Governor Mike Dunleavy will issue an executive order to restructure the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services into two departments in the upcoming legislative session. The executive order will divide the DHSS into the Department of Health and the Department of Family and Community Services.
Commissioner Crum told Patty Sullivan on the FirstHand podcast that the department’s split will provide a better level of service, gain efficiencies, and provide room for innovation:
“Health and Social Services is the largest department in the state. We have the budget of twelve other state departments out of 14, twelve state departments combined, the governor’s office, the legislature and the court system all combined. We have as many staff as six other state departments. This is such a large beast that covers so many topics across the board that in order to provide these important services well, we have to have the management structure in place to make sure that we’re doing the best we can do from a managerial and an administrative side that recipients are receiving benefits, the payments are going through and that programs are designed the right way. It’s just a massive beast. It’s too big in order to do the services that we want to provide the best way possible.”
The Department of Health will include:
- The Division of Public Health
- The Division of Public Assistance
- The Division of Behavior Health
- The Division of Healthcare Services
- The Division of Senior and Disabilities Services, which all provide regulatory oversight, claims processing and facility licensing of Medicaid programs.
The Department of Family and Community Service will include:
- The Division of Juvenile Justice
- The Office of Children’s Services
- The Alaska Pioneer Homes
- The Alaska Psychiatric Institute
Crum says that his team engaged with stakeholders over the past year on the idea of separating Medicaid from the public-facing divisions to allow more time to focus on how those services are managed. He said an executive team manages around 3,500 employees. He says the agencies will be better able to implement system improvements and facilitate better services and make innovations.
Click here to listen to the podcast.
Photo credits courtesy of the Governor Mike Dunleavy Facebook page.