Broadcast

From the Policy and Program Development Team

Summer is here and that means more employment opportunities for Alaska Temporary Assistance recipients. It also means that the July, August, and September benefits for most two-parent families will be reduced by 50 percent.

Informing Families

We are mailing two letters informing two-parent families of the upcoming seasonal benefit reduction: a letter from Director Anthony Lombardo on May 20th and EIS notice X067 on May 30th. Both letters encourage families to contact their case manager for additional help in finding work. These letters also market the array of services we have available to help support employment opportunities. Copies of the letters being mailed are attached.

This message is to let you know of changes to the time-limit exemption status for a number of Native communities. These changes are being made based on the 2000 census data, and are effective May 1, 2003. These changes affect communities in the Southeast, Northern, and Coastal regions; there are no affected communities in the Central region.

Effective 4/16/03 the ET Caseload Report (CR001) is available on-line. Go to: https://dpasysops.dhss.alaska.gov/Production/ and click on ET Caseload Report under Other Links.

In this week's update I would like to welcome the staff from the Depts. of Administration and Education & Early Development who will be moving to DHSS as part of the reorganization. We recently started sending these updates to help our future colleagues make the transition into the Department of Health and Social Services.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services passed new regulations called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) a little over a year ago. HIPAA regulations require health care organizations (both health care providers and health care payers) to comply with new standards addressing the confidentiality and security of an individual

As field offices roll out the Job Start program, new features are being identified that make the program more beneficial to clients and more useful to employers. The development of Job Start is intended to be fluid, with program improvements being encouraged and instituted rapidly as they are recognized.

The regional managers, IT managers and chiefs had an extremely productive planning session today, April 02. The prime objective was to discuss upcoming changes and design performance measures for each unit that could be implemented as part of our focus on process improvement.

To all DPA staff,
The following excerpt from an email forwarded to Directors from Elmer Lindstrom, Special Assistant to the Commissioner, reminds us all of our rights and responsibilities when communicating with legislators or other public officials:

"Employees have every right to contact legislators, testify at hearings, or otherswise make their personal feelings and opinions known. However they must do so on their own time, should never represent themselves as speaking for the department, and should not use state computers, phones, or FAXES for that purpose. Staff who may speak for the department are so designated by the Commissioner's Office and Division Directors' Offices through our normal legislative procedures...

Update to Staff:
Friday, March 21, 2003
This week's update features Rod Moline, the Project Director for the DHSS Reorganization Project. Many of you know Dr. Rod Moline as the DHSS Home & Community Based Waiver Unit Supervisor, and he was formerly Executive Director for REACH, Inc. for 15 years.