All too often we point to our elected leaders in St. Paul or Washington and tell them to find a way to reduce the cost of government. Although our main job is to be knowledgeable and to vote for the leaders to represent us in government, we also have the obligation to offer suggestions when we see a process that could be improved. Each of these suggestions on their own will not save a huge amount of money but every penny helps and more importantly it helps build a culture of continuous improvement so that we are constantly looking at our government processes and asking how we can make them more efficient and effective.
Take a minute and think about something the State of Minnesota could do to make a process more efficient or reduce costs. The key thing to remember is that there is no judgment with the posts and no need to state fault, we are only generating ideas that hopefully can be passed along to our elected officials for consideration. Don’t feel like you need to submit an extremely complex or earth shattering idea — easy to implement ideas have a much better chance of getting implemented. For example, my credit card company knows that I always pay my bill electronically instead of sending in a check each month so they no longer send me the return envelop. A simple change like that will save the company money and help the environment without a major change in process.
Here are two ideas that are on my mind to get us started:
Car Tab Renewals: The owner of each registered car in Minnesota gets an annual notice from the Department of Motor Vehicles stating the amount that they own for license tabs for the coming year. This notice indicates that you can either return payment in the enclosed envelope or go online to make an immediate payment. Each year I go online to pay and just before finalizing I see there is a $1.75 technology surcharge if I submit my payment online. I always cancel, write out a check, put it in the envelope, attach my $0.44 stamp and mail it in. To me this makes no sense. Instead of letting the customer enter in all of the information, confirm it is correct and make a direct payment, this fee encourages customers to create more work. Sending a check in manually requires someone to sort the mail, deliver it to the correct department, open the mail, search for the record on the computer system, key in any changes, record the payment and deposit the check. I am only guessing but I have to imagine these additional steps cost the state more than $1,75 in wages. I am not advocating that those that pay online should get a discount but am a strong believer that we should not be discouraging a customer to use a system that will make processing easier and more accurate.
Advisory Group Per Diem: The State of Minnesota has about 200 advisory boards, commissions, councils, committees or task forces made up of citizens to provide input on a wide variety of topics. Each of these advisory groups has different rules and many provide compensation to participants. The compensation can range from nothing to mileage, expenses and per diem. The standard per diem (similar to a paycheck or wages) is currently $55 per day. I serve on one of these groups that are offered a per diem and it is nice to be paid a little for the vacation time I need to take to attend the meetings. Although it is nice, I would be fine if this was something that was eliminated. Not getting the $55 would not change my involvement and my hope is that no one is on one of these groups just to get the per diem. I am in full support of paying expenses for participants and putting a cap on it at $55 a day but I don’t also think a per diem is necessary.
Now it is your turn, please reply via the comment section below and do your part to provide a suggestion on a small change that could help the state save some money or improve a process.
Many good people are already working on this one, but my suggestion is changing the health care payment structure to reward outcomes, not simply pay for procedures. My employer, Courage Center has just begun a Health Care Home model with a primary care clinic focusing on caring for people with disabilities and chronic health conditions. Early findings are proving that attention and prevention are helping dramatically reduce hospitalizations, thereby saving the systems lots of money. But, we don’t get paid for saving money. So, can we give some of those savings back — a gain sharing system. We’re still saving money overalll, but paying those who are saving money.