Posts Tagged: reform

Fixing the Rules of the Game

The budget stalemate back in the spring, the summer debt ceiling debacle, the recent failure of the “super committee,” and the near paralysis over extending the payroll tax cut the are all symptoms of a broken governing system. The non-partisan Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform recently issued a series of recommendations on how to beginRead… Read more »

The essential health benefit: Will essential become minimal?

BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE Issue Date: Online ExclusiveOnline Exclusive The essential health benefit: Will essential become minimal? “Nearsighted” IOM recommendations fail to consider long-term value of behavioral health benefits by Ron Manderscheid, PhD While every element of health reform in the United States is important to the future of mental health and substance use treatment, several ofRead… Read more »

Reform Goes Local: America’s Counties Emerging….

BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE Issue Date: October 2011The Manderscheid Report Reform goes localAmerica’s counties emerging as key agents for healthcare service delivery by Ron Manderscheid, PhD In the new era of healthcare reform, we must revisit our assumptions about how behavioral health services are organized and how they actually operate in the field. I suspect that weRead… Read more »

Are One-on-Ones Necessary for Market Research?

As the government looks for way to save money and improve performance, the topic of adopting best practices for IT acquisitions continues to be at the forefront of the conversation. However, implementing those best practices continue to be challenging, especially in the thought process with one-on-one sessions. When it comes to market research, the governmentRead… Read more »

National Dialog on Government Websites Is Over – What’s Next?

So the 2+ week National Dialog on Government Websites is over. It ended last night with 436 ideas, 1,663 comments, and 8,259 votes submitted by 992 contributors. If you didn’t get a chance to participate, the whole thing is archived for reference. Take a look – I think you’ll be impressed by the quality ofRead… Read more »

Remember the 25-Point Plan? Give It A Try!

Vivek Kundra may have departed as federal CIO, but the 25-point IT reform plan lives on. Of the 25 points, agile, incremental systems development stands as perhaps the most important, if least original, prescription in the document. Since federal agencies have a long history of “grand designs” – overly ambitious systems plans with vague requirementsRead… Read more »

Join Us for a National Discussion on Government Websites!

Come one – come all! This is your chance to help the U.S. government figure out how to serve better, online. I told you a few weeks ago about the ground-breaking .Gov Reform initiative the White House and the General Services Administration have underway. In a nutshell, they’re taking a hard look at U.S. governmentRead… Read more »

Why We’re Excited About Amazon’s Government Cloud

Amazon announced the Amazon Web Services GovCloud today. This means that government agencies and programs can benefit from Amazon Web Services without having to fret about the myriad security and compliance issues that have been keeping them back. We’re really excited about this for a few reasons: Fewer Excuses Amazon has waded through the oceanRead… Read more »

Daily Dose: How Would You Improve the Postal Service?

The mail has been losing out to faster forms of communication for some time now, and it’s put a serious financial strain on the Postal Service. Congress is now looking at dramatically overhauling the agency to return it to financial solvency. Last week, Representative Darrell Issa (R-California) introduced The Postal Reform Act, which would restructureRead… Read more »

Management 1.0 – How are things in the U.S?

In Australia management in the public sector has an unhealthy managerialist bent. In a nutshell, a one size fits all approach coupled with the inherently arrogant notion that ‘more management’ is the solution to everything. In the main, this sad state of affairs has been peddled in the public sector by strategic human resources orRead… Read more »