Director's Office

New state Health and Social Services Commissioner Joel Gilbertson has his work cut out for him. Gilbertson, 30, was chosen by Gov. Frank Murkowski to run, in terms of dollars managed, one of the state's biggest agencies. Within the Department of Health and Social Service's $553 million annual budget of state funds, Medicaid, at $225 million next year, is the 800-pound gorilla. Including federal funds, the department's overall budget is $1.7 billion.

Recognized expert in child welfare issues, Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), federal child & family services reviews.

Governor Frank H. Murkowski announced today the appointment of Marcia Kennai as Deputy Commissioner of Health & Social Services. Ms. Kennai will head the new Office of Children's Services announced last month as part of a major reorganization of the Dept. of Health & Social Services.

Spring greetings to everyone from the Director's office. Brace yourselves. The recent weather map shows a statewide thaw that heralds the coming of spring activity. Even Barrow was a balmy 12 degrees yesterday. This means, of course, increased activity at our offices, as folks migrating into Alaska seek program assistance and others step up their job search efforts in anticipation of summer employment. Spring and summer always present our greatest opportunity to help our fellow Alaskans find self-sufficiency and self-esteem though employment.

Juneau -- Commissioner Greg O

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 Director's office has been on the road this week. Julie Morris is hard at work getting the message out in Anchorage to field supervisors and staff regarding HIPAA, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

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

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.