Founded in 2005, the Hudson Center for Health Equity and Quality (the Hudson Center is a not-for-profit company with a dual mission: advocating for high-quality, cost-effective and humane health care for all people, and creating technological innovations to achieve these aims.

 

As the leader of a Medicaid health plan for many years, I was often struck by the inequities of health care in our country. Low-income people were kept off balance by a system that required them to fill out cumbersome forms, supply dozens of documents, and—too often—wait for weeks or even months to simply qualify for the program or services they needed.

 

But bureaucratic inefficiencies in health care don’t just impact the poor. All of us –those with private employer-based insurance and those receiving health care through other government programs—have experienced the frustration, confusion and delays of systems characterized by bureaucracy, fragmentation, errors, and decision-making based on poor information. These problems are not simply frustrating; they create enormous stress that, in turn, adversely impacts people’s health and wellbeing.

 

The Hudson Center’s first product, the Facilitated Electronic Enrollment Application (FEEA), revolutionized Medicaid managed care in New York by transforming a decentralized paper-based, error-prone system into a streamlined process for member enrollment and recertification. FEEA further allowed health plans to track and update member records, manage staff productivity, and reduce costly bureaucracy at the state and local levels. The economic savings to health plans and government health and social services agencies were astronomical – rivalled only by improvement in the lives of people needing health services and those whose job it is to deliver those services.

 

Over the years, the Hudson Center has worked with our clients to create many other streamlining and technology solutions for health care and related programs. With decades of cumulative experience, our staff members offer subject matter expertise, business analysis, and information technology know-how in health insurance, social services, child welfare, and the complex regulations that drive these sectors. The Hudson Center’s familiarity with the overlapping health and social services infrastructure has led us to expand our software development efforts into programs addressing social determinants of health for the chronically , as well as programs in the child welfare arena.

 

Beyond technology, the Hudson Center’s unique commitment to health equity and quality underlies our work. We believe that, regardless of “who pays” for health insurance, for tests and screenings, for a hospital stay, or for the social programs that integrate with our health care system, it is our duty to maximize the benefit from finite resources and ensure that all people are treated humanely and receive the services they need and deserve… because we are all in this together!

 

Georganne Chapin
Fall 2024