DCHS Insights CX Human-Centered Design @ DCHS PROTOTYPE no real data
Focused PULSE topic · prospective measures

Understand HR1's impact and strengthen the response

An HR1-focused PULSE view would give staff a shared picture of how affected clients are moving from an upcoming benefit action through proof, a decision, and any connection to another source of help. It should make approaching deadlines, stalled cases, emerging harm, and service-capacity problems visible early enough for a named team to respond.

How staff should use this focused view

Use it as a shared operational briefing that brings the most useful parts of PULSE—volume, trends, goals, outcomes, equity, and field learning—around one time-sensitive issue.

Read the view from the client's next deadline forward. It should first show how many affected clients need attention and where they are in the process. It should then show what happened to their benefits, whether another service was actually received, and whether food, care, housing, utility, or transportation needs remain unresolved.

Each weekly measure should answer four questions: who is counted, where they are in the journey, what changed since the last review, and who is expected to act. Measures that require more stable follow-up—such as benefit restoration, coverage-gap duration, or service receipt—can be refreshed monthly or quarterly and summarized in the weekly view when there is a meaningful signal.

Begin by publishing baselines and definitions. Add targets only after the responsible team can defend the denominator, the reporting lag, the desired direction, and the part of the result it can reasonably influence.

Track impact, progress, and outcomes

The first six stages show whether an affected client reaches a confirmed benefit decision with usable proof. Each benefit episode then belongs to one path: the benefit was retained or restored, or it remains lost or unresolved. Reporting both groups separately shows where continuity held and where another response is needed.

  1. 01

    Identify

    DCHS knows the affected benefit, action date, and contact route.

  2. 02

    Reach and explain

    The client receives an accessible explanation of what may apply and what happens next.

  3. 03

    Prepare

    The requested proof is available before the deadline.

  4. 04

    Submit

    The proof reaches a confirmed submission channel on time.

  5. 05

    Accept

    The proof is matched and accepted without an avoidable repeat request.

  6. 06

    Benefit decision

    The result is confirmed and assigned to one outcome path.

07

Retained or restored

The benefit continues or returns, with any gap and interruption made visible.

08

Lost or unresolved

Alternative help and unresolved food, care, or stability needs are followed after loss.

Keep the stages and outcome groups separate. A high submission rate can coexist with poor document matching or a coverage lapse. Among clients whose benefit remains lost, a referral can also fail before help is received. Showing those distinctions reveals where further investigation or an operational response belongs.

What measures can we develop to track the impact and outcomes of HR-1?

These examples make four practical questions easier to picture: who is affected and when, what outcomes clients experience, where the process can improve, and who may be getting missed. The value is in defining useful HR1 measures; the visuals simply show how those measures could become concrete and readable.

Measure prompt 01

Who is affected, and when?

Show upcoming renewals, response deadlines, unresolved proof requests, or coverage gaps over time. This helps staff see how many people may need support, when demand is likely to rise, and whether a change lasts longer than a single week.

Measures to consider
For example, plot the number of affected renewals due each week beside the number still missing a confirmed response seven days before the deadline.
Interpret carefully
Keep SNAP and Medicaid visible as separate series before presenting a combined total, because their rules, dates, and response options differ.
Measure prompt 02

What outcomes are clients experiencing?

Show whether benefits were retained without a gap, restored after a lapse, or remained lost or unresolved. For clients who need another source of help, show whether that service was actually received. Keeping these outcomes distinct makes progress and remaining harm visible.

Measures to consider
For example, compare the share of affected Medicaid clients who retained coverage without a gap with the shares restored after a gap or still without coverage at follow-up.
Interpret carefully
Define the follow-up period and reporting lag, and do not combine retained, restored, lost, and unresolved cases into one success rate.
Measure prompt 03

Where can the process improve?

Track the few process measures that most directly protect continuity, such as proof matched without a duplicate request, outreach completed before closure, or follow-up after a client accepts a referral. These measures can reveal where an otherwise promising response is falling short.

Measures to consider
For example, show the weekly share of submitted documents that were matched to the correct case without asking the client to send the same information again.
Interpret carefully
Choose measures that a named team can influence. Benefit loss and client hardship remain important outcomes, but they should not be presented as staff performance scores without careful interpretation.
Measure prompt 04

Who are we missing?

Compare completion and continuity by preferred language, communication channel, accommodation need, housing stability, benefit, or another approved grouping. This can reveal when the process works for one group but repeatedly stalls for another.

Measures to consider
For example, compare confirmed notice contact and on-time proof submission by preferred language and channel, then investigate the largest gaps with client listening.
Interpret carefully
Apply minimum-cell, suppression, and review rules before publication. Missing demographic or access data should be shown as missing rather than silently removed from the denominator.

Measures worth considering

Together, these measures can show the number of clients approaching a benefit action, how the proof process is working, what happens to benefits and services, where outcomes differ, and what staff are seeing in the field.

Define each measure before publishing it

The visual flow establishes the sequence. This table turns each stage into a measurable concept by naming its denominator and the direction that would indicate progress.

Stage Candidate measure Denominator What progress would look like
Identify Share of the known affected cohort with benefit, action date, and contact channel recorded Known clients approaching an affected action Increase completeness before the first deadline
Reach and explain Share reached through an accessible channel before the deadline, with requirements, possible exemptions, and next steps explained Known affected clients requiring notice or outreach Increase confirmed contact and the time clients have to respond
Prepare Share with requested proof available before the response deadline Clients asked to provide proof Increase; distinguish proof unavailable from help declined
Submit Share with proof submitted on time through a confirmed channel Clients asked to provide proof Increase and reduce channel failures
Accept Share of submissions accepted without a repeat request for the same information Clients with proof submitted Increase; investigate duplicate or unmatched proof
Benefit decision Retained without gap, lapsed then restored, unresolved loss, and median gap days Clients reaching an affected decision Increase continuity and reduce unresolved loss and gap days
Retained or restored Retained without a gap, restored after a gap, median gap days, and care or service continuity Clients whose benefit was retained or restored Increase uninterrupted continuity and shorten restoration gaps
Lost or unresolved Alternative offered, contacted, enrolled, and received, alongside needs still unresolved at follow-up Clients whose benefit remains lost or unresolved Increase completed alternative connections and decrease unresolved need

Questions to settle

These decisions determine whether the focused view helps teams intervene or merely summarizes activity after the fact.

Who is in the denominator?

  • Can DCHS identify the affected cohort before a notice or adverse action, or only after someone asks for help?
  • Are the SNAP and Medicaid cohorts reported separately before being combined?
  • How will late-arriving decisions change previously published rates?

What can DCHS observe directly?

  • Notice sent, notice received, and notice understood are different events.
  • Which steps live in state systems, DCHS systems, provider systems, or client report?
  • Where is a matched aggregate enough, and where is case-level follow-up necessary?

What should be a target, and what should remain a diagnostic?

  • Set targets only for processes DCHS or a named partner can influence and define consistently.
  • Use benefit loss, gap days, and client consequences as outcome signals without implying every change was preventable.
  • Establish a baseline before attaching a number to a public or staff-facing commitment.

Which differences must be visible without exposing people?

  • Language, access needs, housing instability, benefit, channel, and service area may reveal a process that works for one group and fails another.
  • What minimum cell size, suppression rule, and combining rule apply?
  • Who reviews a breakdown before it enters a weekly publication?

What action should each slide trigger on Monday?

  • A deadline spike may trigger outreach capacity; unmatched proof may trigger a workflow fix; an alternative-service drop-off may trigger a partner conversation.
  • Name the owner and expected response beside the measure.
  • If no one would act on a measure this week, decide whether it belongs in the weekly view or a slower evaluation cycle.

What it would take

The data sources and definitions that have to connect before each part of the view can be trusted. System names remain deliberately general until the working group confirms the records of authority.

Metric Where it would come from What we would need The open question
Affected cohort and deadlines Eligibility notices and state or local benefits workflow data Benefit, action type, effective date, response deadline, current contact status, and stable counting rules Which fields can DCHS receive in time to act, and how often are they refreshed? Who can answer this: ______________
Proof funnel Benefits workflow, document receipt, and outreach records Timestamps for requested, available, submitted, matched, accepted, and repeated proof Can proof be matched across channels without treating an unmatched upload as client noncompliance? Who can answer this: ______________
Benefit outcome and gap days Eligibility and enrollment history Reliable effective dates and a rule for retained, lapsed, restored, and unresolved outcomes What lag is required before the outcome is stable enough to report? Who can answer this: ______________
Alternative-service ladder HCS or another referral workflow plus receiving-program confirmation Separate timestamps and statuses for offered, accepted, contacted, enrolled, and received Which partners can close the loop, and how will unavailable capacity be represented? Who can answer this: ______________
Client consequences Consented AHC-HRSN responses, service records, and targeted client listening A follow-up interval, domain definitions, and a way to distinguish client report from administrative data Which outcomes belong in weekly operations, and which require monthly or quarterly interpretation? Who can answer this: ______________
Access and equity breakdowns Approved demographic, language, accommodation, channel, and geography fields Data-quality checks, minimum-cell rules, suppression, and an interpretation owner Which breakdowns are reliable enough to guide action without identifying clients or overstating incomplete fields? Who can answer this: ______________

Use the focused view with the other HR1 lenses

Metrics show where a pattern occurs. The persona, screening, and listening scenarios explain what to ask, how to respond, and what the numbers may be hiding.

Who We Serve · Scenario: HR1

See how the same process lands differently in Janice's life and in Aboul & Hossina's household.

How We Screen · Scenario: HR1

Review the phased AHC-HRSN question set and the referral-outcome ladder.

How We Listen · Scenario: HR1

Use four complementary methods to interpret friction, client experience, and case outcomes.

DCHS Insights CX

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