EOHHS launches Medicaid warehouse

PROVIDENCE – Aided by a grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the R.I. Executive Office of Health and Human Services has launched a new data warehouse for the state Medicaid program, designed to integrate data from multiple state agencies.
The project, which supports the state’s Medicaid overhaul under the global waiver approved at the end of the Bush Administration, is designed to better coordinate and manage health and human services programs, especially those funded by Medicaid.
The data warehouse also allows for the creation of numerous reports to show the utilization of services across programs and departments, using a flexible but unified reporting infrastructure. It is also expected to help officials forecast expenses and identify potentially high-cost cases.
“When making decisions that affect the health and safety of our populations, it is essential that state policymakers have the sound empirical data to conduct a thorough analysis,” said Gary D. Alexander, secretary of the EOHHS. “This data warehouse will allow administrators and decision makers access to vital data and statistics and give them the tools to make informed decisions. [It] is a huge step forward in coordinating care for Medicaid beneficiaries.”
In addition to the data warehouse, EOHHS is implementing a community supports management system to upgrade the administrative processes in the state’s long-term care offices, migrating away from paper-based applications to a more automated, Web-based system. This will enable data sharing between different long-term-care providers, officials said, and require less paper, fewer phone calls and faxes, and result in timelier services.
Both projects were developed with the assistance of Hewlett Packard.