The Washington State Health and Human Services Enterprise Coalition – a cohort of Washington state health and social service agencies – has published an annual update to its Washington State Action Plan for Removing Barriers to Health and Human Services.

"Technology should enable solutions, not create barriers," said Christine Nolan, deputy chief information officer at the Washington State Health Care Authority. "Over the last few months, we have made significant strides toward a more efficient and human-focused system."

The plan outlines two goals:

1. Remove client barriers to accessing benefits. We imagine a future where clients can seamlessly apply for multiple programs in less than 20 minutes and immediately know their eligibility status.
2. The state and its programs have a comprehensive view of clients, and share information across organizations to proactively offer other benefits for which the client may qualify.

Progress toward those goals include a variety of activities over the last few months, including:

• Analyzed the current application process for assistance programs to find opportunities to streamline. Today, 1,344 questions are used across four assistance programs to assess a person's financial eligibility, and 155 questions were found to be duplicative. Next steps will be to pare down question set to the minimum needed to determine financial eligibility.
• Established a human-centered design (HCD) community of practice. Human-centered design is the practice of involving those most impacted by a given product or service in the design of that product or service. It is embodied in the expression "nothing about me without me." Next steps are to identify a forum where resources and best practices can be stored and shared.
• Trained more than 75 staff on human-centered design. In addition, various HHS Coalition organizations have identified staff to attend a graduate certificate program in Redesigning Public Service, through the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington.

The HHS Coalition worked closely with Benefits Data Trust (BDT), a national nonprofit that improves health and financial security by harnessing the power of data, technology, and policy to provide dignified and equitable access to assistance. BDT has guided the development of the Action Plan and provided expertise on action steps outlined in the plan.

“The progress reported today by the Washington State Health and Human Services Enterprise Coalition is proof that it is possible to improve residents’ access to benefit programs and that the state is on a path to streamlining access at scale,” said Trooper Sanders, CEO of Benefits Data Trust. “We look forward to our continued partnership with the Coalition as Benefits Data Trust embarks on a national effort to ensure America’s safety net is accessible to everyone. It is a challenge we can all solve together.”