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Program Management in Public Welfare

Program management is generally defined as coordinated management of a portfolio of projects to achieve a set of certain common objectives. As applied to the public welfare industry, program management includes interpretation of regulatory guidelines and their adaptation to the needs of local populations; policy issues; assessment of efficacy of services and interventions and reporting of service delivery to satisfy existing statutes and regulations; planning, coordination, monitoring and analysis of case-level and related activities; quality management and assurance; and interaction with other agencies toward ongoing program enhancement. A particular portfolio of projects encompassed under the auspice of program management is formed under the influence of numerous factors, for example:

ACA always attempts to approach program management issues in their relationship with other management areas in public welfare.

Served populations;
Administrative level (e.g., federal, state, local);
Organizational model;
Regulatory framework;
Program (system) profile and benefit packages;
Stakeholder participation;
Level of program (system) integration; and
Resource management arrangements.

The growing diversity of public welfare programs, complexity of their administration, and difficulties with their adequate funding place significant demands on all management areas of public systems of care. Toward this end, one of the major needs of a public welfare agency is to establish and maintain clearly defined go to 'Management Function' boundaries for each management office to assure meaningful accountability and to avoid duplication of efforts. In this context, the principal role of the program management function is to define benefit packages responsive to the needs of covered populations and to establish and maintain a framework for care delivery, which incorporates best care standards and practices and which quality is continuously monitored.

The ACA contribution to innovative solutions responsive to the needs of the public welfare industry is most visible in such areas as consulting and modeling, monitoring of managed care programs, regulatory compliance and reporting, and use of MASTRR™ Solutions product family. In its professional engagements, ACA always attempts to approach program management issues in their relationship with other management areas in public welfare.