Digital Transformation Poised to Make its Mark on Health and Human Services Agencies

Dr. Mark Allen recently authored an article in the June issue of “Policy & Practice,” the magazine of the American Public Human Services Organization.

One byproduct of the Affordable Care Act is the forced modernization of supporting software applications to conform with mandated changes to Medicaid eligibility. Rather than modify existing systems, most states determined that it would be more cost effective to rewrite the systems using modern business rules engines to guard against ongoing regulatory changes. I explored this topic in my recent article in Policy & Practice Magazine.

I have also seen that as a result of the successful modernization of those Medicaid eligibility systems, many state health and human services agencies are now expanding use of business rules engines across other benefits programs, providing “integrated eligibility” that reuses common architecture and business rules across programs. What’s more, some states are also beginning to offer their citizens self-service, web-based and mobile ready application processes that provide guidance, screening and immediate eligibility and benefits determination. These new applications are becoming a win-win as they reduce the operational costs for states and offer a far better customer experience.

In fact, these modernized, “digitally transformed” self-service applications are changing the focus of how human services resources are applied. Instead of spending the majority of time chasing down missing data and fixing errors inherent to old legacy systems, employee resources can be redirected to better serve citizens who need one-on-one attention, support and guidance.

I hope you will take a few minutes to read the full article. You’ll see real world examples of how game changing technology is already impacting human services agencies around the country and how solutions like Progress Corticon are able to impact service agencies.