Drawn from the report, States' Roles in Shaping High Performance Health Systems.
States shape the health system in many ways, influencing key components such as insurance coverage, quality of care, and information and provider infrastructures. This report presents findings from the State Health Policies Aimed at Promoting Excellent Systems project, undertaken by the National Academy for State Health Policy, with support from The Commonwealth Fund. After conducting surveys of multiple agencies in states across the country, as well as review of related literature, this study found that states are pursuing system improvements across the full spectrum of their authority, including health care purchasing, regulation of providers, reporting of performance data, integration of public health with health care approaches, and improving the availability and affordability of health insurance. Despite this activity, this study finds room for states to do much more. Ongoing efforts to track, study and diffuse information on state activities could accelerate adoption of promising polices and practices.
Applying for programs like Medicaid can be a cumbersome, time-consuming, and confusing process. Utah Clicks is an innovative online resource that makes applying for state aid easier by reducing the burden on families applying for state programs, as well as providing an integrated front-end interface for various types of assistance that are often disconnected. The Web site—www.utahclicks.org—allows families to learn about and apply for programs including Medicaid, Head Start, and SCHIP, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in Spanish or English. The site receives a substantial number of applications after normal business hours.
Questions that are shared across program applications, like family income, are grouped by topic and only asked once, avoiding unnecessary duplication. The individual applications are then referred to the appropriate staff for an eligibility determination. The system allows both intake workers and applicants to review and make changes to documents online, reducing printing and postage costs, as well as processing time.
The software was developed by researchers at the Utah State University under a four-year, $600,000 grant from the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau, and it has received a 2006 Innovation Award from the Council of State Governments. Utah State University has already entered into partnership with Oregon and Indiana, and is in negotiations with other states to license the Universal Application System software that powers Utah Clicks.
Utah is also implementing other information technology tools to enhance its enrollment and renewal operations, including an Electronic Resource and Eligibility Product (eREP) that automates back-end eligibility determination for multiple programs.
Source: Council of State Governments, 2006 Innovation Awards Program Application, http://ssl.csg.org/innovations/2006/2006winnersalternates/utahclicks.pdf.pdf , 2006 Innovation Awards presentation, http://www.csg.org/programs/innov/documents/UtahClicks.ppt and Utah Medicaid SHAPES survey response.