Service Assistant

Milwaukee County is changing how alcohol and other drug addiction (AODA) clients receive services. Previously, clients received treatment for almost as long as they desired it. This caused long waits for new clients since only so many clients could be funded at time. In the near future, however, clients will be limited by dollar amount. When the money runs out, their treatment and services stop. Limiting the cost per client…

• removes wait time. Since the cost per client is limited, new clients don’t need to wait for old clients to leave treatment before they begin.
• Gives clients greater visibility of choice
• Allows the county to serve more clients for less money. (A potential drawback to systems like these is that severe clients will have as much money to spend on treatment and services as clients with lesser problems. Clients with severe issues may not get as much assistance as they need, and clients with fewer difficulties may spend more money than they would under a differently structured program.)

The WIser Choice program (Wisconsin (WI) Supports Everyone’s Recovery Choice) receives funding from many sources. Clients may be eligible for different funding sources depending on their personal and familial situations. Since some funds provide more treatment dollars than others, one client may be eligible for several thousand more dollars than another client.

This VBA project allows users to select options based on his/her knowledge of the client. The first options are the funding sources the client is eligible for, and are entered by a central intake worker. The VBA project will select the highest monetary value of the selected eligibilities and use that as the max cost of treatment. The second selection the intake worker makes is the level of recovery support coordination or case management the client needs or wants. At this point, a central intake worker may share the screen with the interviewee to select the treatment and services he or she needs or wants. The user selects a service by entering the number of units they’d like to purchase for the services they choose. To make the service worthwhile to the provider and client, each service has a minimum number of units. User entries that don’t meet that minimum number of units are not included in the cost and not included in the final list of selected services. If the total dollar amount goes over the specified client limit, the number turns red, and the user cannot reach the final screen until the numbers are adjusted to fit within the limit. Once the user has finished under the limit, the final screen shows the central intake worker the service code, service name, number of units, and the number of days the authorization should span.

http://files.gove.net/shares/files/11w/lfairban/VBA_Final_Project_Service_Assistant.pdf
file://files.gove.net/shares/files/11w/lfairban/Project_Provider_Service.xls