- Jul 24, 2002
- 529
- 1
- 76
I work for a local government agency. I am involved with eligibility for services for a set of clientele. My work partner is involved with the providers of the services to my set of clientele.
I'm the always thinking person looking to improve efficiency of not only my processes, but also other co-workers processes.
Here is a general idea of our process:
I receive an application for services and process this request. After all the documentation is received, they are then approved or denied the subsidy for services. I then have to enter information into multiple sources for different purposes. I make a copy of the authorization to give to my partner.
My partner takes this printout and creates a notecard to keep with their paperwork to verify the data when there is a request of this information from the service provider. She also uses this information to manually process billings received monthly. Any given month we could receive ~1000 billings. So this process takes a good two weeks time to process. After that time, which another person enters the data require to run a fiscal report for our agency. After all the stars align and the processing is complete, the service provider is cut a check and returned a carbon copy of the billing to verify the calculations of services rendered.
That is a very generic rundown of our processes. What I am looking for is some general processing ideas and ways to improve efficiency by new/better software programs or use methods.
***Items in bold are used by both individuals***
Programs used for clientele:
1. Excel spreadsheet (for eligibility calculations)
2. Excel spreadsheet (for clientele currently being review or terminated)
3. Access database (for clientele information and data)
4. Word document (cheat sheet so I don't have to type the same things constantly)
5. Government program (required for entry on two seperate applications)
6. Compass Forms (required, electronic document completion and storage method)
7. OnBase (required, electronic document storage)
Programs used for service providers:
1. Rusty ole' note card system (for keeping track of my clientele changes)
2. Excel spreadsheet (very HUGE spreadsheet used to manually enter billing information into)
I've looked for a system that would work with our setup. I figured there would be something out there that could help us with the billing processing, at the very least. Every software piece I am reviewing is what our service providers would use if not contracted through us and using their own billing system.
I already hear..."use an online billing program!". I would LOVE to do that. The problem lies in that our service providers do not all have access to a computer at their place of business. Our policy also requires signatures from my clientele EVERY time a service is rendered for them to cut down on fraud situations.
Only other thing I can think of is an OCR program. I have dealt with many OCR programs. They are buggy at best when information is handwritten.
So short of hiring new personnel (I wish) or buying our service providers all new computers and signature pads (65+ service providers @ $400 minimum=$$$)...I'm out of ideas.
I'm sure that some of our MS Office documents can be condensed, updated, etc. I am open to ideas for increasing efficiency in that area too, so feel free to shoot suggestions my way.
I can attach examples of what we use for the MS Office documents, if someone wants to tinker with them. Again though, it is inefficient because of how only one person can be on these documents at a time.
Any help is appreciated!
I'm the always thinking person looking to improve efficiency of not only my processes, but also other co-workers processes.
Here is a general idea of our process:
I receive an application for services and process this request. After all the documentation is received, they are then approved or denied the subsidy for services. I then have to enter information into multiple sources for different purposes. I make a copy of the authorization to give to my partner.
My partner takes this printout and creates a notecard to keep with their paperwork to verify the data when there is a request of this information from the service provider. She also uses this information to manually process billings received monthly. Any given month we could receive ~1000 billings. So this process takes a good two weeks time to process. After that time, which another person enters the data require to run a fiscal report for our agency. After all the stars align and the processing is complete, the service provider is cut a check and returned a carbon copy of the billing to verify the calculations of services rendered.
That is a very generic rundown of our processes. What I am looking for is some general processing ideas and ways to improve efficiency by new/better software programs or use methods.
***Items in bold are used by both individuals***
Programs used for clientele:
1. Excel spreadsheet (for eligibility calculations)
2. Excel spreadsheet (for clientele currently being review or terminated)
3. Access database (for clientele information and data)
4. Word document (cheat sheet so I don't have to type the same things constantly)
5. Government program (required for entry on two seperate applications)
6. Compass Forms (required, electronic document completion and storage method)
7. OnBase (required, electronic document storage)
Programs used for service providers:
1. Rusty ole' note card system (for keeping track of my clientele changes)
2. Excel spreadsheet (very HUGE spreadsheet used to manually enter billing information into)
I've looked for a system that would work with our setup. I figured there would be something out there that could help us with the billing processing, at the very least. Every software piece I am reviewing is what our service providers would use if not contracted through us and using their own billing system.
I already hear..."use an online billing program!". I would LOVE to do that. The problem lies in that our service providers do not all have access to a computer at their place of business. Our policy also requires signatures from my clientele EVERY time a service is rendered for them to cut down on fraud situations.
Only other thing I can think of is an OCR program. I have dealt with many OCR programs. They are buggy at best when information is handwritten.
So short of hiring new personnel (I wish) or buying our service providers all new computers and signature pads (65+ service providers @ $400 minimum=$$$)...I'm out of ideas.
I'm sure that some of our MS Office documents can be condensed, updated, etc. I am open to ideas for increasing efficiency in that area too, so feel free to shoot suggestions my way.
I can attach examples of what we use for the MS Office documents, if someone wants to tinker with them. Again though, it is inefficient because of how only one person can be on these documents at a time.
Any help is appreciated!
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