Making Progress: Work That Matters, Fueled by Inspiration

In the world of digital services and civic tech, progress comes one improved process or service at a time and although it may not happen quickly, the eventual impact is experienced by many. These past few months, we’ve had the honor of working alongside dedicated government partners as they reached milestones in their missions. This issue of Collectively celebrates the work we’re doing each day to make a difference–whether it’s through the culture we’re co-creating, the ways we’re growing, or the things we’re making.

[co]designing Progress?

We’ve recently wrapped up our support of two efforts with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) related to the No Surprises Act. The first, with the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) team, helped to improve the public’s experience with their website, forms, and processes. The changes implemented allow those accessing these forms and portals to report and resolve surprise medical bills, and support the government employees working to process data and provide timely services and resolutions.

Coforma was also honored to work with CMS on the development and release of their new Medical Bill Rights website. The bilingual site uses plain language and accessible design to help people understand their new rights under the No Surprises Act while guiding them through the process of applying their new protections or disputing a surprise bill. We’re grateful to have supported our CMS partners in both of these projects which make meaningful progress toward improving the public’s experiences with government services.?

Finally, we’re pleased to share that we’ve joined agile six and Friends From The City ("Friends") on Agile Six’s new contract with the CMS to continue enhancing the Quality Payment Program (QPP) by applying human-centered design and user research with clinicians to identify and implement a consistent user experience for the clinician market.?

Learn more about our work on our website.

[co]creating Culture?

Imperative to the Coforma culture are the ways we care for ourselves and care for others. On National Employee Health and Fitness Day, we highlighted how our fully-remote workforce takes breaks to relieve stress and improve their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. We also provide a stipend to employees—more than $66,000 was distributed for this in 2022—to support setting up their remote working spaces, and will be revealing some of our team’s favorite purchases early next week on LinkedIn.

As a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, we’re honored to share that Employer Support of the Guard & Reserve (ESGR) has recognized our Senior Director of People, Tyrone Green, with an award for designing and implementing practices that support our team’s participation in the National Guard and Reserve. Through his direct support of an employee, Tyrone demonstrated Coforma’s broader commitment to hiring and supporting not only Veterans, but also those who are currently serving in the armed forces or National Guard and Reserve. We are continuing to build a workplace where our work, our business portfolio, partnerships, hiring practices, and culture collectively foster their growth, wellness, and success. You can learn more about our Veterans Hiring Initiative on our website.

We find that by taking care of ourselves, we can, in turn, do our best work to care for others. In June we celebrated Juneteenth and Pride Month. These designated days and months allow us time to celebrate progress made toward a more just society and, at the same time, challenge us to recommit ourselves to the ongoing work that must be done to end all forms of systemic racism, discrimination, and inequity.?

If you’re looking for a way to use your skills and experience to make a meaningful difference at a company where diverse experiences are critical to our mission, consider a career at Coforma. We currently have openings on our design, engineering, product management, and marketing and communications teams and would welcome the opportunity to get to know you.

[co]authoring Tomorrow?

“The secret to change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.” –Socrates

We deeply value those we partner with to co-create progress. In May, we celebrated National Public Service Recognition Week, and we want to again recognize the employees—the people—of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services , U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) , U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) , and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs whom we have worked alongside this past year to research, design, and build better products and services that improve lives. We truly admire their dedication to modernizing technology, expanding accessibility, and focusing on the human experiences of the services your agencies provide.???

We’re also grateful for these recent opportunities to meet with like-minded folx to share ideas and learn from each other:?

• The Emerging Technologies to Meet Future Challenges panel at the FORUM Innovation Awards, where panelists shared about modernizing government health IT (Read our summary);?
• The U.S. Department of Commerce Business Diversity Convening, where business leaders discussed how diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives shape their strategic priorities and are operationalized; and?
• The Lyme Innovation Co-Creation Workshop where we shared how our Coforma | Health+? program leveraged human-centered design to improve the healthcare experiences of people living with Lyme disease.?

We’re looking forward to the upcoming Digital Services Coalition gathering on July 28 and Jennifer Pahlka ’s discussion of her book, “ReCoding America” on July 6, hosted by Irrational Labs . If you are at these or similar events in the future, find us and say hello.

If something in this newsletter has piqued your interest or you have challenges we could partner with you to solve, please email us at [email protected]. Let’s continue to make things that matter. Together.