(1) (a) The state department shall contract with an external vendor to collect and analyze data relating to county department costs and performance associated with administering public assistance programs, including: (I) The supplemental nutrition assistance program, established in part 3 of article 2 of this title; (II) The medical assistance program, established in articles 4, 5, and 6 of title 25.5, C.R.S.; (III) The children's basic health plan, established in article 8 of title 25.5, C.R.S.; (IV) The Colorado works program, established in part 7 of article 2 of this title; (V) The program for aid to the needy disabled, pursuant to article 2 of this title; (VI) The old age pension program, pursuant to part 1 of article 2 of this title; and (VII) Long-term care services, pursuant to article 6 of title 25.5, C.R.S. (b) The contracted vendor's data collection and data analysis shall provide the general assembly, executive agencies, county departments, and public assistance program stakeholders with the following information that may be used to make targeted program improvements: (I) The status of each county department in meeting performance measures for administering public assistance programs; (II) An inventory of relevant county department activities, including, among others, application initiation, interactive interviews, and case reviews, and the purpose of the activities, which may include compliance with federal or state law; (III) An assessment of administrative work not yet completed by each county department and the cause of any delay in completing the work; (IV) The amount of time spent by each county department on each activity; (V) The cost incurred by each county department, including staff and operating costs, relating to each activity and each client; (VI) Any variances among county departments with respect to the cost incurred, time associated with each activity, and return on investment, and the source of those variances; (VII) The relationship, if any, between the time and cost associated with each activity and the county department's performance with respect to the performance standards for the public assistance program; (VIII) The level of total county department funding needed to meet the county department's required workload relating to the administration of public assistance programs for which data is collected and analyzed pursuant to this section. This information must include the total county department funding needed for current business processes and the total county department funding needed if all county departments implement best practices and business reengineering concepts adopted by peer counties found to operate in the most cost-effective manner while meeting performance measures. (IX) Business process improvements that contribute to a county department's decreased time or costs associated with each activity and to a county department's ability to meet or exceed the performance standards for the public assistance program, including improvements associated with previous state-funded business process reengineering initiatives; and (X) Options for a cost allocation model for the distribution of state funding to county departments for administering public assistance programs identified in paragraph (a) of this subsection (1). (2) In order to ensure that the data collection and analysis contracted for pursuant to subsection (1) of this section yields information that is beneficial for its intended uses, prior to contracting with an external vendor for data collection and analysis, the state department shall contract with an external consultant to work with program administrators, fiscal agents, and program stakeholders to identify the scope of the data collection and analysis to be performed pursuant to this section. (3) In collaboration with the county departments, the state department shall design a continuous quality improvement program that, at a minimum, solicits feedback from the employees of the county departments to identify incremental and breakthrough continuous improvements that should be implemented to improve the products, services, and processes associated with the administration of public assistance programs. The state department shall provide a description of the program to the joint budget committee by February 1, 2017.
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