The system is designed to structure, store, retrieve, and analyze critical Medicaid management information more efficiently. In the past, Medicaid Management Information System data could be retrieved only by printing predetermined reports or by viewing existing online screens. If the information needed was not already available through one of these methods, programmers had to modify the screens or generate new programs to produce the data. The Decision Support System is that solution. Users access the database through a local area network.
Security is maintained through the network and the application itself.
Power users are technically oriented staff members who need access to every data element in the database. These users write queries and generate reports that are used in research and analysis by financial analysts, statisticians, and other users. Analysts are nontechnical people who need access to subsets of information to do research and produce reports associated with their normal duties. For example, a report might list total pharmacy expenditures by county for the current state fiscal year. If one county seemed to have unusually high expenditures, the user could drill down into that county to see total amounts paid to each pharmacy in that county.