Pennsylvania's Incremental Renewal Project

• Published in: Policy & Practice Vol. 66; no. 5; p. 29
• Main Author: Coulson, Mike
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington American Public Human Services Association 01.12.2008
• Subjects: Customer services; Medicaid
• ISSN: 1942-6828

The Benefits of the Incremental Approach Two of the project's key managers from the program side of the house, the Office of Income Maintenance, Eric Graves, director of the Division of Automation and Support in the Bureau of Program Support, and Ray Packer, section chief of Open Systems in the Division of Automation Planning and Support, detailed the benefits of the incremental approach: * The ability to spread the funding requirements over multiple years * The ability to be adaptable and flexible to changing circumstances; phases can and have been broken down into sub-phases as the need arises through stakeholder prioritization due to operation needs or changes in policies * The ability to more easily integrate other programs into the system * The ability to address technology upgrades along the way * The ability to provide focused training and communication to enable end users to accept and adapt to the changes on a gradual basis * Here were some of their key considerations to ensure a successful implementation: the need to: * develop a strategy to maintain disparate architectures during the transition * engage business users so as to understand that there will be "short-term gains" that will eventually lead to "long-term savings" * involve budget and planning units to get their buy-in on the fact that this is not a short-term project Pennsylvania appears well on its way to a successful implementation of a new eligibility system, but officials are also aware that their project timeline will probably have some adjustments before it is fully completed.