2011: The more things change...

Paula Henderson
Paula Henderson|December 21, 2011

2011 saw incredible change in the states as more than half of the governorships changed hands. As expected, that caused significant turnover at the State CIO level, as well. So while executive and technology policies changed in many ways, the dismal budget situation reinforced the need to allocate tax pay [...]

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Feds Stepping Up to Combat Healthcare Fraud

Greg Henderson
Greg Henderson|April 5, 2011

The federal government is more aggressively pursuing health care fraud, and helping the states do the same, by proposing funding changes and investing in new technologies. A newly proposed rule would allow 90% Federal Financial Participation (FFP) for data mining initiatives in state Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCU’s). Another proposed [...]

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Data: The financial crisis’ silver lining

Paula Henderson
Paula Henderson|February 14, 2011

Brian Whittington mentioned last month that government is innovating, and at great speed. Based on what I’ve seen in our line of work with state and local governments around the country in the past year, I have to agree. In the face of today’s daunting fiscal challenges, state and local [...]

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Innovation in Government: A 2011 refresher

Brian Whittington
Brian Whittington|January 4, 2011

Most people don’t think about government when they hear the word “innovation”, but it’s happening, and has been since long before “The Great Recession.” However, the current economic conditions have certainly moved things along. Government responds very similarly to private industry when faced with challenges. SAS manages to do relatively [...]

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Enterprise Case Management in state government

Greg Henderson
Greg Henderson|December 16, 2010

Paula Joshi wrote last month about how what we learn from the commercial world can be applied in government. She also promised to post a few examples. I’ll get that ball rolling. This week SAS announced the availability of SAS Enterprise Case Management. While the announcement focuses more on the [...]

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Take me to your thought leader...or customer

Paula Henderson
Paula Henderson|October 26, 2010

One of the primary goals of this blog is to establish our contributors and by extension, SAS, as thought leaders in a variety of state & local government areas. It’s also a goal of the upcoming SAS Government Insights publication, which includes a thoughtful opinion piece about what it means [...]

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Statistics every day, in every state

Paula Henderson
Paula Henderson|October 19, 2010

Today SAS joins thousands of others across the globe to celebrate the first World Statistics Day, proclaimed by the United Nations as a way to “help strengthen the awareness and trust of the public in official statistics.” More than 85 government agencies in nearly 70 different countries around the world [...]

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Data hosting can help alleviate state, local budget crises

Paula Henderson
Paula Henderson|September 10, 2010

The shortfall in 2010 state and local government budgets is not news. But it remains the biggest issue facing state and local governments today – and will continue well into tomorrow. Existing gaps are projected to widen further in 2011, throwing departments and agencies already on the edge further into [...]

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Unemployment Insurance – A savior for displaced workers? Or a gold mine for professional scammers?

Greg Henderson
Greg Henderson|September 7, 2010

Unemployment Insurance, mandated by federal statute and administered by states, is designed to provide a temporary safety net for workers who lose their jobs. Due to the recent economic downtown and increase in unemployment, unemployment benefits paid have doubled nationally from $38B in 2008 to $75B in 2009. However, is [...]

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Keep Those Laboratories Open!

Michael Protz
Michael Protz|August 20, 2010

The last two years have been one long, downhill-only roller coaster ride for state and local governments. Budget crises that are the result of decreasing revenues at every level have left state legislatures, governors and local government leadership struggling to maintain effective services for their citizens and, in some cases, [...]

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