Sectors
Technology in county health and human services
The systems, data, and privacy rules behind eligibility, case management, and public health at the county level.
Counties deliver health and human services programs funded by state and federal governments: eligibility determination, child welfare, behavioral health, public health, and aging services. The technology behind them is extensive and heavily regulated.
Core systems
Eligibility and benefits. Often statewide systems that counties use, with local interfaces and reporting.
Case management. Systems for child welfare, adult protective services, and behavioral health, with detailed workflow and documentation requirements.
Electronic health records. For county clinics, behavioral health, and correctional health.
Public health. Disease surveillance, immunization registries, and environmental health inspection systems, many with state interfaces.
Data and reporting. Federal and state program reporting, outcome measurement, and increasingly data integration across programs.
Regulatory environment
HIPAA for health information, federal confidentiality rules for substance use treatment records, state privacy statutes, and program-specific confidentiality requirements for child welfare and benefits data. Each system's data has rules about who may see it and how it may be combined.
Where technology work concentrates
- Integrating systems so caseworkers do not re-enter data
- Data platforms that support outcome measurement while respecting confidentiality
- Client-facing portals for applications, appointments, and document submission
- Mobile tools for field workers
- Security and compliance for regulated data
- Modernizing aging case management systems
Funding
Federal cost sharing pays for much of this technology, with federal review of large projects and rules about allowable costs and cost allocation across programs.
What to expect from vendors
Confidentiality rules are not optional and vary by program. Test data must be synthetic. Systems must support audit trails. And the users are caseworkers with heavy workloads who need software that saves time rather than adding steps.