By Will Saunders, group president, Xerox Government Healthcare Solutions
Xerox has a great legacy in California. For starters, it’s home to one of our great sources of innovation, invention and inspiration. For four decades, the Palo Alto Research Center, (PARC) –a Xerox company – has been pioneering new technologies for Xerox and the world.
We also have many long-term relationships with the state and local California governments to help them simplify operations—from managing everything from IT operations in the city of Riverside to Los Angeles’ parking strategy.
One of our biggest projects in the state is managing the transaction and information processing system for its Medicaid program, Medi-Cal. Our work with Medi-Cal, which serves 7.5 million people, helps the state improve access to health care and better manage payment to health care providers.
We’ve been responsible for the system’s operations since October 2011, and in that time have processed more than 90 million claims totaling $7.5 billion.
California’s Medicaid processing system (known in the industry as an MMIS) is considered to be one of the biggest and most complex systems of its kind in the country, so the transfer of the system to Xerox from the previous vendor is a significant milestone. We have a team of smart, dedicated and hard-working people who made it all possible.
But our work is far from over. Now that the MMIS is under Xerox control, we’re identifying efficiencies and finding ways for stakeholders throughout the system to benefit, including providing a more predictable payment process for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals.
The next major step is when we transition the state to Health Enterprise, a MMIS platform that will give the California flexibility to better serve and support providers and beneficiaries, to precisely and quickly pay claims, and to help prevent fraud and abuse within the program.
That change is a tremendous opportunity to transform the operations of California’s biggest program, serving its most vulnerable citizens, and another chapter of Xerox’s California success story.
