AG 2005 07 14 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

DATE: TO: FROM: RE: 6/16/2005 JIM COOK IRISH BAKER NCFASTPARTIC~ATION As you know Families Accessing Services through Technology, or NC FAST, is designed to improve the way the NC Department of Health and Human Services and county Departments of Social Services provide services to families. It will automate processes in the county departments of social services. NC FAST will free workers from manual and repetitive tasks and allow them to spend more time working with clients. NC FAST wilI also make it easier to share information across program areas and provides managers with better data to make decisions and manage programs. NC FAST wilI provide connectivity to state and federal data reporting systems. With NCF AST County DSS managers will be able to manage workloads for their staff, enable increased caseworker interaction with clients, and more easily manage reporting and policy We are very pleased with the accomplishments of the NC FAST project to date, especialIy the Online Verification System or OL V. OL V has eased the eased the task of veri tying information for individuals applying for services and benefits, by reducing the number of systems a worker must access to retrieve verifications and consolidating it into one system that searches for matches from all systems and returns the information without the worker having to access each system individualIy. OL V automates new applicant and recipient information verification with a single interface across various verification systems Linda Faulkner, IMC II in Family & Children's Medicaid has been selected to participate in the NC FAST project as it relates to Means tested programs, which wilI automate processes for case managers and caseworkers. Her expertise will be used to review existing state policy to start. Policy wilI be simplified or changed where possible to fit the imported system. If that is not feasible or desired, the system wilI be changed to comply with policy. Once policy has been reviewed and changes made where possible, she will be involved in developing and testing. the system from a caseworker's perspective. I am requesting that Linda participation in this project be authorized, for at least one year. The project itself wilIlast 2 _ 2 Y, years. This wilI mean that she is assigned to the Project but will remain a county employee. The State has also recommended that staff assigned to the Project receive a 10% increase for the duration of the Project, this too will be reimbursed, should we choose to give it. The process will be set up so that the employees assigned to the Project will be provided housing and travel at the State's expense. They arrive each Monday at 12 and leave each Friday at 12, residing in Raleigh during the week. We wilI receive reimbursement for her salary plus fringe plus any increase we choose to give. I would like to recommend that we give the increase, as well. Employees will keep a state time sheet, which will then be submitted to the County each month. Once received, we will invoice the State for her salary plus 10% (if given) plus fringe. We in turn wilI be able to hire a temporary replacement for Linda, which we wilI be reimbursable via the 1571. I wonld also like to request and recommend that we do this, as we could not manage without a backfilI for her position. While the Economic Services Division would lose an experienced worker, we would have the ability to cover the workload via a temp, although in alIlikelihood it would be someone with little to no experience in a DSS setting. I am wilIing to work with that because I feel that by sending Linda, we gain valuable input in the development of this system and will have the opportunity to some testing and piloting, which we might not otherwise be able to do. Please let me know if you have additional questions. Thank you for your consideration of this matter. ~'~ I~ . / r-