The vendor is required to provide electronic platforms for social services (“EPSS”) and establish a menu of technically qualified vendors that state agencies can choose to partner with on an as-needed, project-specific basis.
- General requirements:
• System must demonstrate ease of use for a variety of end users, from state personnel to staff at community-based organizations, schools, and healthcare providers.
• This may require web-based access with support for mobile devices
• Vendors will be expected to provide training and end user support and should describe their standard service levels and approach to offering training.
• Some organizations may require additional assistance in onboarding to the platform; vendors should describe their preparedness to provide such assistance and experience with facilitating participation with lower-capacity organizations.
• Social services and benefit programs can require collection and sharing of highly sensitive information.
• A consent process for the participant receiving services is appropriate, and vendors should describe their approach to ensuring the consent of the participant in collecting and sharing information.
• State agencies may have different requirements to meet regarding privacy laws, regulations, and concerns from the public.
• Maintaining accurate identity and a longitudinal record within the system is imperative to support multiagency care coordination.
• Basic reporting capabilities, such as counts of users, referrals, screens, or applications, including reporting by basic demographic information and user’s associated facility. vendors should describe their offering for basic and built-in reports.
• Demographics must be collected in alignment with the office of management and budget’s statistical policy directive no. 15: standards for maintaining, collecting, and presenting federal data on race and ethnicity.
- Core service categories
a. Social needs screening and issue tracking
• Provision of electronically captured screening tools. these tools should utilize an evidence based and validated process addressing core domains of housing instability, food insecurity, transportation, and domestic violence.
• Screening tools should be available in multiple languages; at minimum, they should be available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
• Automatic coding and/or mapping of screening answers to results and identified issues, preferably in standardized formats to allow for data export and ingestion into other systems.
• Basic case management functionality to support users in tracking resolution to identified needs and issues.
b. Benefits applications and referrals
• Scoping and delivering the creation of a custom benefit application or referral to services form, to be provisioned electronically and to the state’s specifications.
• Meeting all functional requirements as necessary under federal regulation.
• Ensuring easy access through state-specified methods, potentially including through the agency’s website, to a variety of external stakeholders, and/or public access.
• Automated eligibility checks for basic components (such as income level or zip code residence) to assist state agency partners in sending appropriate referrals
• Secure storage and transfer of data to the administering state agency.
c. Closed loop referral support
• integrated resource network with search functionality to select appropriate referral recipients for requested services.
• Standardized referral types with pertinent eligibility information to make the referral and its status (received, approved, rejected, services provided).
• Automated eligibility checks for basic components (such as income level or zip code residence) to assist users in sending appropriate referrals.
• User accounts with easy access to respond to referrals, with minimal or no barrier to entry for collaborating service-providing organizations, who typically do not have the resources to buy into a new platform.
• Secure user-to-user messaging within the system.
- Optional service categories
a. Integration with other technology systems
• Scoping and implementing integration with an external system, possibly to include administrative state systems, grants or contract management software, electronic health records, and others.
• Exporting and importing data via automated processes, especially through application programming interfaces (APIs) and potentially through single sign-on support.
• Interoperability capabilities must reflect industry standards to the maximum extent possible, including for coding of social issues and needs.
b. Analytics and reporting
• Access for state administrators to dashboards that visually depict characteristics of the populations served and service utilization.
• Export capabilities to provide the state with detailed line-level data on system use to the extent allowable by law.
• Analytic products that identify areas for improvement in organization-level activity, access to services, and community impacts.
• Other solution offerings that may support efficient management of services and programs, including identifying and engaging state residents.