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1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> Meeting Date: April 4, 2019 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 2 <br /> SUBJECT: Health and Human Service Initiatives and County Impacts <br /> DEPARTMENT: Social Services, Health & Child <br /> Support Services <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> Memorandum of Understanding Nancy Coston, 919-245-2802 <br /> Quintana Stewart, 919-245-2412 <br /> Erica Bryant , 919-245-2177 <br /> PURPOSE: To provide an update on various state initiatives impacting Social Services and <br /> other human service departments, including Social Services Reform, Child Welfare Reform, <br /> Medicaid Transformation, and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Orange <br /> County and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services regarding <br /> performance expectations. In addition, Social Services will provide information on current <br /> workload and discuss impacts of these changes on future workload. The Health Director and the <br /> Child Support Director will discuss the impacts of Medicaid Transformation and the MOU on <br /> their departments. <br /> BACKGROUND: In 2017, the North Carolina General Assembly approved Social Services <br /> Reform legislation (House Bill 630). This legislation contains many components including: hiring <br /> of a consulting firm to develop plans for reform; establishing a workgroup to develop <br /> recommendations on creation of state regional offices; developing a plan for regionalization of <br /> local offices; and implementing performance agreements between local social service agencies <br /> and the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). <br /> The outside consulting firm, the Center for the Support of Families, is conducting research in <br /> North Carolina, has completed Phase I of the work and has published its first recommendations <br /> for Social Service Reform and for Child Welfare Reform. The Social Services Work Group, <br /> facilitated by the UNC School of Government, has issued its first report on establishing state <br /> regional offices and is now working on local agency regionalization plans. <br /> Performance Agreements <br /> On June 29, 2018, the Board of Commissioners approved the first performance agreement <br /> (Memorandum of Understanding) with DHHS. The performance agreement section of the law <br /> was effective July 1, 2018, but the actual tracking of the performance measures by DHHS <br />