Good evening to all. Tonight we are going to talk about how agencies (this is more than the government but they are the worst) can't let one hand talk to the other.
In my whole unemployment thing I've filled out a lot of things for the government to get the assistance that my taxes have been paying for. What really gets me is that for each of these I've had to fill out paperwork starting with my address, date of last day of work, previous salary, etc. Since this is all for the same government (this happens to be New York State) why do I have to fill it out for each department? Why can't I fill out a form for unemployment and have that trigger all other processes? You get governors that can't figure out why it is so expensive to run the state yet something like this would be a very simple way to reduce several things. I was talking to a case worker this afternoon because I apparently forgot a copy of something that she needs to process things. I asked if I could scan them in and email them to her. Talk about confusing the heck out of her! After stumbling for a moment, she said that she could accept it to get things started but she needed the paper trail for completion, but if I could fax it that would be fine. Wait a minute, I'm unemployed and you want me to drive to a place to spend more money to send a fax? That has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard of! Why can't they get 80% of this information from my tax records or perhaps my former employer?
So, as I stated at the beginning, this goes beyond the government agencies. Think about when you have gone to a doctor's office for the first visit. How many forms do you fill out that contain your name and address? It gets worse when you are taking more than one kid to a new doctor's office because now you have to fill out the paperwork for each child! And 80% of the information is the same so why isn't there a form for a family? Of course some of us are tech savvy so we think we can get ahead of the game by filling it out online. Not the case because you will still have to fill out some once you get there, often it is the same because the receptionist doesn't know what to do with it when you hand it to her as she has a clipboard ready for you with all the forms.
If these people really want to save money, hire a bunch of consulting analysts to figure out where some streamlining can be done! And don't hire them from a company that sells software, what do you think they will tell you? That you need their software. Hire some that are independent of software companies so you can get a real sense of what you need. And follow through with the suggestions. What is the point in spending the money to find out what you need if you are going to ignore it? The computer age was supposed to make things better and reduce the need for paper but what has happened is just the opposite. People aren't satisfied with looking at a screen to see a form, they need it in their hands so that it can be filed in a cabinet. Our government, whether state or federal, is the worst offender. By setting things up electronically they could reduce their costs drastically, speed the processes, and increase accuracy.
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