Case Study

California DHCS

DHCS was a client of Pondera Solutions, using Fraud Detect and Pondera’s case management SaaS, which I helped design and build.

DHCS provides Californians with access to affordable, integrated, high-quality health care, including medical, dental, mental health, substance use treatment services and long-term care. DHCS funds health care services for more than 15.4 million Medi-Cal beneficiaries.

Outcome: Replaced five separate timekeeping tools with one calendar-based tracker, launched to 700+ California government professionals.

My Role

I ran product design end to end as the lead designer: scoping, interviews with users and stakeholders, usability testing, and close work with product, engineering and other teams. I also ran usability audits and led remediation for VPAT compliance.

The Challenge

The challenge was twofold: first, architectural, replacing a rigid, granular data-entry model with a fluid, calendar-based UX; second, organizational, navigating the institutional inertia of five distinct state teams to establish a single, unified operational baseline. Although the new Case Management application included a time tracking feature, it required users to enter hours for each day separately within each case, making the process cumbersome and time-consuming.

The Solution

I met with investigators, managers, and analysts from each of the five different teams to conduct interviews, create journey maps, and develop personas, gaining a clear understanding of their workflows, habits, and time-tracking needs. I presented various concepts, prototypes and ideas to both users and stakeholders, gathering feedback that ultimately led to alignment and approval across all five teams.

I designed a time tracking system that enabled investigators, analysts, and managers to easily add hours using a calendar interface. Users could simply click on a day, search for or enter a case number, and log their time. This streamlined approach simplified time tracking and auditing for managers, allowing them to quickly view hours for the entire team or individual members at a glance.

The Result

The new case and time tracking system was launched to over 700 government professionals in California, streamlining their workflows and enhancing time tracking efficiency. With reduced administrative tasks, analysts and investigators could dedicate more time to combating fraud.

Related case study: Fraud Detect, Pondera’s fraud detection SaaS that DHCS used alongside the case management product described here.