Imagine for a moment: You’re a single parent working to make ends meet as you balance rent, bills and the cost of living. Add on losing your job. Then, food assistance and health care access become incredibly important to your family. Millions of households receive social safety benefits. In the
Did you know that approximately one in 28 children grows up with a parent behind bars? That’s not just a number – it’s a glimpse into the lives of young people who face this challenge and need support to break the cycle. According to the US Department of Health and
Can you imagine a world where Medicaid isn’t just a lifeline for those in need but a force driving outcomes that transform lives? That vision is no longer a distant dream; it’s a reality that demands our attention. Medicaid programs make thousands of policy decisions each year that affect some
September honors Recovery Month, emphasizing hope for recovery in behavioral health, especially from substance use disorders (SUD). A key motto of Recovery Month is that Recovery Happens, helping people know that even at rock bottom, things can improve. We all need that hope at various points in our lives. Often,
Before I started with SAS, I worked at the San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health. Among many other projects, our analytics work included integrating data from multiple county departments and risk stratifying citizens in the greatest need of public services. This led to our 1115 Whole Person Care (WPC) waiver
When Los Angeles County invested in Whole Person Care (WPC) it could not have known just how important the system’s flexibility would be. Anyone who has had an interface with health care delivery, policy, oversight and management know things change quickly. As data becomes a priority, expectations of the use
Data management gets lost in the enthusiasm around Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Not surprising, when it's an algorithm that decides what search results to show you, guides the self-driving cars on the roads, and powers the anti-fraud bots that monitor every credit card transaction we make. Charles
This is, hands down, the question I am most frequently asked. Unfortunately, there is no simple answer. The response depends on a combination of factors including (but not limited to) the type of care required and the income and assets of the person in need of care.
Behavioral health information technology (HIT) adoption efforts have struggled and are still plagued by a number of challenges. Since 2011, the federal government has incentivized the industry to the tune of $37 billion. However, according to US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) “psychologists, community mental health centers, psychiatric hospitals, and others
A hot button issue this election season was the need to determine the eligibility of people for various government programs like the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicare and Medicaid, or entry into the United States as a migrant refugee. “Look, we’re facing the worst refugee crisis since the end of
Today’s Medicaid environment is drastically different from that 5, 10 or 20 years ago. Medicaid enrollment has grown to monumental heights with recent CMS numbers (April 2015) at over 70 million. As enrollment rises, concerns about efficient management of care access, cost, quality, and effectiveness have become even more prominent.
The physical and social costs of untreated mental illness are significant and have been discussed in detail in previous posts. Now let’s talk about the immense financial costs, then I’ll wrap up the series with a conclusion. The financial costs cover a broad cross-section of society, including government services and
It's time for a fall fraud roundup. Bad deeds swirl around like so many dry leaves, and I'd like to highlight a few of them this week. It can happen anywhere, even in sports, and no, I'm not picking on those shoplifting Dallas Cowboys here. An MLS referee was suspended for workers' compensation
Data. Google uses ours every day, and most people aren't concerned. When our government is looking over our shoulders, however, tensions rise quickly. On the one end lies the recent scandals with the National Security Agency (NSA), which is apparently spying on you, me, and Angela Merkel. On the other lies case after case
Sunny days, keeping the clouds away, can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?? Oops, sorry, was just day dreaming about younger days and the magic of an eight foot talking yellow bird. How great was Sesame Street? I learned counting, my abc’s, sharing, diversity,
As SLG’s health policy specialist, I’m chartered with developing novel ways to apply data analytics to our state government health systems. If you ask me, it’s the perfect blend of technology and policy - two of my favorite things. However, I sometimes find it challenging to identify the areas within
I recently attended the Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) Conference in Austin, Texas. The MMIS conference is an annual event for federal and state HHS agencies to share programmatic and technology initiatives in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). While I have attended numerous MMIS conferences in the past, I
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
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
