Disaster was looming as the state’s Health and Human Services Department’s new medical claims processing system faltered upon launch. Claims from hospitals were not being processed by the HHS, which in turn was not reimbursing doctors and hospitals for their work. Political pressure was mounting for the agency to fix the problem.
Enter Aurora Cardenas of Peru, Chelsea Gorr of Australia, and Garrett Wright of the United States, whose solution to the hypothetical problem earned them victory on April 10 at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affair’s Public Policy Case Competition, held in New York and cosponsored by DAI.
DAI’s
Steven Rozner, Deputy Chief of Party on the
Fiscal Reform and Economic Governance project, served as one of the judges, alongside public policy specialists from Deloitte Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Oliver Wyman, Dalberg Global Development Advisors, and McKinsey & Company.
Cardenas and Goor, each working toward master of public affairs degrees, and Wright, a master of international affairs candidate, devised their plan in five hours. Their approach to the problem was to build momentum with quick wins (augmenting staff, communicating with stakeholders, and increasing technical support), redefine the vision for an efficient claims system, and build sustainability into their solution.
The team conceived an objective, with explicit assumptions, deducing that the HHS problems were self-reinforcing; proposed a root cause analysis; recommended a project director be assigned at HHS; and drafted a 90-day timeline. They established metrics to measure success and acknowledged short- and long-term risks and constraints.
“The winning team stood out because of the comprehensiveness of their proposal, and because of their attention to details, such as getting at root causes, sustainability, and thoughtful metrics for measuring results,” Rozner said.
“The event was extremely well organized and the students were sharp; they showed real grace under pressure. The voting was far from unanimous.”