Announcement

Our Department has launched several initiatives over the past two years to increase the efficiency of our work and improve our delivery of services to Alaskans. On May 10th, the Commissioner continued this effort by approving a new regional framework for our Department. DPA will take part in the gradual transition from the multiple regional structures in DHSS to a set of common regions. We will do this by designing our own implementation plan and specifying our own timeframe that fully address our specific issues.

When this month's DPA star isn't sailing on his boat in Mexico, you'll probably find him knee-deep in meetings or flying back and forth between Juneau and Anchorage. This star has a resume of helping those in need and he will soon be helping them from the Commissioner's Office. He has degrees from UAF and Willamette Law School, and while people joke that lawyers are long-winded, this DPA star gets right to the point. He's taken a pie in the face for our division, but rumor has it he much prefers chocolate. Who is our DPA star?

Currently, all DPA jobs on Workplace Alaska are posted on the DPAweb intranet under "DPA Recruitment" on the right side menu column. To improve the division's ability to announce employment opportunities within the division, these openings will also be posted on the DPA Recruitment page of DPAweb. The broadcast method may still be used to draw attention to specific employment opportunities, but DPAweb will now be a one-stop location for job or transfer opportunities.

On May 19, the Urban Institute released a new brief, Recent Trends in Food Stamp Participation: Have New Policies Made a Difference? Using data from the 1997, 1999, and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America’s Families, the report attributes increasing Food Stamp Program (FSP) participation rates to recent changes in FSP policies.

Katherine Farnham has been appointed Director of the DHSS Division of Public Assistance, filling the vacancy created by my appointment to Deputy Commissioner. Katherine joins DHSS from the State of Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, where she has served as Director of the Division of Business Partnerships and as Executive Director of the Alaska Workforce Investment Board.

The Program Integrity & Analysis unit split the District Office Performance Measures report into a timeliness report and an accuracy report. We split the report because the data for timeliness and accuracy are available at different times in the month.

(Juneau) - Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Joel Gilbertson today announced that Alaska, working in concert with Vermont, Michigan, Nevada, and New Hampshire, has established the nation's first multi-state prescription drug purchasing pool to save money on Medicaid drug costs and protect access to care. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson approved the plan today for the drug purchasing pool. Hawaii has also applied to join the multi-state pool.

The questions were fired in rapid succession.
What's the law of supply and demand?
What's the goal of any business?
How can profits be increased?

Though it sounded like an introductory economics class, it's the latest effort in Lucas County's welfare-to-work transition. It's called business boot camp, and it's designed to teach longtime recipients of welfare benefits how their behavior on the job affects the bottom line.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate on Tuesday voted an additional $6 billion for child care for welfare recipients and the working poor as part of a bill to renew the landmark 1996 welfare reform law.
The measure easily won Senate passage, 78-20. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and 30 other Republicans voted for it, but the Bush administration opposes the provision and House Republicans did not include it in the version of the legislation that passed the House last year.