The last installment of the Regulatory Modernization Highlights shared the exciting news that Virginia agencies have surpassed the 25% reduction goal. That news is even more exciting when you consider the fact that Virginia agencies have already reduced the length of their guidance documents by 47.9%, or 11.5 million words. For reference, that corresponds to:

• Over 14 times the length of the King James Bible
• Over 19 times the length of War and Peace
• Over 24 times the length of the Lord of the Rings trilogy

As impressive as these results are, Virginia agencies are still making progress. Here are some highlights.

 

Department of Medical Assistance Services cuts length of Practitioner Manual Chapter by over 90%.

The Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) issues lengthy provider manuals for various medical professionals. These provide valuable information on Medicaid requirements and can run into the hundreds of pages.

DMAS has recently updated several of these manuals to include streamlined boilerplate language. Most recently, it added this boilerplate to the Practitioner Manual, shaving the document down by 90%! It also cut over 10,000 words - no War and Peace but still roughly the same length of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher (11,165).

 

Department of Rail and Public Transportation consolidates several guidance documents.

The Department of Rail and Public Transportation recently realized that it had three guidance documents dealing with funding of rail projects. Rather than continue to maintain these as separate manuals, the Department decided to consolidate them into a single manual.

This change allowed the Department to cut the overall length of the documents by 73%, or 56 pages. That will make it much easier for grant applicants to find what they need, with one streamlined go-to manual rather than multiple lengthier documents.

 

Ongoing AI-powered pilot program will promote further guidance document length reductions.

The Office of Regulatory Management is working with a consultant that has developed an AI tool to scan regulatory materials for possible reductions. For guidance documents, the tool can suggest ways to say the same thing in fewer words.

As this pilot proceeds, ORM will be sending reports to agencies to identify possible reductions. Agencies are already on track to reduce the length of their guidance documents by more than half, and this new tool will help ensure that those documents are as streamlined as possible.