Government Departments of Social Services are responsible for managing a complex web of social services programs that include funding from federal, state, and local sources. Current technology is often focused primarily on federal reporting requirements and less on the day-to-day case management and financial management needs of case workers. Social workers have large case loads, a burdensome amount of paperwork taking workers away from direct client service, and complex business processes and regulations to follow.
In addition, many social services departments across America face:
- state reporting requirements that are time consuming to complete and are prone to error, as they are often completed manually.
- complex rules for determining eligibility and benefit amounts that are often unevenly applied.
- the need to manage multiple funding categories across services, fiscal years, budgets and clients.
Social Services agencies provide services and/or financial assistance to adults and children in their communities. The programs listed below are managed most efficiently by agencies today using Harmony:
- Child and Family Services such as Foster Care, Adoption, and At Risk Youth and Family Services (CSA)
- Adult Services such as Adult And Aging Programs, Adult Day Care Programs, Adult Protective Services, Auxiliary Grant Programs, and Companion Programs
- Financial Assistance Programs such as Child Care, Emergency Services, Energy Assistance, Caregivers Grants, and Medical Assistance
- Housing Assistance Programs such as Homeownership Services, Homeownership Education, Affordable Housing Programs, and HUD Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program
- Behavioral Health Services covering Mental Health services like Community Support Programs, Intellectual Disabilities services such as In Home services, and Substance Abuse services such as Detox programs
Solution Overview
Harmony’s Social Services for Government Agencies (Harmony SS: Government) provides an electronic case record containing demographic, eligibility, clinical and service data for each client, allowing agencies to better forecast and control budget expenditures and financial obligations, to manage Medicaid and Block Grant programs, to strongly execute utilization management, and to increase the speed and efficiency in handling service level transactions.
Harmony helps ensure that all levels of the agency and their provider organizations are able to efficiently perform the variety of tasks required to provide and manage services to their clients. Harmony’s client-centric approach creates a single, fully integrated, consistent, and comprehensive view for each client, while allowing each level of the organization to access information and functions essential to its role.
Key Harmony Government Social Services Components
- Centralized Intake: Central intake management of benefit program applicants; schedules appointments and provides check-in features for appointments and room reservations; produces statistical reports on applicants such as timeliness and counts of new cases.
- Comprehensive Case Management: Workers complete screenings of clients for initial eligibility, determine program eligibility, process intakes and complete assessments, manage Medicaid spend down, document client contacts, record emergency contacts, set alerts, receive reminders for next steps, conduct service plans, and process discharges.
- End to End Financial Management: Determine eligibility for services and funding categories, process ongoing and one time payments, automate the purchase order and invoice processes, track budgets, produce 1099s and integrate with general ledgers, bill Medicaid, calculate state and local match, and produce provider payments.
- Managing Providers and Resources: Track foster family and provider agency applicants, record criminal background checks and in home visits, manage budgets and contracts, handle National Provider Identifiers (NPI), identify services and rates, track hours of operation, contacts, addresses, facilities, and much more.
- Outstanding Performance Management and State Reporting Tools: Provides standard reimbursement reports that summarize financial and service data by client, program, service, funding source, provider etc. Provides dashboards to help DSS management to quickly identify outliers, manage compliance, and measure performance. Provides ad hoc reporting tools to help management quickly analyze data. Produces state reporting for various program areas, such as child care and CSA.
- General Public Portals, Provider and Client Access: Allows the general public to query provider information such as locations and services offered. Permits providers to log in to enter encounters, invoices and claims, and to receive referrals, payments, and other information. Provides client level access to the system, allowing them to log in securely to share in the care management planning process.
Harmony SS | Harmony SS: Provider