Technology offers a vast array of potential solutions to rural healthcare problems, but it is a deep understanding of people—their unique challenges, their specific contexts, and their individual needs—that sets Coforma apart and allows us to create something truly meaningful. We don't build tech for tech's sake; we build it to serve people, ensuring every solution is as unique as the community it's designed to help.
Providing Insights to Guide IHS Technology Investments
Indian Health Service (IHS) decision makers wanted to understand how healthcare technology could better meet the needs of largely rural American Indian and Native Alaskan patients. Coforma conducted in-person and remote interviews and workshops with almost 150 staff members, patients, subject matter experts, and other key players to get a deeper understanding of the IHS facility staff and patient’s needs for healthcare technology from end to end. The resulting artifacts—service blueprints, journey maps, rubrics, and more—made it easy for key stakeholders to review and act on the findings.
We also worked with IHS to evaluate two legacy technology systems to determine if they could be modernized, and if so, how. Our process resulted in three viable modernization routes including encapsulation, replatforming, or replacement of the current system. Learn more about both of these projects through the case studies linked below.
Creating Custom Healthcare Technology Solutions
From conducting research and writing in-depth reports to developing consumer-facing websites to evaluating and improving behind-the-scenes systems, Coforma has the ability to meet you where you are to co-create a custom solution for the challenge you are facing. Here are a few examples of some healthcare technology work we’ve done recently:
Modernizing Medicaid Data Collection Applications
When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) set out to improve Medicaid and CHIP data reporting, they needed tools that could scale across 50 states while making life easier for state administrators. As the prime contractor for the Medicaid Data Collection Tools (MDCT) suite, Coforma helped CMS accomplish that goal, modernizing three existing applications and building a new one designed for today’s data demands.
Empowering Patients to Navigate Surprise Medical Bills
CMS needed to help the public understand their new protections under the No Surprises Act, so they turned to Coforma to design a public-facing digital experience that was clear, inclusive, and actionable. The result was www.cms.gov/medical-bill-rights—a mobile-first, bilingual site that reduced complexity for users while giving CMS a maintainable, future-ready platform.
Translating Lived Experience Into Evidence-Based Recommendations
According to a 2022 study, Long COVID disproportionately impacts residents of rural communities. Coforma worked with the US Department of Health and Human Services to broaden the conversation and elevate what is often underrepresented in Long COVID statistics, scientific literature, and policy making—the narratives and expertise of people with Long COVID and what they want and need to live better, healthier lives.