Missouri Dept. of Social Services Speaks to New MEDES Program​

August’s HSITAG meeting was held in conjunction with the Medicaid Enterprise Systems Conference (MESC) in St. Louis. The council heard from Julie Gibson, director of the family support division with the Missouri Dept. of Social Services. Julie has led a reorganization of the department and a major system replacement with the launch of their Missouri Eligibility and Determination System (MEDES). Centralization and consolidation of staff from 114 county offices has led to a more efficient processing of applications and eliminated massive backlogs. The department has also instituted change management as a crucial component of its organizational and system overhauls in order to make sure changes that are taking place will stick.