Health Net
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
Unihealth Foundation
Los Angeles World Airports - Strategic Workshop
Los Angeles World Airports - Residential Acquisition Division

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Client: Health Net California
Project: Salud business plan development and implementation
Grace Consulting Services: Strategy, Project Management

The challenge:
When commercial membership began weakening, Health Net turned its growth aspirations to the underinsured and uninsured Latino marketplace. In order to persuade executive management to put up the necessary investment to relaunch its Salud product, the Salud division needed a business plan to show the significant returns in store and a clearly articulated vision to align the organization across multiple functions. A singular commitment was critical to ensure its success.

The solution:
Grace Consulting immediately crafted and communicated a vision that was clear, setting the foundation for the division’s efforts to rebuild its Latino programs. Operating under a compressed timeframe, Grace created a structured team approach to leverage internal people and assets and to rapidly compile a business plan showing significant returns within a 3-5 year period. The result: executive management approved the investment necessary to implement the division chief’s vision and plan. While planning is important, the real value materializes when the concept is transformed into reality. Upon the executive leadership team’s approval, Grace shifted into high gear to help implement the multi-disciplinary initiatives to reposition Salud as the premier health plan for Latinos.(Top)

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Client: Kaiser Foundation Health Plan
Project: Medicare-Medicaid Dual Eligibles Outreach and Enrollment
Grace Consulting Services: Strategy, Direct Marketing, Vendor Management, Government Lobbying

The challenge:
Eligible Kaiser members were not taking full advantage of Medicare and Medicaid benefits, reducing benefits to the members and reimbursements to Kaiser, and preventing the Medicare administration from meeting the goals in a presidential executive order.

The solution:
Through careful strategic planning and implementation, Kaiser was able to recover $20+ million annually while assisting thousands of low income seniors and disabled members in receiving the financial assistance to which they were entitled. At the time, Katrina Ling, founder of Grace Consulting, held a senior executive position with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. As executive in charge of this project, Katrina spearheaded an effort to persuade Medicare and Medicaid officials at the federal, state and county levels that a private institution could partner with government agencies and help them reach their outreach goals for this high-need population outlined in a presidential executive order.
Their hard-sought approval set a precedent which other health plans are now following. Katrina then identified, recruited, wrote and negotiated contracts for three national firms — all of which had call centers and specialized in helping people enroll in Medicaid. She also created all the communication materials, including letters and call scripts, and monitored vendor performance to optimize results. Through this program, Kaiser was able to contact 600,000 members nationwide via direct mail and screen them for eligibility when they responded by telephone. Kaiser surpassed its reimbursement goals on behalf of thousands of higher-need, higher-utilization members. (Top)

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Client: UniHealth Foundation
Project: One-e-App in Los Angeles County
Grace Consulting Services: Strategy, Program Management, Communications

The challenge:
Many of the children and families eligible for Los Angeles County public health insurance such as Medi-Cal, Healthy Kids and Healthy Families often chose to go without needed health care rather than wade through the extensive paperwork and red tape of applying for benefits from multiple agencies. This not only puts a strain on county clinics and hospitals, but increases the cost and complication of patient care by having to intervene at a later, often more serious stage of illness.

To alleviate the problem, UniHealth Foundation provided the funding for the county to begin exploring One-e-App, a Web-based system already proven effective in Northern California that enables case workers to collect applicant information once and distribute it to every pertinent agency. In moving ahead with this plan, the county faced the challenge of aligning the interests of numerous unrelated stakeholder groups with divergent views and competing agendas.

The solution:
Grace Consulting laid the groundwork for implementing One-e-App and completed the project on-time and under budget. In addition to overseeing Deloitte Consulting, tasked with defining the technical and business requirements of the system, Grace prepared an implementation plan, budget, return on investment estimate, and numerous communications programs to keep all stakeholders informed, from foundations to public officials to community clinics. Additionally, Grace served as independent program manager to keep vendors accountable and as advisor to foundations on how to make the best use of their funds and existing human resources. (Top)

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Client: Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA)
Project: Post 9/11 EIATF Strategic Workshop
Grace Consulting Services: Strategy; facilitating competing agendas

The challenge:
The terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 sent passenger traffic and airport revenues into a nose dive. Los Angeles World Airports, responsible for running Southern California’s four major airports, created the Economic Impact Assessment Task Force (EIATF) to address the challenge. However, due to the number and range of stakeholders represented on the EIATF, from airlines, airport vendors and concessionaires to labor unions and area businesses — each with its own agenda — a unified vision and approach were not forthcoming.

The solution:
Nine months after EIATF commenced without reaching their desired results, they turned to Grace Consulting. Within two meetings, Grace dissolved the gridlock by clarifying the competing agendas and helping to create a plan for moving forward. Through individual interviews with committee members, and facilitating two group workshops, Grace established the task force’s overall mission, aligned accomplishments to-date with this mission, separated goals into short- and long-term, and helped prepare a presentation to the Board of Airport of Commissioners. Grace also created a comprehensive report of the findings and recommendations and helped transition the EIATF into separate ongoing meetings to keep dialog between stakeholders open and healthy. (Top)

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Client: Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) Residential Acquisition Division
Project: Residential Acquisition Division Strategic Plan
Grace Consulting Services: Strategy, Process Improvement

The challenge:
LAWA created a master plan for Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) that called for acquiring all residential properties in two adjacent neighborhoods near the airport within three years, including approximately 2,500 single-family homes and multi-dwelling units. Since selling a residence to LAWA was voluntary, the process was slow — at about 100 per year. At this pace, LAWA would never meet its goals on time. Additionally, the delay left many homes within still occupied neighborhoods empty, inviting criminal activity. |

The solution:
Grace Consulting created a market-driven strategic plan designed to more quickly relieve LAWA of its role as a real estate manager as well as change LAWA’s approach from reactive to proactive. This plan included developing process maps for all acquisition and relocation activities as well as ways to streamline and accelerate the process. Grace also helped to create a communications plan to encourage residents to sell their homes; devised a budget to ensure LAWA didn’t run out of public money; identified lost revenues; and conceived ways to recover back rent. The plan eliminated operation redundancies and showed how to increase efficiency and productivity tenfold. (Top)