Commissioner's Update - April 11, 2003

Update to Staff:

Friday, April 11, 2003

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.
---

Reorganization

Reorganization Project Director Rod Moline will meet with DHSS Directors as a group and individually next week to discuss specific tasks for the reorganization. This past week he met with DHSS webmasters to begin working with them on changes to the DHSS public web presence throughout the
reorganization. Please check out the reorganization web site, which this week features the Frequently Asked Questions, a new top level organization chart, and charts depicting the planning structure for the project. You can submit questions about the reorganization to the FAQ from the site.

Legislative Update

This week the Senate passed a package of bills important to DHSS. The 5 bills are important parts of the Administration's commitment to meet the health needs of Alaskans, to control costs by restructuring programs, and to implement systems that are more streamlined and efficient.

In SB 105, the eligibility income standard for Denali
KidCare is frozen in order to maintain service to current
recipients and to reduce future program cost increases. SB 108 eliminates Medicaid rate commission, and provides more
efficient rate review process. SB 109 eliminates the statutory priority list, and gives the Department greater ability to allocate Medicaid funds. SB 123 allows adoptive parents and guardians to seek review of their subsidy rates with a mandatory annual review provision in statute. SB 124 increases the local match for funding substance abuse services with alcohol and drug abuse grants.

New Directors John Gaisford, Doug Bruce, Bill Hogan

John Gaisford began April 1 as Director of Medical Assistance, which will become the new Division of Health Care in the new DHSS reorganization. He has extensive experience as an economist in health care, focusing on health reform, resources and management. Most recently he was a principal and consulting economist with LEGC, a health care consulting firm, where he specialized in health reform, resource allocation and process management. He worked for the State of Alaska from 1978-88 in the DHSS Div. of Family & Youth Services, and has the distinction of having visited 120 rural villages in Northwest Alaska. Dr. Gaisford has a BA from Earlham College, a Master's Degree in psychiatric social work from Syracuse University (1975), and a Master's Degree (1992) and a Ph.D. in Economics (1993) from the University of Oregon.

Doug Bruce began as Director of Public Health on April 1. He has administered health care delivery systems for 30 years. He was executive for a 5-hospital health system in California before joining Providence Health Systems in Alaska eight and a half years ago as Chief Executive. His responsibilities for Providence in Alaska included oversight of the Providence Medical Centers in Anchorage, Seward, and Kodiak, as well as the Mary Conrad Center, Providence Extended Care Center, Horizon House, and Providence House. Doug has a MBA from Michigan State University with post-graduate work in Health Care Administration accomplished at George Washington University. He is married to Linda and has a grown daughter, Melanie, a grown son, Gregory, and a 4-year old grandson.

Bill Hogan began working April 1 as Director of the Div. of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities which will become part of the new Division of Behavioral Health in the new DHSS reorganization. Since 1998, he had been Chief Executive Officer of Life Quest, a community mental health
center located in Wasilla, Alaska. He is a certified social worker, and a licensed clinical social worker. He has a BA in Sociology from State University of New York, a Master of Science in Social Work from West Virginia University, and has done coursework toward a Ph.D at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has also served as chairman of the Alaska Mental Health Board, board member of the Alaska Community Mental Health Services Association, and Executive Director of the New York State chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Commissioner's Office

We expect Nancy Cashen, DHSS Executive Secretary to the Commissioner, to return to work at the Commissioner's office next week. I would like to thank the staff in the Commissioner's Office as well as other Division staff who helped us stay on track while Nancy was away.

Elmer Lindstrom, DHSS Special Assistant, went on personal leave last week. During his absence, Bob Buttcane has agreed to act as our Legislative Liaison. I appreciate your cooperation with Bob on legislative matters for the duration
of this session.

Sincerely,

Joel Gilbertson, Commissioner

Read previous updates...(requires password)