The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government

Governor Cuomo established the Spending and Government Efficiency (SAGE) Commission in one of his first acts (Executive Order No. 4) to create a more efficient and effective state government.

In the health arena, the SAGE Commission is examining how to better manage care for patients across similar agencies, and how to reduce unnecessary and redundant regulatory burdens on care providers. Under this project, the SAGE Commission is completing a reorganization plan for health-related agencies that has the potential to significantly impact health care delivery in New York State for many years, particularly with Medicaid—a $53 billion program that must be run more efficiently. The reorganization plan has the potential to not only create efficiencies and better coordination among the agencies that operate Medicaid-funded programs, but to create better coordination of care that will benefit consumers of these services.

The SAGE Commission supported an experienced and knowledgeable researcher and assistant who collected information and conducted analyses and briefings for the SAGE Commission’s health reorganization task force. The health reorganization task force is charged with analyzing the problems that arise from the existing organizational structure, as well as determining how to remedy shortcomings. It produced a detailed analysis of current agency functions and where functions overlap; organized the work of other task force participants on these issues; compared New York’s agency structure with best-practice solutions found in other states; and articulated and quantified the benefits and costs of alternative organizational structures.

As part of this grant, The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government also hosted a workshop on November 22, 2013, entitled Open Health Data, Open Opportunities.