What If We Try The Opposite

Kevin Sutherland sits down with Nick Aratakis to explore why many of the same challenges in Medicaid technology modernization persist — and what could happen if we rethink some of the assumptions behind how the work gets done.

Drawing on Nick’s experience at CMS and now at AWS, they talk about the recent CMS Medicaid modernization RFI, why approaches that are working don’t always spread, rethinking modularity, focusing on outcomes instead of prescribing technical solutions, making successful tools more available to the broader community, and creating more room to experiment, learn, and scale what works.

They also explore whether small teams and AI can really simplify complex Medicaid systems, where the complexity actually comes from, and what could happen if states had more room to test fundamentally different approaches.

They wrap with the Chalice of Fate, tackling two questions:

What are we measuring that doesn’t actually matter?

What’s something you believe that most people in your field would disagree with?

Kevin Sutherland sits down with Randy Hart to explore why government technology modernization so often gets stuck — and what could happen if we tried a different approach.

Drawing on Randy’s experience as a federal contracting officer, at 18F, and now on the delivery side at Nava, they talk about the risks of trying to predict everything upfront, smaller and more flexible procurements, CMS and Medicaid modernization, pilot states, paths to production, sustained modularity, and creating room to learn before making the next big commitment.

They wrap with the Chalice of Fate, tackling two questions:

Where are we asking technology to solve a people or process problem?

What would you try if failure were considered learning instead of failure?