PRESS RELEASE:

TALLAHASSEE –

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (Agency) announced the Agency’s 2010 Prudential-Davis Productivity Award recipients. The Agency had 25 award winners, including 3 individuals and 22 teams. Agency winners received honorable mentions, certificates of commendation, plaques and cash awards. These awards recognize and reward state employees and work groups whose work increases productivity, promotes innovation to improve the delivery of state services, and saves money for Florida taxpayers and businesses.

“In these challenging economic times, the Agency continues to find innovative ways to create efficiencies and to streamline processes,” said Agency Secretary Thomas W. Arnold. “I am appreciative to Florida TaxWatch and the Prudential-Davis Productivity Awards for recognizing our team’s efforts to better utilize Floridians’ tax dollars.”

Out of the Agency’s 25 awards, several stood out as top achievers.

Cover Florida Health Care Access Team – This five-member team received recognition for its quick development and implementation of Governor Crist’s affordable health care access program, Cover Florida. Using $1,667 as the average cost per uninsured person that Florida hospitals pay in charity care, the team calculated that Cover Florida saved Florida hospitals approximately $5.5 million. As of July 2009, 3,290 Floridians had enrolled in a catastrophic plan.

Florida Medicaid Health Information Network Team – By negotiating a no-cost contract to implement a claims-based electronic health record portal for Florida’s Medicaid treating providers, this 11-member team saved Florida approximately $2.75 million in taxpayer dollars, which earned the team a cash award. This effort also helps avoid unnecessary and duplicative future health care costs.

Access to Florida Medicaid Health Information Network helps health care providers treating Medicaid recipients to make better-informed decisions about their patients, which can help lower health care costs by increasing efficiency.

Health Plan Contract Efficiencies Team – Earning a cash award, this 41-member team streamlined the contract process for 31 Medicaid health plan contracts to decrease workload, increase focus on quality and reduce costs through a newly created electronic report guide. This improvement nets an estimated savings of $21,358 annually for the first 3-year contract period, and $57,713 annually thereafter.

Medicaid Program Integrity Fraud Task Force Team – This 30-member team created a process to track Home Health Agencies in Miami-Dade County that were billing Medicaid excessively for home health aide visits.

This process has helped reduce claims billed to Florida Medicaid by 18 percent. As a result of this task force and other offices within the Medicaid Division, the Florida Medicaid program has realized an estimated $10 million dollars in annual savings for unskilled home health visits.

The Prudential - Davis Productivity Awards program is a major government improvement initiative chaired by Lt. Governor Kottkamp and sponsored by Florida TaxWatch, the Florida Council of 100 and the State of Florida. Cash awards of $250 to $2,500, plaques and certificates of commendation are presented annually to permanent, full-time state employees, plus teams, work units, partnerships and agencies that exceed their job descriptions and performance expectations in ways that improve vital state functions and save money for Florida taxpayers and businesses.