Each year, The Arc brings together more than 700 staff and volunteers from our chapters, professionals and experts in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and individuals with disabilities and their families for a National Convention. This annual gathering of the I/DD community is designed to inform and inspire with session dedicated to helping those who serve people with I/DD do their jobs better along with empowering advocates in the movement to make a bigger impact.

In this blog we focus a lot of attention on how agency management platforms can help the administrative function of an agency.  ROI and workflow efficiencies are nice benefits to using software, but what about what really matters? How does a hosted software solution (aka cloud based; meaning it is accessed through the internet) help what you have dedicated your life to - providing the highest quality of care to the individuals you serve?  Can the cloud make the lives of people better?  Our answer is yes, it can.  Below are a list of examples of how cloud based software for providers can give your employees access to information instantly, wherever they are.  The cloud takes records out the filing cabinets and puts them at the point of care where they belong.  Let's look at some examples.

It's no secret that today many states are trying to balance budgets and find more efficient ways to handle costs.  In our world, this has translated to some states moving to managed care for the administration of Medicaid waiver services.  As a company, we have been working close with providers across the country as they go through the transition to managed care.  We recently caught up with Dave Richard, the Executive Director of the Arc of North Carolina, who is going through this transition with us in North Carolina.  We gleaned some tips from him on what providers should expect when their state moves to managed care.  Here are some of them.