Elevating Experiences Across Health and Human Services Programs

With the adoption of the Quadruple Aim, the healthcare industry took a giant step toward improving the lives of patients, populations and providers. In this vision, healthcare is human-centered and engaging.

Healthcare technology should be the same.

Embracing the Future Today

As health IT systems mature, states don’t have to stay locked into technology that is out of touch with today’s demands.

By integrating modern technologies as they become available, states can create a user experience that transcends their old systems. New front ends can provide experiences that are as intuitive and easy to use as popular consumer platforms. While states make plans for the future, these enhanced user experiences allow mission-critical systems to keep serving their vital role, while also offering greater efficiency and accessibility.

Designing for Tomorrow

Updating Medicaid systems requires updated ways of thinking about system design. And this is where design thinking comes in. 

Design thinking is the philosophy of taking an empathetic, human-centered approach to software development. It upends old ways of development by directly involving the technology’s users in the process. By identifying exactly who will be using the technology and what challenges they face, design thinking allows systems to be more agile, open and user-focused.

Simplifying Complexity

As organizations look to improve the user experience for a broad variety of constituents, micro-frontends provide one way to simplify complexity. With micro-frontend architecture, a wide array of features can be created separately then assembled together seamlessly. 

This approach allows parts of a user interface to be updated, fixed or expanded without disrupting an agency’s system or workflow. It's about making software more flexible and resilient, ensuring it grows and adapts to meet an organization’s needs without missing a beat.

Empowering Users

Picture a configurable, dynamic workspace personalized to each user in a state agency. By accessing products and tools made available by the agency, each user is able to organize their workspace to fit exactly how they work. And each time they log in, everything they need is right there in front of them. This vision of streamlined organization is technology that is available now.

Users can add, move or remove tiles based on their needs. They can customize views. They can populate dashboards with charts and graphs that help them understand their workloads and manage tasks. Rather than being agency-centered, workspaces now become person-centered. 

Users no longer need to click through multiple windows to find what they need. Looking up Medicaid claims, approvals, denials and other crucial information is as simple as typing into a search bar. The process now becomes “search first, click later.” 

Supporting the Ecosystem

This concept of simplified user experiences can be expanded across the whole healthcare ecosystem.  

Beneficiaries no longer need to navigate a confusing array of websites, forms, physical locations and call centers. Instead, they can access the full spectrum of health and human services through a single platform.  Device-agnostic front ends feature responsive designs that meet beneficiaries wherever they are, through their desktop, cellphone, tablet or other device.  

An enhanced user experience is also key to reducing the administrative burden on clinicians. Many processes — from recredentialing to excuse notices — are dramatically streamlined, saving providers valuable time to focus on their patients. 

Delivering Results

Creating a system that anticipates users’ needs, simplifies their workflow and brings new levels of efficiency offers profound benefits.

• Speed and Efficiency: By reducing the number of clicks it takes to get to relevant information, and enabling search comparisons on the same screen, an enhanced user experience saves agencies time and makes every moment spent in their system more valuable.  

• Improved Access to Information: Pulling data from disparate systems and consolidating it onto a single platform — then layering it with a simplified user experience — reduces inefficiencies, inconvenience and incomplete data analysis. Vast quantities of information are now made accessible to the right people in the right place at the right time. 

• Better Outcomes: With patient data now available in real time, physicians are able to easily monitor and manage treatment plans, resulting in better clinical and financial outcomes. State employees can also use the data they possess to improve the health of entire populations. 

• Cost Savings: A next-generation user experience helps lower costs by automating repetitive tasks and giving data analysts the information they need to gain cost-saving insights. States could save millions of dollars through greater transparency into the care of their beneficiaries, from avoidance of duplicate medical tests to early intervention that prevents the need for costly medications.  

Reimagining the Possible

The next generation of user experiences is not just a step forward; it's a leap into the future of healthcare administration. States now have the opportunity to go beyond just upgrading their systems to actually infusing efficiency into every interaction.

Improving user experiences is all about connecting people to what they need faster and more directly. And that goes a long way toward creating better outcomes for everyone.