The Kaiser Family Foundation has put together a nice overview timeline for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It allows you to easily filter by specific reforms and see the provisions you are interested in. There’s not a lot of depth about each provision and we wish it tied more directly to the actual sections of the ACA so you could read the specific law but it’s still pretty valuable.
You can find it here: http://healthreform.kff.org/timeline.aspx
OK We’ll be honest. As consultants we often fall in love with the constructs and solutions we derive on your behalf. We will explain the beauty of our solution in intricate detail to anyone who will listen (and many that don’t want to be listening!) Generally, in order to get paid, we transcribe these solutions into large complex written reports (we’ve all heard the jokes about “paid by the pound”). Most of the time these documents end up sitting on a shelf collecting dust. No one ever reads them. The results are never used.
From a consultant’s perspective it’s much easier to write a long complicated document than a concise one. Simplicity is hard. But by providing clear, concise, and short reports we’ve found the odds of adopting and implementing the results of a consultants work significantly improve. It’s a sign your consultant really understands the material they are presenting (it’s easy to hide flaws in a big complex document) and you are getting a well thought out solution. Further, a report written clearly and concisely can be shared with broad audiences without a lot of accompanying explanation.
The take away here is pretty simple. Sit down with your consultant and discuss your expectations for written reports. Think about who will be reading the report. Will it be the Governor, legislature, governing council members, senior or mid level agency executives? Will they read a 300-page document? Doubtful. Simple and concise will win the day here.
Should every report be simple and short? Of course not. System requirements or design documents will tend to be long and fairly complex (though they should be as clear and concise as possible). But a greater level of detail is expected by and required for the audience of these types of documents.
This is part of a series of articles designed to help clients and their consultants have more effective and efficient engagements.
Originally conceived as “Let’s get government to use social media” Government 2.0 has grown to be much more. It’s now become a catch phrase for using technology to improve citizens lives (ala government sponsored technology initiatives like the GPS system and, initially, the internet), increasing citizen participation in government, and improving the transparency of government. Here’s a brief introduction by publisher Tim O’Reilly (the individual who coined the phrase “Government 2.0″).
Leo Laporte (of the “This Week in Tech” podcast) also has a video segment with some interesting discussion (he includes several government technology leaders in this discussion) here.
Sooner or later your stakeholders are going to get wind of this (if they haven’t already). You’ll begin to hear questions like “Why aren’t you using open source to lower costs?” and “How can we get access to your data?”. We’ll be examining some of the “Government 2.0″ initiatives, how it might be used in your agency, and some of the the challenges to this movement in future posts.
Health management is a system of coordinated health care and outreach activities targeted at disease focused populations with conditions where patients have significant self-care efforts. The goal is patients become better-informed consumers of health care and gain an understanding of how to better manage their health care needs. Health management often results in cost savings from the more efficient and effective use of healthcare. The approach involves supporting patients and the physician/practitioner communities through care plans and evidence based practice guidelines, patient education, and disease monitoring support services.
Public Knowledge has a history of assisting its customers with the planning and development of Health Management Programs that improve quality of care, improve health outcomes, lower total costs, and better-educate providers and Medicaid clients.
Recently, we helped a State implement a unique Health Management program for its entire Medicaid population. The program included even healthy Medicaid clients, who are usually ignored in traditional disease management programs. The program itself consisted of:
So what have the results been? In its first 6 months of operation the program saved the State’s Medicaid program more than $15 million. Greater savings are being realized in its first few years of operation. Further, based on our regular reviews of the program, the quality of care to clients has improved. Pretty much a win/win.
No one likes to show off their warts. However, on a project, it’s critical to get the warts on the table so they can be managed. Take time before your consultant starts a project and think about all the factors that might be a barrier to the success of the project. Write these down and share them with the consultant as soon as they come on board. Together you can identify how you’ll deal with these barriers.
How do you define “barriers?”. Barriers are anything that could impact the scope, cause the schedule to change, effect resources, or impact the successful outcome of the project. To spur your thoughts on barriers here are some questions you might ask yourself:
Most people know the top barriers facing their project but often feel awkward about discussing them – particularly with a consultant new to the project. Likewise your consultant may notice things that they are reluctant to bring up (being the new kid on the block). But doing so (discussing the barriers) will open up the relationship with your consultant and allow you to mutually identify solutions. This, while not eliminating the warts, allows you to manage them.
With the July 13th release of the Final Rule on Meaningful Use and the Medicare / Medicaid Provider Incentive Program we’ve been pretty busy around here. Here are a few resources we’ve found valuable in helping States learn about the final rule and HIT and HIE in general. We thought you all might benefit from having them gathered in one place:
HHS Webpate on HIT (this includes a link to the final rule document)
CMS Factsheet on Meaningful Use
CMS Fact Sheet on Medicaid EHR incentive Programs
We’re working on an overview for clients that we’ll post soon.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines project scope as “The work that needs to be done to deliver a product, service or result with specified features and functions.” One of your jobs as a buyer of consulting services is to make sure your consultant stays within scope. That is, they are doing the work they need to do to give you what you require and no less or more.
Why no less? This one is kind of obvious. If your consultant is doing less than you need you won’t get what you require. Consultants will do this consciously if they are behind schedule and/or over budget. We see it when we are providing QA for large system projects. For example, the development vendor is behind schedule/over budget and they try and convince the client that they don’t need as much system testing or that the bugs can be fixed after the system is implemented.
Why no more? There are really a few reasons here. First if your consultant is being paid by the hour – it’s costing you money! The more subtle but important reason is even if your consultant is on a fixed price contract doing more costs time. Your projects won’t finish on time. Allowing your consultant to do more may also distract them from doing their best on more critical tasks.
How do you make sure your consultants are within scope? Here are a few simple suggestions that will go a long way to making sure what you need is delivered on time and within budget:
Shouldn’t managing the work plan be the consultant’s responsibility? Absolutely. We’re not suggesting you manage your consultants plan – what we are saying is you need to continually verify the work being performed will get you what you need. Believe it or not consultants don’t always think about whether the work they are doing is leading to the result you want. Many consultants get bogged down in the day-to-day work and loose sight of the big picture.
It is prudent for you as the buyer of consulting services to verify the project scope will lead to the result you want.
This is part of a series of articles designed to help clients and their consultants have more effective and efficient engagements.