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The Ohio Bureau of Disability Determination’s information technology systems needed to keep pace with current technology. But how could they do it with a system that was stuck in the 80’s? |
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The Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission (RSC) is the state agency responsible for the mission to help people with disabilities become employed and independent. The Bureau of Disability Determination, a part of the Rehabilitation Services Commission, is funded by the Social Security Administration to process the medical determination regarding medical eligibility for Social Security Disability Benefits.
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RSC provides vocational rehabilitation services to nearly 47000 people with disabilities. In addition, The Ohio Bureau of Disability Determinations processes some 182,000 Social Security Disability Claims up from 2 years ago when the number topped 158,000. The future prediction is for an annual increase of nearly 5%. Plus each Disability account must be reviewed every 5-7 years. Growth seems to be a certainty. And the work grows increasingly more complex.
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Today, RSC operates some 50 offices throughout Ohio staffed with professionals all dedicated to helping people with disabilities prepare for and retain employment.
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In the Disability Determination process, claims are reviewed first by an adjudicator and complicated cases are jointly reviewed by a consultant doctor and adjudicator. These consultants are paid through Consultant Payment System. Digitek Software helped RSC develop an enhanced Consultant Payment System on IBM AS/400 to replace Wang system.
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“First and foremost, you need to understand what you have before you can move,” says Mike Brinkman, Disability Systems Manager for RSC. “Since the Wang system had little if any documentation along its 20 plus year history, we needed to take it apart and snapshot the entire system before we could move to the migration, ” he added.
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In addition, another Digitek team is assisting RSC to design and develop a Case Authorization Tracking System (CATS) which will eventually replace RSC’s accounting system. The new CATS system is an Object Oriented System based on J2EE and MVC architecture.
Digitek Professionals began with the documentation process. Some of the business processes that revolve around current system are documented in detail and some at a higher level depending upon relevance to the effort. The net result is an analysis that spells out the foundations of the legacy system. It also creates an understanding of how the system functions today and most importantly, what is required in terms of functions and features for the new system.
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Projects such as these don’t happen overnight. “I am looking to develop a long term relationship with our partner Digitek. There’s a value in developing such a partnership that I know can be relied on when I need them,” notes Brinkman. |
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| To date, Phase One of the Consultant Payment System is complete. And Phase Two is in midstream, on target and on budget. And according to Brinkman it is going well. “What can the new system do that the old cannot? We’ve discovered new opportunities along the way, working hand-in-hand with Digitek Professionals.” |
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| He concludes, “I don’t see how we could have done it any better – the collaboration has been effective and productive.” |
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