The ChallengeA federal agency handles 2.5 million initial claims for disability benefits each year. The agency had a paper-based process that created lengthy backlogs and an outdated and inconsistent system architecture patched together across all 50 states and four territories. This patchwork system also resulted in an inconsistent decision process; review procedures varied by individual case worker and jurisdiction, resulting in applicants being awarded—or denied—disability payments based in part on
who was assigned to their claim or where they lived.
The agency selected Booz Allen Hamilton to address these challenges with a faster, more efficient, and reliable case processing system, to provide faster assistance to those with financial or medical problems, save taxpayers money, and provide a better framework to reduce fraud and abuse. Booz Allen is partnering with the agency to assist in the strategic development of disability initiatives, including the integration of Health IT into the disability review process, helping to speed adjudication of complex disability claims, and getting citizens their benefits sooner.
As the front end of the process has become more efficient, delays and bottlenecks have been revealed further along in the process. One challenge was gathering and using disparate data. Booz Allen is helping speed decision making and increase standardization with enhanced data collection, sharing, and analysis capabilities. We developed a tool that prompts disability examiners to ask 12 essential questions regarding eligibility and documentation before making their determinations, one of several tools to improve the consistency, accuracy, and value of the information.
Building on our Health IT experience, Booz Allen is working on a hospital-based pilot to develop metrics, along with technology and business methodologies, to allow secure transfer of medical information directly from healthcare providers to disability case managers.
Download a PDF version of the case study entitled, "Streamlining Disability Benefits Adjudication."
Meet Marc Tate, one of the Booz Allen principals who worked on this client assignment.
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