, Job satisfaction, Keep Kids Safe, Kelly Harder, Ken Miller, Laura Tibbets, Leader, Leadership, Lean, Leo Ribas, Manage, Management, Manager, Managers, Measures, Measuring for Results, Medicaid, Metrics, Michael Jones, Modernize, No Touch Eligibility, Normal, Normal Operations, Outcomes, Pandemic, Parent Engagement, Passion, Peak Performance, Performance, Performance Management, Permanency, PHE, PHE Unwinding, Pipes, Post-pandemic, Prevention services, Process, Process Improvement, Process Management, Process redesign, Public, Public Assistance, Public Health Emergency, Public Health Emergency unwinding, Public Servant, Public Service, Quality, Radical, Radical Change, Real-time data, Recovery, Redesign process, Redetermination, Remote, Remote Workforce, Removal, Results, Reunification, Rework, Saas, Safety ass, Safety decision, Safety net programs, Safety nets, Same-day Determination, Scorecard, Sean Toole, Service Delivery, Smart process, SNAP, Social safety net, Social Worker shortage, Social workers, Staffing shortage, State, Streamline, Supervise, Supervisor, Supervisors, System, TANF, Technology, Thought Leadership, Thriving Families, Transform, Transformation, Turnover, Unsafe, Unwinding, Virtual Court Hearings, Virtual hearings, Virtual Meetings, Virtual Office, Virtual Workforce, Visibility, We Don't Make Widgets, Widget, Work-life bala, Workers, Workflow, Workforce, Working Remotely, Workload|

Changing Our Relationship with Data: Solving Our Capacity Crisis by Making Data Work for Us, Not the Other Way Around

The only way out of the capacity crisis is to serve our customers completely and immediately. And data can now help us do this, when used correctly and applied at the most opportune time.

By Ken Miller|October 2022|Categories: Measurement, PHE Unwinding|Tags: Accountability, Accountable, Analytics, Capacity, Capacity Crisis, Data, Do more good, Eligibility life cycle, Government, Human Services, Human services agencies, Innovation, Insights, Ken Miller, Metrics, PHE, PHE Unwinding, Public Servant, Public Service, Staffing shortage, System, Transformation, Visibility|

Emerging Stronger When the Public Health Emergency Ends: How Agencies Can Make Room for the Upcoming Wave of Renewals and New Customers

When the public health emergency (PHE) and pandemic waivers come to an end, agencies must renew all existing Medicaid recipients. For many agencies already struggling with staff capacity to meet existing demand, they will no doubt be overwhelmed. To help agencies prepare for and tackle the wave of renewal workload, we offer specific steps that agencies can take to meet this increased demand.

Fostering Hope: Rethink Foster Care to Increase Capacity
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Fostering Hope: Rethink Foster Care to Increase Capacity

Fostering Hope: Rethink Foster Care to Increase Capacity

While it is wonderful to recognize the heroes during National Foster Care Month, we must also be aware of the realities of the foster care system and be willing to make a change. A change that will allow the heroes we celebrate to shine, unencumbered by complicated, outdated processes. If we take a glance through the lens of capacity, we will find a starting point so that we can do more good for children and families.

You Can’t Hire Your Way Out of the Staff Turnover Crisis: Addressing the Realities of Staff Turnover Through Process
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You Can’t Hire Your Way Out of the Staff Turnover Crisis: Addressing the Realities of Staff Turnover Through Process

You Can’t Hire Your Way Out of the Staff Turnover Crisis: Addressing the Realities of Staff Turnover Through Process

Turnover is an unprecedented challenge that threatens the well-being of children. But staff is hard to find, harder to retain, and we are hiring back into the same systems that haven’t addressed fundamental challenges that have existed for decades. The only way to improve this reality to rethink our approach.

When Virtual Became the Reality: Three pandemic lessons to shape the future of child welfare
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When Virtual Became the Reality: Three pandemic lessons to shape the future of child welfare

When Virtual Became the Reality: Three pandemic lessons to shape the future of child welfare

For more than a year we shifted work to a virtual platform out of necessity, and as we safely return to in-person activities it would be easy to sprint as fast as possible back to “the way we did things before COVID-19”. But, what if instead of sprinting we took the time to pause and reflect? Perhaps some of our new virtual practices make child welfare better.

Never Getting Behind Again: How One Child Welfare Agency Used the Pandemic to Transform Their Work to Help Children and Families
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Never Getting Behind Again: How One Child Welfare Agency Used the Pandemic to Transform Their Work to Help Children and Families

Never Getting Behind Again: How One Child Welfare Agency Used the Pandemic to Transform Their Work to Help Children and Families

How the Indiana Department of Child Services used the pandemic to transform their work to help children and families.

All Aboard Toward Thriving Families: Strategies to Keep Early Intervention and Prevention on Track
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All Aboard Toward Thriving Families: Strategies to Keep Early Intervention and Prevention on Track

All Aboard Toward Thriving Families: Strategies to Keep Early Intervention and Prevention on Track

Today’s child welfare train is working as hard as ever, with more weight - tasks, oversight, budget, limitations, and expectations - continually being added, and its network of policy tracks becoming increasingly more complex. To keep early intervention and prevention on track and move toward thriving families, here are key strategies to consider.