I noticed a job listing the other day, as "Director, Performance Improvement". It would likely be an intellectually satisfying and fulfilling employment opportunity. The job is a full-time, direct hire position with Health Services Advisory Group Inc. (which goes by the unfortunate acronym, HSAG and pronounced as H SAG), in Phoenix, Arizona.
My previous work in public health was with the Office for Children with Special Health Care Needs (OCSHCN), where I was an employee of the Department of Health Services of the State of Arizona (AZDHS). My title was Statistical Research Chief, and I had a staff of two programmer analysts.
OCSHCN and and its associated managed care program, the Childrens Rehabilitative Service (CRS), were in charge of most aspects of program management, including retroactive clinical assessments by nurses, as well as provider contracting decision-making. Arizona's Medicaid agency, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) provided billing support and auditor oversight.
In addition to performance evaluation and utilization management, I enjoyed a diverse range of duties that included epidemiological studies, PHI (Protected Health Information) security, pharma utilization, and provider payment (and beneficiary claim) fraud detection. However, the downside was that it was very difficult to work with the independence required to do performance and quality assessor for OCSHCN, while an employee of the program itself.
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| Programs funded by the U.S. HRSA Title V Block Grant for Women & Children |
