A Healthy Transition

The state of Michigan is a recognized leader in IT innovation. This is largely due to the work of e-Michigan, a statewide initiative to deliver electronic services to citizens and standardize technology used by government agencies.

One challenge e-Michigan seeks to address is the inability of older stand-alone systems to deliver online transactions and business functions to constituents. Intelligent document technology is a powerful tool for linking together and lending new functionality to outdated, disparate systems. MIChild, a program operated by the Michigan Department of Community Health, shows how an intelligent document strategy improves constituent services and strengthens mission-critical business operations for agencies.

Traditionally human services agencies are among the most hampered by stovepipes and data silos. Millions of people's daily lives rely on intricate benefits programs that must run smoothly and effectively despite their complex design. The Adobe Intelligent Document Platform is helping transform the way Michigan residents access MIChild by making the program function better -- for citizens and government agencies.

Easy Access
MIChild provides health insurance and related benefits to children of needy families. Like many state-run social services programs, MIChild was a victim of legacy processes that fell short of meeting modern business requirements. Adobe solutions helped the agency create a secure, Web-based system that allows citizens and business partners to conduct transactions with efficiency and accuracy.

Services such as MIChild are key to improving citizens' access to state benefit programs, according to e-Michigan Director Jim Hogan.

"In the human services area, specifically, we wanted to have an easy-to-use application process on the Internet for folks to apply for children's health care," he said. "This is the focus of e-Michigan. We want to accelerate the implementation of online customer services and make them available 24/7."

For MIChild, Michigan took an innovative approach. Many of the people most in need of state assistance do not have routine Internet access. So instead of building a generic Web portal, Michigan targeted the assistive agencies that directly reach families.

"We decided the audience for the application wasn't the families themselves," Hogan explained. "Instead, we found that agencies like the Salvation Army, community action agencies, schools -- the places where families spend time -- were the places that were helping families find out if they might be eligible for benefits.

"Our target audience is those assistive agencies because we know not all of our citizens are connected to the Internet. But we knew many of the touch-points families do interface with are connected to the Internet. So we built a common application for families to come in and apply for children's health care."

Traditionally, families applying for children's health care went through a process that could take up to four months for approval. This was due to people filling out paperwork incorrectly, making errors in calculations or a combination of both.

Today, the state uses Adobe technology to create a form that asks a series of questions to determine if a person is eligible for benefits. Citizens who are eligible for MIChild services visit an assistive agency and file for aid electronically by filling out a simple, online form. The form automatically locates nearby health-care providers based on ZIP codes and presents the applicant with provider options. Once complete, the form is submitted securely and in real-time, and the data is merged into an official form, which the citizen receives as a PDF. The PDF then serves as an official document used as proof of eligibility when visiting, for instance, a health-care provider.

The results? By implementing an intelligent document strategy that automates eligibility processes, those four months have been reduced, incredibly, to 30 minutes or less.

Perhaps even more astonishing is that with absolutely no advertising, 200 families managed to find and complete these forms