Intelligent Case Management

Challenges

Government agencies work with the public and consumers to address grievances, claims, and various activities. Every issue raised on the respective forum must be addressed effectively to ensure world-class customer experience.

Every limited staff agency has the challenge to address any concern coming from the public. It is very prudent to manage the workload using suitable automation techniques to achieve effective and efficient services.

Process

Analyzing parameters important to the agency is key to understanding the business process and nuisances to address the public’s concerns. We first engage with staff members who address these concerns and map every activity they are carrying out. We created a solution blueprint for case management lifecycle. The next step is to discover automation possibilities for better productivity so that personnel can work on more core, valuable, and meaningful tasks. We analyze every manual step in the process with concerned staff members and sketch out automation possibilities, keeping team members transparently involved in the process. This helps to create a blueprint of an entire solution including automation strategy. While keeping agencies' existing investments and product portfolios in mind, we also help to choose the right software product.

APV is currently working with a variety of case management solutions like ACMS, Appian, Salesforce, or any custom solutions based on customer’s needs. We are focusing on ACMS case management solution in this article.

ACMS 

ALA Case Management system (ACMS) is an open-source case management and Information Technology (IT) modernization platform. It is developed using ArkCase platform which is a Low-Code, User-Friendly Open-Source Case Management System. The platform helps accelerate case management solutions by supplying extensions such as Enterprise Case Management, Records Management, and Business Process Management.

ACMS provides configurable implementation with core components to modernize an enterprise solution including features such as personalized dashboard, content management, robotic process automation (RPA), predictive analytics, reporting, and workflow.

ACMS can be a practical solution to address:

• Privacy data management

• Complaint management

• Correspondence management

• FOIA/Public records

• Legal case management

• Human resources

• Investigations

Overview 

Though most of the concepts are self-explanatory, the following are details about important concepts.

Case Files 

Case files includes tasks, documents, and folders and have following attributes: 

• Start date and end date 

• An identifying number 

• Assigned users and groups 

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case begins when a citizen asks for information from a government organization and concludes when the request is followed.  The workflow includes the retrieval of relevant records, redaction of sensitive information, and creating invoices by analysts and supervisors. The deliverables include the requested documents to be sent to the customer.

Law enforcement agencies use a process that starts with crime reports and ends with either prosecution or determination that the crime cannot be solved. The job duties of detectives, investigators, evidence specialists, etc. are to follow up on leads and request interviews from witnesses. Documentation of their work includes investigation records such as investigation reports and interview transcripts.

Complaints

Complaints allow clients to work on a problem privately, without having it become an official case. If the client feels their complaint is large, then it will be converted into a full case file. Complaints may also be referred to other organizations if needed or closed with no further action if the issue isn’t serious enough.

Document Repositories

Document repositories are plain folders, much like a network shared drive. Unlike complaints and cases, the folders do not include a start date or an end date. Folders, by default, do not need to follow any compliance. Clients can use document repositories to access case history, their own documents, or manual depicting procedures.

Technical Components Web Application

The ACMS web application supports JSON APIs and interfaces to enable integration and the user to access the features they are looking at. Java is used to achieve this.

External Portal

The ACMS web app may be used with an external portal. The external portal allows the public to request services or check the status of their service requests; for instance, citizens may use a FOIA portal to submit FOIA requests and check their in-process requests.

Search Engine

The Apache Solr search engine is integrated with ACMS which helps with searching content and documents uploaded by users of the system.

File Storage

The ACMS web app uses the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) protocol to store, retrieve, and version folders and files.

Records Management, Document Retention, and Compliance

The ACMS web app provides an interface to a records management repository for archive records as a part of regulatory compliance.

Structured Metadata

ACMS supports relational database management systems such as MySQL, Oracle RDBMS, and PostgreSQL. 

Reporting

The ACMS web app uses Pentaho as a reporting engine.

APV helping the Center for Program Integrity (CPI)

Our team collaborated with the Center for Program Integrity (CPI) within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) staff to develop the Adverse Legal Actions (ALA) Case Management System. This solution is developed as a centralized workflow and workforce management system, case tracking and archival system, and data repository system of record. ACMS is housed in the FedRAMP-compliant Amazon Web Services GovCloud.

ACMS uses Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to ingest data from the Advanced Provider Screening (APS) system, Data Exchange (DEX) system, and the Office of Inspector General (OIG). Our RPA intelligent bots build each case using adaptive logic based on variables like case, workload, and sanction types. RPA logic sets case priorities, monitors progress, and adjusts as a case moves through its various stages. Added bots handle workload assignment based on case type, skillset, and existing workload.

Analysts use ACMS to conduct case reviews, follow process documentation, create templates, and attach files all while following built-in workflow. CMS has ACMS access to review, comment, and approve cases assigned to the CMS queue, allowing our client real-time access to monitor and track each case review through its entire life cycle.

Reach out to us on emergingtech@apvit.com, for more details on how we can help you!