Many, if not the vast majority of, government agencies have an immense opportunity to increase efficiency through improving their basic work flow processes.

As administrations come and go, and as new work requirements and legislation get piled on government agencies, incremental changes to the underlying work flow processes increase complexity - resulting in ‘work-arounds,' quick fixes, multiple hand offs - and gross inefficiencies.

To address this problem, The Lucas Group has developed a proprietary approach to significantly improve these processes - in a highly practical and specific way. Our ‘brown paper bag' approach is a ‘hands on' method that allows government employees - on the front line - to sketch out their current ‘broken processes' and identify smart solutions for improvement.

Having successfully implemented this approach in multiple agencies and offices throughout the country, we are excited about the improvements that can be achieved and benefits attained in efficiency, service and employee morale.

Although government agencies are generally required to bid out contracts on a competitive basis, the truth is that there is typically great opportunity to improve purchasing efficiencies.

Many agencies - within state, city or federal departments -- purchase similar, or in some cases identical, products from different vendors, at different prices.

Moreover, in complex areas requiring rigorous analysis -- such as banking services, transaction processing, technology solutions, etc. - there is not sufficient government staff to evaluate and negotiate the most advantageous outcomes.

Thus, The Lucas Group has developed a practice to help these government entities achieve significant efficiencies throughout their purchasing activities. Working closely with our government sector clients, our teams have achieved saving - on average - of 20 to 25 percent of the total spend addressed.

The Lucas Group has worked with senior government executives throughout the country - including governors, mayors and county and federal agency officials and their teams - to create innovative ‘public-private partnership' approaches.

In most cases, these solutions are developed to address the most basic problem faced by many governments - the increased demands for government service combined with highly constrained government funding.

We help our clients understand where and how private sector capabilities can be significantly leveraged to both improve the delivery of government services and achieve substantial economies in the process. Further, we then work on their behalf, as their advisors, to select the most appropriate outside vendors and structure and negotiate advantageous ‘win-win' public-private partnership arrangements.

Typically, our objective is to help our clients leverage the capabilities of the private sector - to improve service, reduce cost and give government employees the opportunity to be effective in their jobs.

Over the past decade, Medicaid spending has grown to become the largest single state expense, overwhelming budgets and forcing states to limit funding for other critical services, like education, highways and public safety and to increase taxes on their residents. To compound matters, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicaid expenditures are expected to grow by 7.9% annually over the next 10 years, an amount vastly greater than the expected increase in revenues during that period.

States and other government agencies that fund and manage Medicaid need to take action now to bring growth in Medicaid in line with revenue growth in order to avoid cuts in services or escalating taxes. Without change, the current system will significantly narrow the state’s ability to set priorities

Our Government Solutions team has proven Medicaid experts who have delivered results in moving Medicaid to sustainable growth paths, while at the same time improving the quality of care. Our staff is committed to delivering results that meet our clients’ needs to improve the efficiency of Medicaid and provide relief from mounting program expenses. We are also committed to simultaneously enhancing service delivery for Medicaid beneficiaries while upgrading quality with definable benchmarks for outcomes.

We achieve these benefits through two distinct processes:

Medicaid System Efficiency Improvement

Our staff has built extensive knowledge of Medicaid in multiple states and understands with great detail how these programs operate. This experience allows us to develop strategies for efficiency opportunities within Medicaid that can result in substantial cost savings. These efficiency savings are developed with the goal of not simply reducing costs, but improving outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries and their families.

The Lucas Group, Government Solutions conducts a thorough, area-by-area review of Medicaid programs to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements. Once clients finalize their choices to put in place, our staff will work closely with program staff to implement these changes. We are also able to rapidly deploy the services of subject matter experts for various Medicaid program areas and can assist in outreach communications, by developing effective message strategies to explain efficiency benefits to the public and stakeholders.

Medicaid Program Transformation

While efficiency improvements can often effectively meet short-term objectives of reducing Medicaid growth, finding long-term answers for a program that will continue to grow at extraordinary levels often requires a complete review and restructuring of an existing Medicaid program.

Our staff has delivered results in transforming Medicaid programs for states. This has resulted in innovative and groundbreaking steps forward for Medicaid by enhancing flexibility and streamlining service delivery systems. Our experts will work with clients to develop change initiatives and implementation strategies to reshape Medicaid. We construct a dashboard to track qualitative outcomes and design quantifiable metrics for performance-based program management. We use our experience with federal partners and proven negotiating strategies to develop and attain approval for Medicaid waivers. These waivers help meet our clients’ goals with our knowledge of financing, crafting terms and conditions, identifying opportunities for Costs Not Otherwise Matched (CNOM) presently., Finally, we work with clients to construct effective communication strategies to express the importance and benefits of Medicaid transformation to the public and stakeholders.