Aren DHS and OHA doing a good job now?
Yes. In fact, it surprises people to learn that DHS, OHA and their contracted providers serve more than 1 million unduplicated people annually. DHS is the state’s largest agency with approximately 7,000 employees and 160-plus offices, and like any large organization, it sometimes has ways of doing business that are associated more with “how we’ve always done it” than with best practices. Employees in every division, who are experts in how the agency has done business, are identifying barriers that can be removed to permit them to do their best work. Among the barriers are bottlenecks and overly complicated requirements that slow down work; errors that result from outdated technology or non-standard processes; decades-old fee structures that don’t pay for essential services; and large numbers of different contracts for providers who deliver similar services.
