The Buzz with ACT-IAC
The Buzz with ACT-IAC
ICYMI: Health Innovation Keynote Fireside Chat
In this keynote and fireside chat, Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) discusses his vision and efforts for making America's children and families healthier. Gradison highlights the President's priorities on efficiency, reducing waste, and supporting low-income families. He discusses the importance of job opportunities and family stability as fundamental principles guiding ACF's initiatives. The conversation also extends to the critical role of partnerships, leveraging technology, utilizing AI, improving data sharing, and innovative practices across federal, state, and local levels to enhance human services delivery and outcomes. Gradison emphasizes practical solutions and successful models, like those in Allegheny County, emphasizing the tailored approach needed to address diverse community needs effectively.
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Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound
(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)
INTRO: Um, within the Department of Health and Human Services focus on making America children a families healthy again. Gradison manages senior executives at the agency giving them direction. On President Trump's priorities and how to do a better job, prioritizing efficiency, reducing waste and fraud, focusing on the need of low income families and providing tools for communities to become stronger and self-sufficient.
INTRO: Acting assisting Secretary Gradison has spent his career fighting for healthy families and bolstering children, child safety and wellbeing across federal programs. His passion for improving the the social safety net comes from 10 years of legislative experience on Capitol Hill with a focus on human service policies.
INTRO: Before joining a CF, he worked at the US Senate Committee on Health, education, labor and Pension, focusing on policies related to childcare, head start, child welfare. And [00:01:00] Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Please welcome me. Help me welcome him to the stage. He is a great advocate for technology and innovation within a CF, so please welcome acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Bradon.
DARREN: Good morning and welcome. Um, thank you Robin. Uh, my name's Darren Gainor. I'm the HHS client Leader for SAIC, and I've been supporting HHS for about 20 plus years, and I'm grateful, uh, to be sitting here and have the opportunity to chat with our distinguished keynote Andrew grads and Andrew. Good morning.
DARREN: Good morning. It's great to be here. Yeah, I was hoping you could start us off with maybe an overview, um, and sort of share your vision, uh, for how things are going.
ANDREW: Wonderful. So, um, [00:02:00] good morning everyone. Uh, my name is Andrew Gradison and thanks to Robin and thanks for our host and thank you for having me today.
ANDREW: It's great to join you. Um, as Robin mentioned, uh, I'm acting assistant secretary for a CF and I come after a decade of experience on Capitol Hill. So, uh. I can understand how in this environment there might be some uncertainty about what's going on at the federal level. So, uh, I can at least provide a good bit of certainty about what's happening in the human services world.
ANDREW: And that means that I can tell you what we're focused on right now and where we're going. I'll say that. The Make America healthy again. Agenda is very clear, very prescriptive from, uh, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. We're grateful to have his leadership. I think it's pretty obvious what that means, uh, in this, in this environment.
ANDREW: He's talking about getting toxins out of our foods. He's talking about addressing, uh, regulatory capture of our healthcare [00:03:00] industry. We all know what Make America healthy again, means in concept or practice on medical freedom or otherwise. But what does make America healthy again mean for human services?
ANDREW: I can tell you it means that everything we do will revolve around two important principles and in human services, the most important principles that I can articulate are to keep in mind that the best economic program for someone who's struggling is a job, and that the best social program. That can create a sound environment for children and families is a family itself.
ANDREW: So a best economic program is a job, and the best social program is a family, and those two principles will inform everything that we do at a CF over the next three and a half years. I can tell you that. How do we go about doing that? It's recognizing what the federal role is in that equation. We are funders.
ANDREW: We are a grant making organization. We're of the LA largest grant making organizations in the federal [00:04:00] government, but it's our state partners, it's our local partners. It's our nonprofits who are administering the suite of social safety net programs that we help fund. I have former social workers on staff.
ANDREW: But I don't pay them to go meet with kids. I don't pay them to go do individualized assessments with families. I pay them to help get grants out the door to make sure that our state partners, our local partners, are in a better position to improve the conditions of people's lives, to help get people into work and to help.
ANDREW: Stabilize families. So it's recognizing where, what our role is in that equation, and making sure that we are a customer service focused organization that makes sure that our state, our county, our local partners are in a position to spend more time improving lives and less time on compliance and making sure that the federal funds continue to flow.
ANDREW: So that's what I'm focused on. That's my vision here for a CF, and, uh, that's how we're gonna move out.
DARREN: Excellent. I love what you [00:05:00] said there about partnering in, in today's rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, collaboration's certainly key to fostering innovation. Would you discuss how health government agencies are working together and partnering to drive innovation throughout the entire ecosystem?
ANDREW: Well, I'd be happy to. I think partnering is critical, uh, moving forward and, and you see this, uh, at our level. Uh, we have great and improving relationships with our partners at CMS, at samhsa, at the CDC, uh, but I wanna make sure that the human services portfolio doesn't exist in isolation because I know that economic conditions or the environment for families to succeed can't exist.
ANDREW: Families can't thrive. Uh, in isolation. If I perfect our programs, they still need to have economic opportunities. There still needs to be an environment where people have access to, uh, healthcare or, uh, the other suite of services. So we have to, we have to better coordinate what we're doing. And you see good examples of this on the [00:06:00] ground, uh, certain jurisdictions, especially in the child welfare space, where they do a great job of using the information that they gather.
ANDREW: So you see, um. I, I, in, in the child welfare world, there's been a lot of movement towards prevention services. It's stabilizing families on the front end before a family falls into dire circumstances where a child needs to be removed and placed in the foster care system. Well, how do you actually move effectively upstream?
ANDREW: You're only as good as the data that you have. You're only as good as the information that you have about the conditions that a family is facing, so you seek. Certain jurisdictions, and I'm somewhat reluctant to call them out as far as who's the best, but if I had to pick one, uh, Allegheny County does an incredible job of leveraging the different data points that they get from across their suite of systems.
ANDREW: So their Child Protective Services, uh, is coordinating data and they, they get it from their Medicaid system, they get it from law enforcement, they get it from education. So every [00:07:00] live birth in Allegheny County is assigned a risk score. Now, how do they move that into action? Once they assign a risk score in that jurisdiction, they're able to triage resources and target their limited resources in human services towards those that they've identified on the front end as as needing the most help.
ANDREW: So even without filling out an application, even without identifying and raising your hand and saying, I need help. Uh, with infant formula, I need help with diapers or transportation. The county, based on their best use and best practices on, on technology on the front end, will actually meet families where they are.
ANDREW: So, uh, after a newborn is born in Allegheny County, if you are in, um, the fourth or fifth quartile of, of the risk scores, you don't actually have to ask for help. They're gonna show up on your doorstep. And that is the kind of partnership that leads to better outcomes for the children and families that we serve.[00:08:00]
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DARREN: That's [00:09:00] excellent. And Allegheny County certainly resonates with me. I love what you're doing with the, um, uh, rural communities. Being from Allegheny County, we're certainly appreciative of all your work. And you, you mentioned the importance of information sharing. You know, with the increasing complexity of healthcare data, finding effective ways to share information is crucial.
DARREN: Would you talk a little about, or some, some of the solutions that are enabling more seamless cross sharing of data, um, treatments and processes among healthcare providers?
ANDREW: Well. Well, uh, we've, uh, everyone in this room's probably been having conversations around interoperability for the last two decades and making sure that individuals, uh, have control over their health records and being able to take them with them, they own them.
ANDREW: And there's a lot of different approaches that, uh, that. Organizations represented here have offered to try and take that to the next level. I think we have to really focus on, uh, leveraging 21st century technology and making sure that it's individuals and. Our clients that are in the best [00:10:00] position, uh, to use the records that you all make a lot easier for them.
ANDREW: So, uh, in, in the 21st century, if you have a digital health record, you ought to be able to have a QR code on your phone if you go to a new provider that you've never visited before and make sure. That they can pull up your entire record. And it shouldn't be, the onus shouldn't be on a vulnerable individual to have to produce it, carry it with them, or go back to paper records, god forbid.
ANDREW: Um, but to be able to make sure that the systems that that we build are actually in service of better customer service, um, on the front end. So, you know, in the human services world, so that a vulnerable mother doesn't have to fill out 12 different applications to make the sure that she's eligible for childcare, wic, snap housing, transportation, every other benefit program.
ANDREW: But that states and our counties are in a position where, uh, there's one set of data collection and then that can be used [00:11:00] to make sure that all of the benefits that they're eligible for flow to them.
DARREN: Excellent. And you talked a little bit about integrating technology, integrating culture, people, and technology is often a challenge in the healthcare sector.
DARREN: What are some of the best practices or successful approaches you've seen for achieving a harmonious integration of those elements?
ANDREW: Well, when we talk about integration, um. I, I, I think one of the best examples that I could point to is actually our child support system. We do an incredible job and it, and it really reflects the partnership that I'm trying to bring out through all of our programs, which is that, uh, the systems that the federal government maintains en enable our state.
ANDREW: Partners to locate parents. We run the Federal Parent Locator service. Uh, they couldn't find many of these individuals without our help. Uh, the states are in a position to then carry out the next few steps as far as establishing paternity, [00:12:00] but then if they want to get to the collection stage on child support, they ping their data off our national directory of new hires.
ANDREW: So it's about making sure that. We are in better partnership with. And, and, and that's the model that I think I want to carry, that I would like to see carried out. Um, not just in child support as a great example, but I think you can apply that same structure into our child welfare systems, into, um, what we're doing on, on, uh, head Start or, or many of our other programs where the federal government is maintaining an infrastructure that makes it easier for our states to carry out their work.
DARREN: Excellent. And, and we know the pace of technological advancement is nothing short or remarkable. Um, what innovative or emerging technologies are currently being utilized and how do you anticipate these technologies will shape the future of healthcare?
ANDREW: Well, everybody's talking about artificial intelligence and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, uh, what's happening there and the best way that we can [00:13:00] use it.
ANDREW: There are a lot of good use cases for ai. I think. Um, it may not be a panacea, but. Uh, I can say there's some things the federal government doesn't do. Well, I can tell you at a CF we do an incredible job when it comes to using tools like ai, uh, in service of making our staff's lives easier and allowing them to be more productive.
ANDREW: So we have a great opportunity here of synthesizing the wealth of data that we already have, uh, all trying to tie that back into, uh, informing changes that can be made on the ground. And improving ultimately, the outcomes for the children and family that we serve now, uh, there are many use cases for AI sort of across the board.
ANDREW: Um, but we've, we've developed an in-house AI tool. We call it C credle. Um, and that tool has actually, uh, significantly increased productivity. We're in a piloting phase. We have about. [00:14:00] Um, a hundred give or take licenses of folks internally on our staff that are able to access this tool, uh, and leverage it to increase, uh, their own productivity.
ANDREW: But we've already seen marked improvements and, and you can apply this on program. Monitoring on health and safety reports and on making sure that states are still in compliance for the information that they're using. So what we run into is, uh, across child welfare systems. We have four different data sets that we require from states with various reporting periods, um, annual reports, five-year plans, um, and, uh, child welfare.
ANDREW: We have, uh, three year plans when it comes to. Promoting safe and stable families, and then we have a fi five-year data set. So, um, it's making sure that we leverage the existing technology that's out there to make sure that we can better get through hundreds of pages of reports per state to make sure they're in compliance, that they're moving in the right direction, and that the information that we gather can [00:15:00] actually improve what they're doing as opposed to doing compliance for compliance sake, which is I think the mares that we've been in, uh, for the last.
ANDREW: 15 or more
DARREN: years. No, that's excellent. And I know you're working to tackle some big and multifaceted challenges. I do have one final question. This came from the audience, uh, and I think it's something that's top of mind will resonate with a lot here. Um, in, in what specific ways can industry collaborate with you to address your current challenges and better align their efforts to support your longer term strategic goals?
ANDREW: Well, that's a great question. I think, um, you know, I, as, as you, you may know, I mean, we're not necessarily looking for. New vendors. Uh, we've been cutting contracts. That's part of our department of government efficiency work. But um, but we're in a real position here to take. Uh, the federal to the next level.
ANDREW: And, and how do you really go about that in our space or anywhere else? It's, uh, recognizing what our federal role is, which is I'm not administering these programs. I'm making sure that states and our counties are in a [00:16:00] position to better administer them. But what we have an opportunity to do is to build systems at the federal level and basically hand them off to a state and say, I know this works.
ANDREW: You can plug it in. So the best way for you all. To be part of these solutions is not just going to our state partners, uh, demonstrating proof of concept and by giving us something that we can brag about at the federal level and say, you know, something's working really well. Like, I could point to Alleg County, or I could point to the childcare systems in Iowa.
ANDREW: Like, I would love to be able to brag about where they're going and what they have going on because. There is no one solution. When states and our counties are administering these programs, they do it in very different ways. I think that's appropriate given the different conditions that you see, uh, family's needs might look similar.
ANDREW: I. In Rhode Island, but they're not the exact same as what, what, what you're gonna see in rural New Mexico. We're living in sort of [00:17:00] different worlds with different paradigms. We have too big of a country for there to be one solution to our technology needs. I think recognizing that there're going to be different solutions implemented in different places, gives us an opportunity to identify different approaches.
ANDREW: They can solve similar problems, and then we can lift up those good examples as proof of concept that can then be implemented in other jurisdictions. So I encourage you, um, especially in the human services space, to engage with our state partners, to engage with our county partners, to talk with the nonprofit world and demonstrate that what you're doing is better than anywhere else.
DARREN: That's excellent. Thank you for those insights and thank you so much for, uh, kicking us off today. You're, we all appreciate you taking time outta your day to share your insights and we couldn't be more appreciative. So thank you so much Andrew.
ANDREW: Well, thank you very much for having me and, uh,
ANDREW: I, I hope you have a great rest of your [00:18:00] compliment.