Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government
Progress on Agency Commitments in EO 14058
In December 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14058 on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government. This EO directed a whole-of-government approach to managing customer experience – including specific agency commitments to improving services, and establishing a new “Life Experiences” framework to tackle pain points people experience at critical moments in their lives when they need government to work.
In the two years since the Executive Order was signed, agencies worked towards making meaningful progress on improving government efficiency by ensuring the public is able to do basic tasks with the government in a manner that is simple, seamless, and secure.
Throughout the first year, we provided updates at 3-month, 6-month, and 9-months; at the 1 and 2-year marks, we updated this page to include a progress update on each of the 36 agency commitments.
For more on the work directed in the Executive Order to create a framework for improving services across government aligned to the moments that matter most in people’s lives, see here.
For more on the work directed in the Executive Order focused on improving the performance of High Impact Service Providers, see here.
Read more about the progress agencies have made on individual commitments directed in the Executive Order
as of December 2023
THE SECRETARY OF STATE SHALL:
Design and deliver a new online passport renewal experience that does not require any physical documents to be mailed
- In 2023, Passport Services issued 24 million passports, the highest number in U.S. history. During the limited release of the Online Passport Renewal, over 500,000 customers submitted their applications online through the pilot system. The program was paused in March 2023 to introduce improvements based on customer feedback and is expected to launch at the end of 2023.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE SHALL:
Design and deliver a new online passport renewal experience that does not require any physical documents to be mailed
- In 2023, Passport Services issued 24 million passports, the highest number in U.S. history. During the limited release of the Online Passport Renewal, over 500,000 customers submitted their applications online through the pilot system. The program was paused in March 2023 to introduce improvements based on customer feedback and is expected to launch at the end of 2023.
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY SHALL:
Design and deliver new online tools and services to ease the payment of taxes and provide the option to schedule customer support telephone call-backs. The Secretary of the Treasury should consider whether such tools and services might include expanded automatic direct deposit refunds based on prior year tax returns, tax credit eligibility tools, and expanded electronic filing options
- Call Center: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) delivered dramatically improved service in filing season 2023. Through the end of filing season, IRS answered three million more calls compared to 2022, and cut phone wait times to three minutes from 28 minutes.Additionally, IRS expanded the availability of a customer callback option in July 2023 for up to 95 percent of taxpayers seeking live assistance.
- In-Person Assistance: The IRS served 140,000 more taxpayers in-person and has opened or reopened 35 Taxpayer Assistance Centers since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117-169) in 2022.
- Community Assistance Visits: In new Community Assistance Visits, IRS has set up a series of temporary Taxpayer Assistance Center events to give taxpayers from areas without a nearby or convenient office an opportunity to meet face-to-face with IRS customer service representatives. IRS conducted the first event in Paris, Texas, in partnership with the United Way, and has plans to hold similar events in more States. Currently, seven additional locations have been determined in Alpena, Michigan; Hastings, Nebraska; Twin Falls, Idaho; Juneau, Alaska; Lihue, Hawaii; Baker City, Oregon; and Gallup, New Mexico.
- Digitization: Through the adoption of new scanning technology, the IRS digitized 80 times more returns than in 2022. As of July 2023, IRS has scanned about 484,000 Forms 940, 210,000 Forms 941, and 38,000 Forms 1040. By Filing Season 2024, the IRS expects that taxpayers will be able to e-file 20 additional tax forms, enabling up to four million additional tax documents to be filed digitally every year.
- Responding to notices online: Previously, whenever taxpayers received IRS notices for requests (such as document verification), taxpayers had to respond through the mail. During the 2023 filing season, taxpayers were able to respond to 10 of the most common notices online for the first time (including such programs as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Health Insurance Tax Credit), saving taxpayers time and money. The IRS expects this capability to expand to an additional 53 IRS notices and letters in 2024, providing taxpayers with additional digital filing options.
- Enable taxpayers to submit mobile-friendly forms: An estimated 15 percent of Americans rely solely on mobile phones for their Internet access. To create pathways for customers to interact with the agency in the way that works best for them, the IRS is enabling taxpayers to submit mobile-friendly forms.
- Individual Account Management:The IRS is deploying enhanced capabilities for the Individual Online Account, including secure messaging, live chat, and a virtual assistant. Taxpayers can also validate their bank accounts online and save information for multiple accounts online. Previously, validation occurred only after payment submission. The new functionality improves the taxpayer experience and minimizes payment failures by allowing the taxpayer to validate bank information at the point of entry, when the user is making a payment, or when the user is saving bank information to their profile.
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY SHALL:
Design and deliver new online tools and services to ease the payment of taxes and provide the option to schedule customer support telephone call-backs. The Secretary of the Treasury should consider whether such tools and services might include expanded automatic direct deposit refunds based on prior year tax returns, tax credit eligibility tools, and expanded electronic filing options
- Call Center: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) delivered dramatically improved service in filing season 2023. Through the end of filing season, IRS answered three million more calls compared to 2022, and cut phone wait times to three minutes from 28 minutes.Additionally, IRS expanded the availability of a customer callback option in July 2023 for up to 95 percent of taxpayers seeking live assistance.
- In-Person Assistance: The IRS served 140,000 more taxpayers in-person and has opened or reopened 35 Taxpayer Assistance Centers since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117-169) in 2022.
- Community Assistance Visits: In new Community Assistance Visits, IRS has set up a series of temporary Taxpayer Assistance Center events to give taxpayers from areas without a nearby or convenient office an opportunity to meet face-to-face with IRS customer service representatives. IRS conducted the first event in Paris, Texas, in partnership with the United Way, and has plans to hold similar events in more States. Currently, seven additional locations have been determined in Alpena, Michigan; Hastings, Nebraska; Twin Falls, Idaho; Juneau, Alaska; Lihue, Hawaii; Baker City, Oregon; and Gallup, New Mexico.
- Digitization: Through the adoption of new scanning technology, the IRS digitized 80 times more returns than in 2022. As of July 2023, IRS has scanned about 484,000 Forms 940, 210,000 Forms 941, and 38,000 Forms 1040. By Filing Season 2024, the IRS expects that taxpayers will be able to e-file 20 additional tax forms, enabling up to four million additional tax documents to be filed digitally every year.
- Responding to notices online: Previously, whenever taxpayers received IRS notices for requests (such as document verification), taxpayers had to respond through the mail. During the 2023 filing season, taxpayers were able to respond to 10 of the most common notices online for the first time (including such programs as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Health Insurance Tax Credit), saving taxpayers time and money. The IRS expects this capability to expand to an additional 53 IRS notices and letters in 2024, providing taxpayers with additional digital filing options.
- Enable taxpayers to submit mobile-friendly forms: An estimated 15 percent of Americans rely solely on mobile phones for their Internet access. To create pathways for customers to interact with the agency in the way that works best for them, the IRS is enabling taxpayers to submit mobile-friendly forms.
- Individual Account Management:The IRS is deploying enhanced capabilities for the Individual Online Account, including secure messaging, live chat, and a virtual assistant. Taxpayers can also validate their bank accounts online and save information for multiple accounts online. Previously, validation occurred only after payment submission. The new functionality improves the taxpayer experience and minimizes payment failures by allowing the taxpayer to validate bank information at the point of entry, when the user is making a payment, or when the user is saving bank information to their profile.
THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR SHALL:
Redesign the website of the Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS.gov, in compliance with the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (Public Law 115-336)
- Following the launch of the new fws.gov, Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) has continued to identify and address top customer concerns to enrich the refuge trip-planning experience. These improvements encompass bolstered search functionality, faster loading speeds, and revamped design and organization of resources, including hours of operation and maps.
- FWS introduced secure online payment functionality at four additional FWS locations. This allows customers visiting 17 FWS refuges and sites to conveniently process transactions online, simplifying and modernizing payments for visitors.
Support a centralized, modernized electronic permitting system to accept and process applications for permits. Such a system might include special use permits for the National Wildlife Refuge System and for at least five high-volume permit application forms required for individuals and businesses who import or export fish, wildlife, and plants and their products internationally
- FWS fully digitized five permit applications for international export of fish, wildlife, plants, and their associated products and made them available to the public on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ePermits page in June 2023.
- FWS conducted usability tests with permit applicants that provided actionable insights about the customer experience when applying for permits via the newly digitized forms.
THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR SHALL:
Redesign the website of the Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS.gov, in compliance with the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (Public Law 115-336)
- Following the launch of the new fws.gov, Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) has continued to identify and address top customer concerns to enrich the refuge trip-planning experience. These improvements encompass bolstered search functionality, faster loading speeds, and revamped design and organization of resources, including hours of operation and maps.
- FWS introduced secure online payment functionality at four additional FWS locations. This allows customers visiting 17 FWS refuges and sites to conveniently process transactions online, simplifying and modernizing payments for visitors.
Support a centralized, modernized electronic permitting system to accept and process applications for permits. Such a system might include special use permits for the National Wildlife Refuge System and for at least five high-volume permit application forms required for individuals and businesses who import or export fish, wildlife, and plants and their products internationally
- FWS fully digitized five permit applications for international export of fish, wildlife, plants, and their associated products and made them available to the public on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ePermits page in June 2023.
- FWS conducted usability tests with permit applicants that provided actionable insights about the customer experience when applying for permits via the newly digitized forms.
THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE SHALL:
Design and implement a simplified direct farm loan application process
- As required by the Executive Order, Farm Service Agency (FSA) published a simplified direct loan application form in February 2023. The new application took the form from 29 to 13 pages, which reduced form completion time by an estimated 50 percent. The form has been used approximately 18,400 times since publication.
- In addition, in an effort to streamline its business processes further, FSA has made the following improvements:
- Launched an online version of the direct farm loan application, enabling customers to complete and submit the application electronically.
- Launched the Application Fast Track pilot program to expedite the underwriting process for an estimated 25 percent of direct loans, resulting in a faster credit decision for customers and time savings for employees.
- Enhanced the online Loan Assistance Tool by improving the usability of the step-by-step guide to loan products and eligibility based on feedback from customers.
- Completed development of an online direct loan repayment tool. When it is live, FSA’s new Pay My Loan tool will provide customers with the ability to pay loans online 24/7, which is the most-requested feature by FSA customers.
Test the use of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits for online purchasing
- In February 2023, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) proposed a new rule to address key regulatory barriers to online shopping in the WIC Program by making changes to the provisions that prevent online transactions and types of online capable stores from participating in the program.
- To date, FNS has issued 244 waivers under the American Rescue Plan Act (Public Law 117-2) for WIC State agencies to support outreach, innovation, and modernization – including online shopping efforts – and posted a table listing all approved waivers on the FNS webpage.
Identify opportunities to reduce individuals' and families' burdens by simplifying enrollment and recertification for nutrition assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the WIC, including expanding the use of direct certification
- FNS selected and approved 12 States to participate in the Direct Certification with Medicaid Demonstration Projects. This brings the number of States to 38 that use Medicaid data from HHS and Supplemental Security Income data from SSA to directly certify students as eligible to receive free and reduced-price meals. The demonstration project streamlines and expands access to the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program by removing the barrier of the application process for families and lightening the administration burden for schools.
- In September 2023, FNS awarded a cooperative agreement to streamline enrollment in WIC through data matching. The recipients will provide subgrants and support to WIC state agencies for expanding the use of data matching—with appropriate participant consent—to identify, refer, and enroll eligible participants of other federal programs like Medicaid and SNAP. In April 2023, FNS encouraged state agencies to embark on the journey to connect eligible moms and kids in SNAP and Medicaid with WIC benefits; this funding and technical assistance supports progress toward that goal by reducing administrative burden for both participants and administering agencies.
THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE SHALL:
Design and implement a simplified direct farm loan application process
- As required by the Executive Order, Farm Service Agency (FSA) published a simplified direct loan application form in February 2023. The new application took the form from 29 to 13 pages, which reduced form completion time by an estimated 50 percent. The form has been used approximately 18,400 times since publication.
- In addition, in an effort to streamline its business processes further, FSA has made the following improvements:
- Launched an online version of the direct farm loan application, enabling customers to complete and submit the application electronically.
- Launched the Application Fast Track pilot program to expedite the underwriting process for an estimated 25 percent of direct loans, resulting in a faster credit decision for customers and time savings for employees.
- Enhanced the online Loan Assistance Tool by improving the usability of the step-by-step guide to loan products and eligibility based on feedback from customers.
- Completed development of an online direct loan repayment tool. When it is live, FSA’s new Pay My Loan tool will provide customers with the ability to pay loans online 24/7, which is the most-requested feature by FSA customers.
Test the use of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits for online purchasing
- In February 2023, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) proposed a new rule to address key regulatory barriers to online shopping in the WIC Program by making changes to the provisions that prevent online transactions and types of online capable stores from participating in the program.
- To date, FNS has issued 244 waivers under the American Rescue Plan Act (Public Law 117-2) for WIC State agencies to support outreach, innovation, and modernization – including online shopping efforts – and posted a table listing all approved waivers on the FNS webpage.
Identify opportunities to reduce individuals' and families' burdens by simplifying enrollment and recertification for nutrition assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the WIC, including expanding the use of direct certification
- FNS selected and approved 12 States to participate in the Direct Certification with Medicaid Demonstration Projects. This brings the number of States to 38 that use Medicaid data from HHS and Supplemental Security Income data from SSA to directly certify students as eligible to receive free and reduced-price meals. The demonstration project streamlines and expands access to the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program by removing the barrier of the application process for families and lightening the administration burden for schools.
- In September 2023, FNS awarded a cooperative agreement to streamline enrollment in WIC through data matching. The recipients will provide subgrants and support to WIC state agencies for expanding the use of data matching—with appropriate participant consent—to identify, refer, and enroll eligible participants of other federal programs like Medicaid and SNAP. In April 2023, FNS encouraged state agencies to embark on the journey to connect eligible moms and kids in SNAP and Medicaid with WIC benefits; this funding and technical assistance supports progress toward that goal by reducing administrative burden for both participants and administering agencies.
THE SECRETARY OF LABOR SHALL:
Update existing rules and policies, consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, to allow individuals entitled to medical treatment under their workers' compensation plans to conduct their routine medical treatment appointments using telehealth platforms
No update since December 2022.
Update rules, policies, and procedures to eliminate, consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, requirements for workers' compensation claimants to submit physical documents, but to retain the option for physical submission for claimants who cannot otherwise submit them
- The Energy Document Portal (EDP) was expanded to allow stakeholders to file a new claim and complete benefit payment forms digitally and removed the five megabyte upload limit. The corresponding EDP survey was also improved to assess the functionality and success of the system updates.
- In FY 2023, the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act program released an enhancement to their online claims filing and management system, Employees' Compensation Operations & Management Portal (ECOMP) known as ECOMP Escalations, which changed how injured workers and their representatives can raise issues (electronic guided form submission rather than calling, mailing, or uploading a letter). The enhancement was responsive to injured workers’ requests for a clear way to escalate unresolved issues to a manager (1,000+ occurrences in FY 2023), and to the desire of Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) and the employee union to eliminate staff live-call answering requirements by providing an alternative mechanism to help maintain or improve customer service. This IT enhancement was tested and piloted with key claimant stakeholders, including WILG (Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group) and APWU (American Postal Workers Union) before full release.
THE SECRETARY OF LABOR SHALL:
Update existing rules and policies, consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, to allow individuals entitled to medical treatment under their workers' compensation plans to conduct their routine medical treatment appointments using telehealth platforms
No update since December 2022.
Update rules, policies, and procedures to eliminate, consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, requirements for workers' compensation claimants to submit physical documents, but to retain the option for physical submission for claimants who cannot otherwise submit them
- The Energy Document Portal (EDP) was expanded to allow stakeholders to file a new claim and complete benefit payment forms digitally and removed the five megabyte upload limit. The corresponding EDP survey was also improved to assess the functionality and success of the system updates.
- In FY 2023, the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act program released an enhancement to their online claims filing and management system, Employees' Compensation Operations & Management Portal (ECOMP) known as ECOMP Escalations, which changed how injured workers and their representatives can raise issues (electronic guided form submission rather than calling, mailing, or uploading a letter). The enhancement was responsive to injured workers’ requests for a clear way to escalate unresolved issues to a manager (1,000+ occurrences in FY 2023), and to the desire of Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) and the employee union to eliminate staff live-call answering requirements by providing an alternative mechanism to help maintain or improve customer service. This IT enhancement was tested and piloted with key claimant stakeholders, including WILG (Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group) and APWU (American Postal Workers Union) before full release.
THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SHALL:
Continue to design and deliver new, personalized online tools and expanded customer support options for Medicare enrollees
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) improved customers’ experience with the “Getting Started” section of Medicare.gov for those just getting ready to sign up for Medicare. Improvements based on several rounds of consumer testing included streamlined navigation, plain language updates and a new “wizard” explaining key deadlines and coverage options. Customer satisfaction on “Getting Started” increased as much as 13 percent this year. New Medicare customers will continue to be an area of focus for improvement in 2024 as CMS focuses on personalization options and additional support to this group of customers.
Strengthen requirements for maternal health quality measurement, including measuring perinatal quality and patient care experiences, and evaluating the measurements by race and ethnicity to aim to better identify inequities in maternal health care delivery and outcomes
- In September 2023, CMS issued a memo reinforcing hospitals’ discretion to grant nurse midwives the authority to admit and care for patients who are not Medicare beneficiaries, all without the direct supervision of a Doctor of Medicine or Osteopathy. This guidance aims to improve access to both primary and maternity care, aligning with CMS’s Maternity Care Action Plan—part of the Biden-Harris Maternal Health Blueprint for addressing the Maternal Health Crisis.
- CMS’s Office of Minority Health (OMH) announced the 2023 awardees for its longstanding Minority Research Grant Program. Each grantee will receive $333,000 to support their projects, examining critical public health disparities, increasing health equity research capacities at minority-serving institutions, and furthering CMS's commitment to advancing health equity among the populations it serves. The 2023 grantees are Morgan State University, which will be exploring “Racial Disparities in Maternal Child Health and the Role of Doulas in Reducing Disparities”; University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, for its “Community Peer Education Project: Prisoner Health is Public Health”; and California State University San Marcos Corporation, working on “Community Schools Bridges2Health Research.”
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support coordination between benefit programs to ensure applicants and beneficiaries in one program are automatically enrolled in other programs for which they are eligible
- CMS finalized a rule making it easier for millions of eligible people to enroll in and retain coverage through the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs), including through automatic enrollment for certain people receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The MSPs are eligibility groups through which Medicaid pays Medicare premiums and, for most enrollees, cost-sharing for Medicare beneficiaries who have limited incomes. Individuals on Medicare who also receive SSI are always financially eligible for the MSPs through the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) eligibility group, yet many States require separate applications for QMB determinations. As a result, CMS estimates that in 2022, over 500,000 Medicare-eligible SSI recipients (over 16 percent) were not enrolled as QMBs. This final rule, with a few exceptions, eliminates the extra application to become a QMB and automatically enrolls these SSI individuals as QMBs, allowing them to gain important Medicare premium and cost-sharing assistance.
- CMS awarded a two-year contract to make it easier for people to verify their income so they can get access to benefits from programs like Medicaid and SNAP. The contractor will collaborate with CMS and OMB’s U.S. Digital Service (USDS) to improve the underlying federal data infrastructure so that benefits programs can easily talk to one another. This will reduce the number of times an applicant has to share information about their income, ultimately saving time for both the applicant and program staff.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support streamlining State enrollment and renewal processes and removing barriers, including by eliminating face-to-face interview requirements and requiring prepopulated electronic renewal forms, to ensure eligible individuals are automatically enrolled in and retain access to critical benefit programs
- The Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) program within Medicare Part D is designed to facilitate access to Medicare benefits for individuals with limited incomes. Similarly, the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) share comparable income and resource eligibility criteria, yet a significant number of LIS program enrollees remain unenrolled in MSPs, despite their likely eligibility. To address this, CMS is streamlining the enrollment process by mandating that states utilize the information gathered through the LIS program both as an application for MSPs and for determining eligibility in the MSPs. This change, codified in September 2023, will alleviate administrative burdens and make it easier to enroll eligible LIS recipients into the MSPs.
Test methods to automate patient access to electronic prenatal, birth, and postpartum health records (including lab results, genetic tests, ultrasound images, and clinical notes) to improve patient experiences in maternity care, health outcomes, and equity
- Beginning in August 2022, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) piloted an electronic medical record request platform with maternal health patients of two health systems in the United States. To date, more than 900 patients or caregivers have utilized the platform to request maternal health records, and 472 of these left detailed comments about their requests in an open-ended field at the end of the form.
- ONC also conducted individual videoconferencing interviews with maternal health patients, caregivers, and providers. The information gleaned from these interviews and the additional comments submitted are informing the approach to developing tools and systems to better support maternal health patients seeking access to their medical records.
Develop guidance for entities regulated pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) on providing telehealth in compliance with HIPAA rules, to improve patient experience and convenience following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency3
- On October 18, 2023, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published two resources to support telehealth. The first resource is for health care providers: Resource for Health Care Providers on Educating Patients about Privacy and Security Risks to Protected Health Information when Using Remote Communication Technologies for Telehealth. Although health care providers are not required by the HIPAA Rules to provide this education, the resource supports the continued and increased use of telehealth by providing information to help health care providers who choose to discuss telehealth privacy and security with patients. The resource provides suggestions for discussing:
- Telehealth options offered
- Risks to protected health information when using remote communications technologies
- Privacy and security practices of remote communication technology vendors
- Applicability of civil rights laws
- The second resource is for patients: Telehealth Privacy and Security Tips for Patients. This resource provides recommendations that patients can implement to protect and secure their health information such as:
- Conduct telehealth appointment in a private location
- Turn on multi-factor authentication if available
- Use encryption when available
- Avoid public Wi-Fi networks
THE SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SHALL:
Continue to design and deliver new, personalized online tools and expanded customer support options for Medicare enrollees
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) improved customers’ experience with the “Getting Started” section of Medicare.gov for those just getting ready to sign up for Medicare. Improvements based on several rounds of consumer testing included streamlined navigation, plain language updates and a new “wizard” explaining key deadlines and coverage options. Customer satisfaction on “Getting Started” increased as much as 13 percent this year. New Medicare customers will continue to be an area of focus for improvement in 2024 as CMS focuses on personalization options and additional support to this group of customers.
Strengthen requirements for maternal health quality measurement, including measuring perinatal quality and patient care experiences, and evaluating the measurements by race and ethnicity to aim to better identify inequities in maternal health care delivery and outcomes
- In September 2023, CMS issued a memo reinforcing hospitals’ discretion to grant nurse midwives the authority to admit and care for patients who are not Medicare beneficiaries, all without the direct supervision of a Doctor of Medicine or Osteopathy. This guidance aims to improve access to both primary and maternity care, aligning with CMS’s Maternity Care Action Plan—part of the Biden-Harris Maternal Health Blueprint for addressing the Maternal Health Crisis.
- CMS’s Office of Minority Health (OMH) announced the 2023 awardees for its longstanding Minority Research Grant Program. Each grantee will receive $333,000 to support their projects, examining critical public health disparities, increasing health equity research capacities at minority-serving institutions, and furthering CMS's commitment to advancing health equity among the populations it serves. The 2023 grantees are Morgan State University, which will be exploring “Racial Disparities in Maternal Child Health and the Role of Doulas in Reducing Disparities”; University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, for its “Community Peer Education Project: Prisoner Health is Public Health”; and California State University San Marcos Corporation, working on “Community Schools Bridges2Health Research.”
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support coordination between benefit programs to ensure applicants and beneficiaries in one program are automatically enrolled in other programs for which they are eligible
- CMS finalized a rule making it easier for millions of eligible people to enroll in and retain coverage through the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs), including through automatic enrollment for certain people receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The MSPs are eligibility groups through which Medicaid pays Medicare premiums and, for most enrollees, cost-sharing for Medicare beneficiaries who have limited incomes. Individuals on Medicare who also receive SSI are always financially eligible for the MSPs through the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) eligibility group, yet many States require separate applications for QMB determinations. As a result, CMS estimates that in 2022, over 500,000 Medicare-eligible SSI recipients (over 16 percent) were not enrolled as QMBs. This final rule, with a few exceptions, eliminates the extra application to become a QMB and automatically enrolls these SSI individuals as QMBs, allowing them to gain important Medicare premium and cost-sharing assistance.
- CMS awarded a two-year contract to make it easier for people to verify their income so they can get access to benefits from programs like Medicaid and SNAP. The contractor will collaborate with CMS and OMB’s U.S. Digital Service (USDS) to improve the underlying federal data infrastructure so that benefits programs can easily talk to one another. This will reduce the number of times an applicant has to share information about their income, ultimately saving time for both the applicant and program staff.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support streamlining State enrollment and renewal processes and removing barriers, including by eliminating face-to-face interview requirements and requiring prepopulated electronic renewal forms, to ensure eligible individuals are automatically enrolled in and retain access to critical benefit programs
- The Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) program within Medicare Part D is designed to facilitate access to Medicare benefits for individuals with limited incomes. Similarly, the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) share comparable income and resource eligibility criteria, yet a significant number of LIS program enrollees remain unenrolled in MSPs, despite their likely eligibility. To address this, CMS is streamlining the enrollment process by mandating that states utilize the information gathered through the LIS program both as an application for MSPs and for determining eligibility in the MSPs. This change, codified in September 2023, will alleviate administrative burdens and make it easier to enroll eligible LIS recipients into the MSPs.
Test methods to automate patient access to electronic prenatal, birth, and postpartum health records (including lab results, genetic tests, ultrasound images, and clinical notes) to improve patient experiences in maternity care, health outcomes, and equity
- Beginning in August 2022, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) piloted an electronic medical record request platform with maternal health patients of two health systems in the United States. To date, more than 900 patients or caregivers have utilized the platform to request maternal health records, and 472 of these left detailed comments about their requests in an open-ended field at the end of the form.
- ONC also conducted individual videoconferencing interviews with maternal health patients, caregivers, and providers. The information gleaned from these interviews and the additional comments submitted are informing the approach to developing tools and systems to better support maternal health patients seeking access to their medical records.
Develop guidance for entities regulated pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) on providing telehealth in compliance with HIPAA rules, to improve patient experience and convenience following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency3
- On October 18, 2023, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published two resources to support telehealth. The first resource is for health care providers: Resource for Health Care Providers on Educating Patients about Privacy and Security Risks to Protected Health Information when Using Remote Communication Technologies for Telehealth. Although health care providers are not required by the HIPAA Rules to provide this education, the resource supports the continued and increased use of telehealth by providing information to help health care providers who choose to discuss telehealth privacy and security with patients. The resource provides suggestions for discussing:
- Telehealth options offered
- Risks to protected health information when using remote communications technologies
- Privacy and security practices of remote communication technology vendors
- Applicability of civil rights laws
- The second resource is for patients: Telehealth Privacy and Security Tips for Patients. This resource provides recommendations that patients can implement to protect and secure their health information such as:
- Conduct telehealth appointment in a private location
- Turn on multi-factor authentication if available
- Use encryption when available
- Avoid public Wi-Fi networks
THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION SHALL:
Consider providing eligible recipients of student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-329), as amended, with the option to receive information about certain benefits and services for which they may qualify
No update since December 2022.
Design and deliver a repayment portal capability on StudentAid.gov for Direct Loan borrowers
- In April 2023, Federal Student Aid (FSA) made new long term loan servicing contract awards, which lay the foundation for providing borrowers with a more streamlined web experience.
THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION SHALL:
Consider providing eligible recipients of student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-329), as amended, with the option to receive information about certain benefits and services for which they may qualify
No update since December 2022.
Design and deliver a repayment portal capability on StudentAid.gov for Direct Loan borrowers
- In April 2023, Federal Student Aid (FSA) made new long term loan servicing contract awards, which lay the foundation for providing borrowers with a more streamlined web experience.
THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS SHALL:
Provide digital services through a single, integrated, and equitable digital platform on VA.gov and the VA mobile app and provide on-demand customer support through the channels that work best for customers, including personalized online chat with a virtual or live agent
- Enabled the ability for Veterans who are authenticated users to download their decision award letters across multiple platforms. Authenticated users on VA.gov, the VA Health and Benefits Mobile App, and the VA.gov chatbot can now easily download their letters directly through their accounts, allowing them to see VA's decision on their benefits claim. Veterans’ feedback indicated that decision award letters are one of the most important items of correspondence from VA. Since VA launched the capability in January 2023 through September 2023, more than 3.8 million decision letters have been downloaded on VA.gov. In addition, as of August 2023, blind Veterans can download a PDF file from the VA Health and Benefits mobile app or by using their web browser and then using a third-party app, such as VoiceOver on iOS, to listen to the content in the PDF file. This option is made possible by VA’s commitment to design accessibility of the VA Health and Benefits mobile app.
- Enabled users of the VA Health and Benefits Mobile App to manage their prescriptions. Users may now view active and non-active VA prescriptions, request refills, see pending refill requests, and track prescription delivery. There have been more than 764,000 successful refills since launch in March 2023.
- Added the ability for authenticated VA.gov users to submit Supplemental Claims online for disability compensation benefits, enabling them to upload new and relevant evidence or information about a claim for benefits for which VA has already reached a rating or made a decision. This feature helps Veterans more easily apply to have a claims decision reviewed or revisited based on new evidence or a change in law, such as the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-168). Since launch in July 2023 through September 2023, there have been over 49,000 supplemental claims submitted online.
- Implemented a “short form” version of the 10-10EZ Veteran Health Care Application on VA.gov that allows Veterans with a disability rating of 50 percent or higher to fast-track their submission for VA health care services by bypassing the military service and income sections of the application, thereby reducing customers’ paperwork burden and the time needed to enroll in VA health care. In FY 2023, more than 44,000 short form applications for health care were submitted online.
- My VA, an authenticated users’ dashboard on VA.gov, underwent changes to improve the user experience.
- Previously, sections of the dashboard were only available to users if information was available to them; however, based on user feedback, changes were made to ensure a more consistent user-friendly dashboard.
- Notably, the "Benefit Payments and Debts" section was divided into two sections to lessen confusion to the Veteran and a new "Education and Training" section was added.
- In FY 2023, Veterans viewed their My VA dashboard more than 57.9 million times.
THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS SHALL:
Provide digital services through a single, integrated, and equitable digital platform on VA.gov and the VA mobile app and provide on-demand customer support through the channels that work best for customers, including personalized online chat with a virtual or live agent
- Enabled the ability for Veterans who are authenticated users to download their decision award letters across multiple platforms. Authenticated users on VA.gov, the VA Health and Benefits Mobile App, and the VA.gov chatbot can now easily download their letters directly through their accounts, allowing them to see VA's decision on their benefits claim. Veterans’ feedback indicated that decision award letters are one of the most important items of correspondence from VA. Since VA launched the capability in January 2023 through September 2023, more than 3.8 million decision letters have been downloaded on VA.gov. In addition, as of August 2023, blind Veterans can download a PDF file from the VA Health and Benefits mobile app or by using their web browser and then using a third-party app, such as VoiceOver on iOS, to listen to the content in the PDF file. This option is made possible by VA’s commitment to design accessibility of the VA Health and Benefits mobile app.
- Enabled users of the VA Health and Benefits Mobile App to manage their prescriptions. Users may now view active and non-active VA prescriptions, request refills, see pending refill requests, and track prescription delivery. There have been more than 764,000 successful refills since launch in March 2023.
- Added the ability for authenticated VA.gov users to submit Supplemental Claims online for disability compensation benefits, enabling them to upload new and relevant evidence or information about a claim for benefits for which VA has already reached a rating or made a decision. This feature helps Veterans more easily apply to have a claims decision reviewed or revisited based on new evidence or a change in law, such as the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-168). Since launch in July 2023 through September 2023, there have been over 49,000 supplemental claims submitted online.
- Implemented a “short form” version of the 10-10EZ Veteran Health Care Application on VA.gov that allows Veterans with a disability rating of 50 percent or higher to fast-track their submission for VA health care services by bypassing the military service and income sections of the application, thereby reducing customers’ paperwork burden and the time needed to enroll in VA health care. In FY 2023, more than 44,000 short form applications for health care were submitted online.
- My VA, an authenticated users’ dashboard on VA.gov, underwent changes to improve the user experience.
- Previously, sections of the dashboard were only available to users if information was available to them; however, based on user feedback, changes were made to ensure a more consistent user-friendly dashboard.
- Notably, the "Benefit Payments and Debts" section was divided into two sections to lessen confusion to the Veteran and a new "Education and Training" section was added.
- In FY 2023, Veterans viewed their My VA dashboard more than 57.9 million times.
THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY SHALL:
Design and deliver a streamlined, online disaster assistance application
- Starting in October 2023, disaster survivors will be able to use a streamlined online disaster assistance application. This simplified application form makes it possible to select the type of assistance required and only answer questions directly related to the survivor’s needs, reducing application time.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also streamlined the registration intake process across all channels and integrated login.gov into the online disaster assistance application, both designed to further reduce survivor burden.
- The current registration process typically takes an average of 24 minutes to complete. However, with the implementation of the streamlined registration intake process, the estimated completion time is reduced to 14-22 minutes. Historically, over 75 percent of disaster assistance registrations are completed through disasterassistance.gov.
Work with States to proactively update existing rules and policies on supporting documentation needed for disaster assistance processes to reduce burden and increase accessibility
- FEMA has developed an interim final rule entitled “Individual Assistance Program Equity.” The rule is intended to increase equity by simplifying processes, removing barriers to entry, and increasing eligibility for certain types of assistance under the program.
Test the use of innovative technologies at airport security checkpoints to reduce passenger wait times
- The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) efforts to modernize checkpoint screening procedures and technologies to better serve the aviation security ecosystem resulted in seven States deploying mobile driver’s license(mDL) with five platforms (up from three States and four platforms last year). mDLs reduce points of contact for passengers and pave the way for a more seamless travel experience. Additional expansion for the mDL program is underway.
- TSA is on track to deploy TSA PreCheck® Touchless Identity Solution (TIS) at five airports in partnership with two airlines by the end of the calendar year. TIS is designed to improve security while eliminating the need for physical identification documents (IDs), creating a seamless passenger identity verification process.
- For the full list of airports, participating States and issuing authorities, and eligible digital IDs, visit https://www.tsa.gov/digital-id.
Provide new opportunities for customers to connect with the Transportation Security Administration, including as appropriate, online chat, improved communication during additional screenings, and additional mechanisms to provide customer feedback
- TSA continues to implement its expanded new hire basic training on Customer Experience (CX), “CX Demystified,” to ensure improved communication during additional screening processes. CX Demystified underscores the significance of CX as well as the crucial balance between security, professionalism, and building trust with the public; 7,300 new hires have completed CX Demystified in FY 2023. Additionally, TSA has introduced a voluntary briefing for all TSA officers to reinforce the principals of “CX Demystified,” which was launched in early FY 2023, and has trained 440 employees to date.
- TSA has successfully deployed its second passenger experience survey at multiple airport checkpoints nationwide. This survey allows TSA to identify CX best practices as well as areas that warrant refinement and improvement, enabling the agency to use data to measure and improve customer experience for the over two million travelers per day that interact with TSA officers at the checkpoint.
THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY SHALL:
Design and deliver a streamlined, online disaster assistance application
- Starting in October 2023, disaster survivors will be able to use a streamlined online disaster assistance application. This simplified application form makes it possible to select the type of assistance required and only answer questions directly related to the survivor’s needs, reducing application time.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also streamlined the registration intake process across all channels and integrated login.gov into the online disaster assistance application, both designed to further reduce survivor burden.
- The current registration process typically takes an average of 24 minutes to complete. However, with the implementation of the streamlined registration intake process, the estimated completion time is reduced to 14-22 minutes. Historically, over 75 percent of disaster assistance registrations are completed through disasterassistance.gov.
Work with States to proactively update existing rules and policies on supporting documentation needed for disaster assistance processes to reduce burden and increase accessibility
- FEMA has developed an interim final rule entitled “Individual Assistance Program Equity.” The rule is intended to increase equity by simplifying processes, removing barriers to entry, and increasing eligibility for certain types of assistance under the program.
Test the use of innovative technologies at airport security checkpoints to reduce passenger wait times
- The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) efforts to modernize checkpoint screening procedures and technologies to better serve the aviation security ecosystem resulted in seven States deploying mobile driver’s license(mDL) with five platforms (up from three States and four platforms last year). mDLs reduce points of contact for passengers and pave the way for a more seamless travel experience. Additional expansion for the mDL program is underway.
- TSA is on track to deploy TSA PreCheck® Touchless Identity Solution (TIS) at five airports in partnership with two airlines by the end of the calendar year. TIS is designed to improve security while eliminating the need for physical identification documents (IDs), creating a seamless passenger identity verification process.
- For the full list of airports, participating States and issuing authorities, and eligible digital IDs, visit https://www.tsa.gov/digital-id.
Provide new opportunities for customers to connect with the Transportation Security Administration, including as appropriate, online chat, improved communication during additional screenings, and additional mechanisms to provide customer feedback
- TSA continues to implement its expanded new hire basic training on Customer Experience (CX), “CX Demystified,” to ensure improved communication during additional screening processes. CX Demystified underscores the significance of CX as well as the crucial balance between security, professionalism, and building trust with the public; 7,300 new hires have completed CX Demystified in FY 2023. Additionally, TSA has introduced a voluntary briefing for all TSA officers to reinforce the principals of “CX Demystified,” which was launched in early FY 2023, and has trained 440 employees to date.
- TSA has successfully deployed its second passenger experience survey at multiple airport checkpoints nationwide. This survey allows TSA to identify CX best practices as well as areas that warrant refinement and improvement, enabling the agency to use data to measure and improve customer experience for the over two million travelers per day that interact with TSA officers at the checkpoint.
THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SHALL:
Establish baseline experience measures for key small business application processes in areas such as loans, grants, and certifications
- The Small Business Administration (SBA) continues to implement Customer Feedback Surveys within the Office of Field Operations and Office of Government Contracting and Business Development to measure customer satisfaction.
Design and deliver a streamlined online disaster assistance application experience
- SBA launched a new streamlined online disaster assistance application at lending.sba.gov that eases the burden on disaster survivors and expedites the availability of loan funds to homeowners, renters, businesses, and nonprofit organizations recovering from disasters. The new online application is integrated with the MySBA Loan Portal launched in February 2023, allowing users to use a single login to access multiple services including account management for loans, the Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) program, and, most recently, applying for disaster loan assistance.
THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SHALL:
Establish baseline experience measures for key small business application processes in areas such as loans, grants, and certifications
- The Small Business Administration (SBA) continues to implement Customer Feedback Surveys within the Office of Field Operations and Office of Government Contracting and Business Development to measure customer satisfaction.
Design and deliver a streamlined online disaster assistance application experience
- SBA launched a new streamlined online disaster assistance application at lending.sba.gov that eases the burden on disaster survivors and expedites the availability of loan funds to homeowners, renters, businesses, and nonprofit organizations recovering from disasters. The new online application is integrated with the MySBA Loan Portal launched in February 2023, allowing users to use a single login to access multiple services including account management for loans, the Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) program, and, most recently, applying for disaster loan assistance.
THE COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY SHALL:
Within 120 days of the date of this order, provide a report to the Director of OMB that analyzes all services of the Social Security Administration that currently require original or physical documentation or in-person appearance as an element of identity or evidence authentication, and that identifies potential opportunities for policy reforms that can support modernized customer experiences while ensuring original or physical documentation requirements remain where there is a statutory or strong policy rationale
- The Social Security Administration (SSA) updated the process for Direct Express cardholders to solve egregious issues, like requesting a replacement card without providing a wet signature or in-person identification. Direct Express is a debit card that allows cardholders to receive their monthly benefit payments electronically. Prior to the pandemic, cardholder consent to resolve egregious issues required a wet signature. Going forward, SSA will input requests for Comerica Bank (which issues the Direct Express card) to call cardholders when they are requesting a replacement card and verify the cardholder’s identity when they reach them by phone.
- SSA has permanently incorporated an option for Direct Express cardholders to change their direct deposit information over the phone, rather than in person. Policy requires an individual to provide the routing number and account number currently in SSA records in order to change the direct deposit account where benefits are deposited. Since Comerica does not provide this information to their Direct Express cardholders, prior to the pandemic cardholders had to go to an in-person interview in order to change their direct deposit. During the pandemic, SSA implemented a process for cardholders to verify their identity over the phone in lieu of providing the routing number and account number. This option is now permanent.
- For consistency with anomalous claim procedures, SSA updated cross-references in the abatement procedures to reflect the Office of Program Integrity's policy change for identity verification procedures for pre-adjudicative anomalous claims. As a result, erroneous abatements related to failure to establish identity as a proper applicant no longer require an in-person appearance for claims flagged as anomalous.
Develop a mobile-accessible, online process so that any individual applying for or receiving services from the Social Security Administration can upload forms, documentation, evidence, or correspondence associated with their transaction without the need for service-specific tools or traveling to a field office
- In 2023, SSA introduced a new service which allows customers to upload specific forms and documents electronically using smartphones and personal devices. The first incremental release occurred in the Boston Region in July and included 10 forms and 52 types of evidence. A second release in September introduced a click-to-sign signature feature on 36 first-party forms with a gradual, ongoing rollout expanding to additional regions during Q2 FY 2024.
Consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, maintain a public policy of technology neutrality with respect to acceptable forms of electronic signatures
- SSA now maintains a public policy of technology neutrality with respect to acceptable forms of electronic signatures. In conjunction with the release of the click-to-sign eSignature capability in September 2023, SSA amended GN 00201.015: Alternative Signature Methods in the Program Operations Manual System to include the following language: Our requirements for electronic signatures comply with applicable law and policies, such as Public Law 106-229.
Consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, revise any necessary regulations, forms, instructions, or other sources of guidance (to include the Program Operations Manual System of the Social Security Administration) to remove requirements that members of the public provide physical signatures
- To enable the removal of physical signature requirements from paper and electronic forms to the extent possible, SSA determined that physical signatures on 54 of 112 of its forms could potentially be removed. SSA continues to evaluate SSA forms in batches until SSA reviews all 54 forms. As a result of its evaluation of the first batch of the 54 forms, SSA removed the physical signature requirement from five forms and determined that a different five forms require maintaining the physical signature requirement. Evaluations from the first batch indicate that 50 percent of physical signature requirements have been removed. SSA expects to complete its review of the second batch of the 54 forms in December 2023.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support applicants and beneficiaries to identify other benefits for which they may be eligible and integrate Social Security Administration data and processes with those of other Federal and State entities whenever possible
- SSA is one of the agencies included in HUD's Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) Modernization project, that will allow for the creation of a new application with new functions, including application programming interfaces (APIs) that will allow for potentially daily data exchanges with partner Federal Agencies that provide income and asset data used for income verification. The modernization effort aims to improve the timeliness of income and asset data used to determine program participant eligibility, and ultimately substantially reduce improper payments.
- The Inflation Reduction Act expands eligibility for the LIS program, and eliminates the partial benefit. SSA conducted a targeted mailing to 1.2 million seniors and disabled people to reach people who may be eligible for the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) program—also known as Extra Help—and Medicare Savings Programs with information on how to enroll in the programs.
- Applications for adult and child disability benefits, particularly for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), decreased during the pandemic. SSA developed and implemented targeted strategies to assist people facing barriers in accessing SSA programs and services. People with low income, limited English proficiency, at-risk of homelessness, and those with mental or intellectual disabilities are among our targeted groups. SSA continued work from FY 2022 to conduct additional outreach, collaborate with community groups serving people facing barriers, and continue to simplify the SSI application process and policies.
THE COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY SHALL:
Within 120 days of the date of this order, provide a report to the Director of OMB that analyzes all services of the Social Security Administration that currently require original or physical documentation or in-person appearance as an element of identity or evidence authentication, and that identifies potential opportunities for policy reforms that can support modernized customer experiences while ensuring original or physical documentation requirements remain where there is a statutory or strong policy rationale
- The Social Security Administration (SSA) updated the process for Direct Express cardholders to solve egregious issues, like requesting a replacement card without providing a wet signature or in-person identification. Direct Express is a debit card that allows cardholders to receive their monthly benefit payments electronically. Prior to the pandemic, cardholder consent to resolve egregious issues required a wet signature. Going forward, SSA will input requests for Comerica Bank (which issues the Direct Express card) to call cardholders when they are requesting a replacement card and verify the cardholder’s identity when they reach them by phone.
- SSA has permanently incorporated an option for Direct Express cardholders to change their direct deposit information over the phone, rather than in person. Policy requires an individual to provide the routing number and account number currently in SSA records in order to change the direct deposit account where benefits are deposited. Since Comerica does not provide this information to their Direct Express cardholders, prior to the pandemic cardholders had to go to an in-person interview in order to change their direct deposit. During the pandemic, SSA implemented a process for cardholders to verify their identity over the phone in lieu of providing the routing number and account number. This option is now permanent.
- For consistency with anomalous claim procedures, SSA updated cross-references in the abatement procedures to reflect the Office of Program Integrity's policy change for identity verification procedures for pre-adjudicative anomalous claims. As a result, erroneous abatements related to failure to establish identity as a proper applicant no longer require an in-person appearance for claims flagged as anomalous.
Develop a mobile-accessible, online process so that any individual applying for or receiving services from the Social Security Administration can upload forms, documentation, evidence, or correspondence associated with their transaction without the need for service-specific tools or traveling to a field office
- In 2023, SSA introduced a new service which allows customers to upload specific forms and documents electronically using smartphones and personal devices. The first incremental release occurred in the Boston Region in July and included 10 forms and 52 types of evidence. A second release in September introduced a click-to-sign signature feature on 36 first-party forms with a gradual, ongoing rollout expanding to additional regions during Q2 FY 2024.
Consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, maintain a public policy of technology neutrality with respect to acceptable forms of electronic signatures
- SSA now maintains a public policy of technology neutrality with respect to acceptable forms of electronic signatures. In conjunction with the release of the click-to-sign eSignature capability in September 2023, SSA amended GN 00201.015: Alternative Signature Methods in the Program Operations Manual System to include the following language: Our requirements for electronic signatures comply with applicable law and policies, such as Public Law 106-229.
Consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, revise any necessary regulations, forms, instructions, or other sources of guidance (to include the Program Operations Manual System of the Social Security Administration) to remove requirements that members of the public provide physical signatures
- To enable the removal of physical signature requirements from paper and electronic forms to the extent possible, SSA determined that physical signatures on 54 of 112 of its forms could potentially be removed. SSA continues to evaluate SSA forms in batches until SSA reviews all 54 forms. As a result of its evaluation of the first batch of the 54 forms, SSA removed the physical signature requirement from five forms and determined that a different five forms require maintaining the physical signature requirement. Evaluations from the first batch indicate that 50 percent of physical signature requirements have been removed. SSA expects to complete its review of the second batch of the 54 forms in December 2023.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support applicants and beneficiaries to identify other benefits for which they may be eligible and integrate Social Security Administration data and processes with those of other Federal and State entities whenever possible
- SSA is one of the agencies included in HUD's Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) Modernization project, that will allow for the creation of a new application with new functions, including application programming interfaces (APIs) that will allow for potentially daily data exchanges with partner Federal Agencies that provide income and asset data used for income verification. The modernization effort aims to improve the timeliness of income and asset data used to determine program participant eligibility, and ultimately substantially reduce improper payments.
- The Inflation Reduction Act expands eligibility for the LIS program, and eliminates the partial benefit. SSA conducted a targeted mailing to 1.2 million seniors and disabled people to reach people who may be eligible for the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) program—also known as Extra Help—and Medicare Savings Programs with information on how to enroll in the programs.
- Applications for adult and child disability benefits, particularly for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), decreased during the pandemic. SSA developed and implemented targeted strategies to assist people facing barriers in accessing SSA programs and services. People with low income, limited English proficiency, at-risk of homelessness, and those with mental or intellectual disabilities are among our targeted groups. SSA continued work from FY 2022 to conduct additional outreach, collaborate with community groups serving people facing barriers, and continue to simplify the SSI application process and policies.
THE ADMINISTRATOR OF GENERAL SERVICES SHALL:
Develop a roadmap for a redesigned USA.gov website that aims to serve as a centralized, digital "Federal Front Door" from which customers may navigate to all Government benefits, services, and programs, and features streamlined content, processes, and technologies that use human-centered design to meet customer needs, including consolidating content currently appearing on Benefits.gov, Grants.gov, and other appropriate websites
- The General Services Administration (GSA) launched streamlined versions of USA.gov and USAGov en Español to help the public find government information and services more directly. The new iterations of the sites offer to the public simpler, shorter pages that focus on one user need at a time. The sites also provide tools to help users accomplish key tasks like “contact elected officials” and “report a scam”; both tools aggregate data from across multiple agencies and levels of government, reducing the steps it takes to find the correct agency or office they need. USAGov continues to introduce new features, including a redesigned benefit finder tool releasing in FY 2024.
- GSA collaborated with the Department of Labor and OMB to analyze Benefits.gov audience and use, to identify actions that can reduce content that may be outdated, inaccurate, and duplicative, which can negatively impact the public experience. The teams are working on a roadmap for integrating USAGov's benefits program and Benefits.gov information and functions to optimize our web products for the American public.
Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Administrator of General Services shall submit to the Director of OMB a roadmap for the development of prioritized common services and standards (such as the United States Web Design System or systems for login and identity management), platforms (such as notification capabilities), and digital products (such as USA.gov) that support increased efficiency, integration, and improved service delivery of designated customer life experiences
GSA completed activities under this commitment during FY2022.
Dedicate multi-disciplinary design and development teams to support priority projects of HISPs that will be selected and funded each fiscal year in consultation with the Director of OMB
- GSA is providing multi-disciplinary design and development teams through its TTS to work directly with agency High-Impact Service Providers (HISPs) to help them advance their CX capabilities. Teams within GSA’s TTS have provided support to many HISPs as they work through their discovery efforts and plans to design and implement. The bulk of this effort is focused on FY 2024.
- As part of the Recovering from a Disaster Life Experience portfolio, TTS produced a prototype method and tool to capture and calculate holistic administrative burdens, with an objective to calculate end-to end administrative burden using a uniform baseline methodology to capture psychological, learning, and time costs. GSA worked alongside federal agencies and delivery partners involved in disaster recovery to use the burden baseline toolkit for service improvements. GSA used data and insights from FEMA and the Small Business Administration (SBA) to build working journey maps for burden capture and calculation, and then shared the method and prototype tool with HISPs across departments and agencies. Several HISP agencies plan to test the burden calculator in 2024.
- As part of the Facing a Financial Shock (FFS) Life Experience portfolio, TTS worked with HISPs, States, and nonprofits to speed delivery of changes to benefits systems. GSA focused on identifying challenges in successful procurement for benefits systems. With a cross-functional team of acquisition, design, and product specialists, the FFS portfolio identified challenges and potential interventions to improve the outcomes of acquisitions. The FFS portfolio is set up to pilot one to three of these interventions with States in 2024.
THE ADMINISTRATOR OF GENERAL SERVICES SHALL:
Develop a roadmap for a redesigned USA.gov website that aims to serve as a centralized, digital "Federal Front Door" from which customers may navigate to all Government benefits, services, and programs, and features streamlined content, processes, and technologies that use human-centered design to meet customer needs, including consolidating content currently appearing on Benefits.gov, Grants.gov, and other appropriate websites
- The General Services Administration (GSA) launched streamlined versions of USA.gov and USAGov en Español to help the public find government information and services more directly. The new iterations of the sites offer to the public simpler, shorter pages that focus on one user need at a time. The sites also provide tools to help users accomplish key tasks like “contact elected officials” and “report a scam”; both tools aggregate data from across multiple agencies and levels of government, reducing the steps it takes to find the correct agency or office they need. USAGov continues to introduce new features, including a redesigned benefit finder tool releasing in FY 2024.
- GSA collaborated with the Department of Labor and OMB to analyze Benefits.gov audience and use, to identify actions that can reduce content that may be outdated, inaccurate, and duplicative, which can negatively impact the public experience. The teams are working on a roadmap for integrating USAGov's benefits program and Benefits.gov information and functions to optimize our web products for the American public.
Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Administrator of General Services shall submit to the Director of OMB a roadmap for the development of prioritized common services and standards (such as the United States Web Design System or systems for login and identity management), platforms (such as notification capabilities), and digital products (such as USA.gov) that support increased efficiency, integration, and improved service delivery of designated customer life experiences
GSA completed activities under this commitment during FY2022.
Dedicate multi-disciplinary design and development teams to support priority projects of HISPs that will be selected and funded each fiscal year in consultation with the Director of OMB
- GSA is providing multi-disciplinary design and development teams through its TTS to work directly with agency High-Impact Service Providers (HISPs) to help them advance their CX capabilities. Teams within GSA’s TTS have provided support to many HISPs as they work through their discovery efforts and plans to design and implement. The bulk of this effort is focused on FY 2024.
- As part of the Recovering from a Disaster Life Experience portfolio, TTS produced a prototype method and tool to capture and calculate holistic administrative burdens, with an objective to calculate end-to end administrative burden using a uniform baseline methodology to capture psychological, learning, and time costs. GSA worked alongside federal agencies and delivery partners involved in disaster recovery to use the burden baseline toolkit for service improvements. GSA used data and insights from FEMA and the Small Business Administration (SBA) to build working journey maps for burden capture and calculation, and then shared the method and prototype tool with HISPs across departments and agencies. Several HISP agencies plan to test the burden calculator in 2024.
- As part of the Facing a Financial Shock (FFS) Life Experience portfolio, TTS worked with HISPs, States, and nonprofits to speed delivery of changes to benefits systems. GSA focused on identifying challenges in successful procurement for benefits systems. With a cross-functional team of acquisition, design, and product specialists, the FFS portfolio identified challenges and potential interventions to improve the outcomes of acquisitions. The FFS portfolio is set up to pilot one to three of these interventions with States in 2024.
THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (USAID) SHALL:
Review and revise, as appropriate, regulations, forms, instructions, or other sources of guidance relating to the application for grants and cooperative agreements in countries in which USAID works to ensure that such policies are clear and intelligible, do not contain unjustified administrative burdens or excessive paperwork requirements, and do not place undue burdens on local organizations and underserved communities
- United States Agency for International Development (USAID) updated its flagship private sector collaboration tool with private sector feedback to reduce burdens, improve the collaboration experience with USAID, and streamline pathways to partnership for USAID’s growing network of over 4,000 partners.
- USAID launched a network of over 40 employees who are proactively initiating and deepening trusted relationships with private sector entities and philanthropic foundations. This network focuses on curating a pool of high-quality, strategic partners and collaboration opportunities across major industries and with both global and local partners.
- USAID launched a live-feed of funding opportunities from SAM.gov and Grants.gov.
- USAID simplified and reduced onerous pre-award requirements for local organizations seeking USAID funding. These previous pre-award requirements often excluded organizations by setting a high barrier for entry and a high level of administrative burden.
- As an outcome of our efforts to reduce undue burdens on local organizations and underserved communities, in FY 2022, Direct Local Funding to individuals, organizations, or corporations based and legally organized in a country where they implement USAID-funded work reached nearly $1.6 billion, or 10.2 percent of obligations. This is the highest level and percent of Direct Local Funding in at least a decade.
THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (USAID) SHALL:
Review and revise, as appropriate, regulations, forms, instructions, or other sources of guidance relating to the application for grants and cooperative agreements in countries in which USAID works to ensure that such policies are clear and intelligible, do not contain unjustified administrative burdens or excessive paperwork requirements, and do not place undue burdens on local organizations and underserved communities
- United States Agency for International Development (USAID) updated its flagship private sector collaboration tool with private sector feedback to reduce burdens, improve the collaboration experience with USAID, and streamline pathways to partnership for USAID’s growing network of over 4,000 partners.
- USAID launched a network of over 40 employees who are proactively initiating and deepening trusted relationships with private sector entities and philanthropic foundations. This network focuses on curating a pool of high-quality, strategic partners and collaboration opportunities across major industries and with both global and local partners.
- USAID launched a live-feed of funding opportunities from SAM.gov and Grants.gov.
- USAID simplified and reduced onerous pre-award requirements for local organizations seeking USAID funding. These previous pre-award requirements often excluded organizations by setting a high barrier for entry and a high level of administrative burden.
- As an outcome of our efforts to reduce undue burdens on local organizations and underserved communities, in FY 2022, Direct Local Funding to individuals, organizations, or corporations based and legally organized in a country where they implement USAID-funded work reached nearly $1.6 billion, or 10.2 percent of obligations. This is the highest level and percent of Direct Local Funding in at least a decade.
THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND THE ADMINISTRATOR OF GENERAL SERVICES SHALL:
Collaborate to provide seamless integration of Login.gov accounts to allow customers to access VA.gov, the VA mobile application, and other customer-facing digital products and to eliminate outdated and duplicate customer sign-in options
- Following the successful integration of Login.gov as a credential for VA online services, there have been over 12.2 million Login.gov authentications from Veterans to access VA services, health care, and benefits information from VA.gov.
- OMB is collaborating with a cross-agency team led by the Grants Quality Service Management Office of HHS to address known challenges that Tribes experience when accessing and using Federal grants. This effort builds off of the human-centered design discovery sprint that was directed in E.O. 14058 and completed in 2022. Many Tribes, especially those in low broadband areas like rural Alaska, also hit barriers to meeting reporting requirements. Other offices and agencies working on this issue include the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Department of the Treasury. The cross-agency team is doing a human-centered design project to learn from tribal customers, develop and test a minimum viable product solution, and produce a report to inform solutions supporting streamlined grants reporting compliance requirements in low-broadband areas.
THE DIRECTOR OF OMB, THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES DIGITAL SERVICE; THE ADMINISTRATOR OF GENERAL SERVICES; AND THE POSTMASTER GENERAL ARE ENCOURAGED TO:
Encouraged to collaborate on ways to update mailing address records across Government so that members of the public may change their respective mailing addresses for purposes of all Government services only once, through the United States Postal Service
- GSA’s TTS invited staff the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and OMB’s USDS to collaborate on potential solutions to this issue, which led to a further collaboration between TTS and the USPS Innovation Team on a discovery effort. In July 2023, this discovery team recommended that to make the most progress in the near term, VA systems should connect to USPS data on address changes. In the immediate term, the discovery team recommended using USPS’s existing National Change of Address system as the source of the data. To produce the best user experience in the longer term, the discovery team recommended allowing Veterans to update their addresses directly on USPS.com, potentially via their Login.gov accounts.
THE DIRECTOR OF OMB, INCLUDING THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES DIGITAL SERVICE, SHALL:
Collaborate across the Federal Government with multiple agencies and their respective customers in order to conduct human-centered design research and document customer experience challenges related to accessing grant programs to which Tribal governments are entitled, and shall propose ways to streamline processes and reduce administrative burdens on Tribal government customers
- OMB is collaborating with a cross-agency team led by the Grants Quality Service Management Office of HHS to address known challenges that Tribes experience when accessing and using Federal grants. This effort builds off of the human-centered design discovery sprint that was directed in E.O. 14058 and completed in 2022. Many Tribes, especially those in low broadband areas like rural Alaska, also hit barriers to meeting reporting requirements. Other offices and agencies working on this issue include the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Department of the Treasury. The cross-agency team is doing a human-centered design project to learn from tribal customers, develop and test a minimum viable product solution, and produce a report to inform solutions supporting streamlined grants reporting compliance requirements in low-broadband areas.
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT SHALL:
Collaborate to enable a more streamlined Public Service Loan Forgiveness process for eligible borrowers, including those who serve in the United States Armed Forces or as civil servants, or who work for eligible nonprofit organizations
- As of May 8, 2023, the Department of Education has approved a total of $42 billion in Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) for more than 615,000 borrowers since October 2021. This is a result of the temporary PSLF changes made by the Biden-Harris Administration that made it easier for borrowers to reach forgiveness. At the end of the previous Administration, only about 7,000 borrowers had been approved for the PSLF program.
- Updates to the PSLF Help Tool, for the first time, let borrowers complete the entire PSLF application process online. Starting in July 2023, borrowers no longer need to fax or mail in their application with a wet signature, resulting in significantly decreased processing times. In addition, borrowers can now digitally track the status of their PSLF form from their https://studentaid.gov/ account, where they can see updates such as whether their employer has digitally signed their PSLF form and when their form has been processed.
- Longer-term improvements to the PSLF Program made through regulations include helping borrowers earn progress toward PSLF, simplifying criteria to help borrowers certify qualifying employment, and provide opportunities for borrowers to get help correcting PSLF account problems.
- Borrowers with Direct Loans who work in public service are also likely to benefit from the one-time account adjustment announced by the Department last year. Borrowers with other types of federal loans have until the end of 2023 to consolidate into the Direct Loan program to receive credit for qualifying payments under this adjustment.
- In addition to this one-time account adjustment, the Department also announced earlier this year proposed new regulations that would transform income-driven repayment (IDR) plans to better serve borrowers. The regulations would create the most affordable IDR plan that has ever been made available to student loan borrowers, allowing those with incomes under $30,500, or under $62,400 in a family of four, to qualify for $0 monthly payments. They will also simplify the program and eliminate common pitfalls that delay borrowers’ progress toward forgiveness.
THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND THE ADMINISTRATOR OF GENERAL SERVICES SHALL:
Collaborate to provide seamless integration of Login.gov accounts to allow customers to access VA.gov, the VA mobile application, and other customer-facing digital products and to eliminate outdated and duplicate customer sign-in options
- Following the successful integration of Login.gov as a credential for VA online services, there have been over 12.2 million Login.gov authentications from Veterans to access VA services, health care, and benefits information from VA.gov.
- OMB is collaborating with a cross-agency team led by the Grants Quality Service Management Office of HHS to address known challenges that Tribes experience when accessing and using Federal grants. This effort builds off of the human-centered design discovery sprint that was directed in E.O. 14058 and completed in 2022. Many Tribes, especially those in low broadband areas like rural Alaska, also hit barriers to meeting reporting requirements. Other offices and agencies working on this issue include the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Department of the Treasury. The cross-agency team is doing a human-centered design project to learn from tribal customers, develop and test a minimum viable product solution, and produce a report to inform solutions supporting streamlined grants reporting compliance requirements in low-broadband areas.
THE DIRECTOR OF OMB, THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES DIGITAL SERVICE; THE ADMINISTRATOR OF GENERAL SERVICES; AND THE POSTMASTER GENERAL ARE ENCOURAGED TO:
Encouraged to collaborate on ways to update mailing address records across Government so that members of the public may change their respective mailing addresses for purposes of all Government services only once, through the United States Postal Service
- GSA’s TTS invited staff the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and OMB’s USDS to collaborate on potential solutions to this issue, which led to a further collaboration between TTS and the USPS Innovation Team on a discovery effort. In July 2023, this discovery team recommended that to make the most progress in the near term, VA systems should connect to USPS data on address changes. In the immediate term, the discovery team recommended using USPS’s existing National Change of Address system as the source of the data. To produce the best user experience in the longer term, the discovery team recommended allowing Veterans to update their addresses directly on USPS.com, potentially via their Login.gov accounts.
THE DIRECTOR OF OMB, INCLUDING THROUGH THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES DIGITAL SERVICE, SHALL:
Collaborate across the Federal Government with multiple agencies and their respective customers in order to conduct human-centered design research and document customer experience challenges related to accessing grant programs to which Tribal governments are entitled, and shall propose ways to streamline processes and reduce administrative burdens on Tribal government customers
- OMB is collaborating with a cross-agency team led by the Grants Quality Service Management Office of HHS to address known challenges that Tribes experience when accessing and using Federal grants. This effort builds off of the human-centered design discovery sprint that was directed in E.O. 14058 and completed in 2022. Many Tribes, especially those in low broadband areas like rural Alaska, also hit barriers to meeting reporting requirements. Other offices and agencies working on this issue include the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Department of the Treasury. The cross-agency team is doing a human-centered design project to learn from tribal customers, develop and test a minimum viable product solution, and produce a report to inform solutions supporting streamlined grants reporting compliance requirements in low-broadband areas.
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT SHALL:
Collaborate to enable a more streamlined Public Service Loan Forgiveness process for eligible borrowers, including those who serve in the United States Armed Forces or as civil servants, or who work for eligible nonprofit organizations
- As of May 8, 2023, the Department of Education has approved a total of $42 billion in Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) for more than 615,000 borrowers since October 2021. This is a result of the temporary PSLF changes made by the Biden-Harris Administration that made it easier for borrowers to reach forgiveness. At the end of the previous Administration, only about 7,000 borrowers had been approved for the PSLF program.
- Updates to the PSLF Help Tool, for the first time, let borrowers complete the entire PSLF application process online. Starting in July 2023, borrowers no longer need to fax or mail in their application with a wet signature, resulting in significantly decreased processing times. In addition, borrowers can now digitally track the status of their PSLF form from their https://studentaid.gov/ account, where they can see updates such as whether their employer has digitally signed their PSLF form and when their form has been processed.
- Longer-term improvements to the PSLF Program made through regulations include helping borrowers earn progress toward PSLF, simplifying criteria to help borrowers certify qualifying employment, and provide opportunities for borrowers to get help correcting PSLF account problems.
- Borrowers with Direct Loans who work in public service are also likely to benefit from the one-time account adjustment announced by the Department last year. Borrowers with other types of federal loans have until the end of 2023 to consolidate into the Direct Loan program to receive credit for qualifying payments under this adjustment.
- In addition to this one-time account adjustment, the Department also announced earlier this year proposed new regulations that would transform income-driven repayment (IDR) plans to better serve borrowers. The regulations would create the most affordable IDR plan that has ever been made available to student loan borrowers, allowing those with incomes under $30,500, or under $62,400 in a family of four, to qualify for $0 monthly payments. They will also simplify the program and eliminate common pitfalls that delay borrowers’ progress toward forgiveness.
ADDITIONALLY, THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT HAS TAKEN CONCRETE STEPS IN SPIRIT OF THE EXECUTIVE ORDER TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE OF KEY SERVICES:
Designing and delivering modernization efforts of Federal Housing Authority’s call center and provide expanded self-service options
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched a digital self-service portal where lenders will, for the first time, be able to directly upload critical documents necessary to secure backing from the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Prior to this launch, lenders needed to email these documents to a representative and wait up to 24 hours for the documents to be reviewed. HUD estimates that this portal will save taxpayers more than $700,000 annually and eliminate about 654,000 hours of wait time, enabling prospective homeowners who obtain FHA loans each year to achieve homeownership more quickly.
Designing and delivering trauma informed tools and/or services for complainants utilizing the housing discrimination complaint process
- HUD outlined a plan to develop specialized skills for its employees responsible for interacting with people who have undergone traumatic experiences with housing discrimination, including survivors of sexual assault. Once implemented, this plan will enable thousands of complainants each year to feel empowered and supported as the Fair Housing / Equal Opportunity office pursues remedies on their behalf to often traumatic experiences with housing discrimination.
ADDITIONALLY, THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT HAS TAKEN CONCRETE STEPS IN SPIRIT OF THE EXECUTIVE ORDER TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE OF KEY SERVICES:
Designing and delivering modernization efforts of Federal Housing Authority’s call center and provide expanded self-service options
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched a digital self-service portal where lenders will, for the first time, be able to directly upload critical documents necessary to secure backing from the Federal Housing Authority (FHA). Prior to this launch, lenders needed to email these documents to a representative and wait up to 24 hours for the documents to be reviewed. HUD estimates that this portal will save taxpayers more than $700,000 annually and eliminate about 654,000 hours of wait time, enabling prospective homeowners who obtain FHA loans each year to achieve homeownership more quickly.
Designing and delivering trauma informed tools and/or services for complainants utilizing the housing discrimination complaint process
- HUD outlined a plan to develop specialized skills for its employees responsible for interacting with people who have undergone traumatic experiences with housing discrimination, including survivors of sexual assault. Once implemented, this plan will enable thousands of complainants each year to feel empowered and supported as the Fair Housing / Equal Opportunity office pursues remedies on their behalf to often traumatic experiences with housing discrimination.
The Secretary of State shall:
Design and deliver a new online passport renewal experience that does not require any physical documents to be mailed
- With an initial goal of reaching 25,000 pilot users from a target audience of Federal employees and contractors in Spring 2022, the Bureau of Consular Affairs (CA) has expanded to a limited public release for continued piloting and improvement of the Online Passport Renewal. As of January 2023, the State Department has processed 169,559 online passport renewals. The limited public release will continue until the full public launch expected later in 2023.
- CA expanded Online Passport Renewal technical support to customers to include phone support in addition to email from 8am to 8pm Eastern on Mondays through Fridays.
- The Department of State gathered customer satisfaction data from customers that piloted the use of Online Passport Renewal. To date, more than 12,000 customers have completed a survey during the limited monthly release with 99% of respondents indicating they were very likely to use the online renewal system in the future. Furthermore, 96% of respondents reported that completion of the application was very easy or somewhat easy.
The Secretary of the Treasury shall:
Design and deliver new online tools and services to ease the payment of taxes and provide the option to schedule customer support telephone call-backs. The Secretary of the Treasury should consider whether such tools and services might include expanded automatic direct deposit refunds based on prior year tax returns, tax credit eligibility tools, and expanded electronic filing options
- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has expanded customer callbacks to 75% of its toll-free demand. Last fiscal year, the IRS offered this service to more than 11 million taxpayers with an acceptance rate exceeding 58%, saving taxpayers more than 3.6 million hours of hold time.
- Returns filed with errors can delay processing times (an error-free electronic return is processed within 21 days). Each year, the IRS takes several proactive steps, including outreach and service options, to help taxpayers file an accurate return. To further improve the taxpayer experience, last filing season, the IRS developed an automated tool that dramatically expands efficiencies and has helped close 1.5 million error resolution cases in a single week.
- The IRS created and expanded self-service portals for taxpayers, including for online payment agreements, requesting payment transcripts, requesting Identity Protection PINs, and updating personal information. In just the last fiscal year, almost 15 million taxpayers registered for online accounts and other protected online applications, allowing for important information—on benefits received, notices, and taxpayer payment history—to be easily and securely accessed on demand.
The Secretary of the Interior shall:
Redesign the website of the Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS.gov, in compliance with the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (Public Law 115-336), and shall support a centralized, modernized electronic permitting system to accept and process applications for permits. Such a system might include special use permits for the National Wildlife Refuge System and for at least five high-volume permit application forms required for individuals and businesses who import or export fish, wildlife, and plants and their products internationally
- In March of 2022, Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) launched the first-ever full-scale overhaul of https://www.fws.gov/.
- FWS began a series of design sprints to digitize five permit application forms (with a goal of fully digitizing all application forms) required for international export of fish, wildlife, plants, and their associated products, and to make those forms available to the public by June of 2023 on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Permits page. Since beginning their design sprints, FWS has:
- Added a customer support staff member and launched an in-app help tool, that combined, reduces the customer assistance timeframe to 24-48 hours, down from seven to 30 days. The in-app customer support tool and added resource significantly improved customer service experience, a high priority precursor to full digitization of forms;
- Incorporated data collection via customer survey to baseline end-to-end customer experience in advance of digitization of the five high-volume import/export permit applications managed on the ePermits Platform. FWS looks forward to reporting those results quarterly beginning 2Q of FY23;
- Released development to facilitate external customer submission of permit renewal and amendment requests, which are 50% of the total volume of permit requests, per year;
- Researched, analyzed, and decided on a digitization architecture to ensure solid design for digitized forms in the ePermits platform to meet the June 2023 goal.
- FWS migrated 16 permits or passes services to Recreation.gov for nine National Wildlife Refuges. The team is currently scoping to assess platform suitability for approximately 100 National Wildlife Refuges and national fish hatcheries that issue permits and passes for a range of recreational activities.
The Secretary of Agriculture shall:
Test the use of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits for online purchasing
- Through a grant with the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) has made four awards to State agencies and vendors to implement and test online shopping capabilities for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant and Children (WIC) benefits.
- FNS has approved 46 American Rescue Plan Act waivers for WIC State agencies to support outreach, innovation, and modernization and has posted a table listing all approved waivers on the FNS webpage.
- USDA FNS has awarded more than $10 million in grants to 20 State agencies to improve the shopping experience through projects such as testing new ways of conducting outreach to potential WIC participants, making it easier for WIC participants to use their benefits in store, and laying the groundwork for online shopping in the future. USDA FNS has also awarded $23 million in grants to 66 State agencies for technology enhancements that improve the WIC participant experience, reduce unnecessary administrative burden for both participants and administrators, and retain eligible participants while improving equity. These improvements can include improved text messaging, online appointment scheduling, plain language improvements and collecting data to measure customer experience.
- In February, FNS will propose a new rule to address key regulatory barriers to online ordering in the WIC Program by making changes to the provisions that prevent online transactions and types of online capable stores from participating in the program. Information related to the rule can be found here.
Identify opportunities to reduce individuals' and families' burdens by simplifying enrollment and recertification for nutrition assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the WIC, including expanding the use of direct certification
- FNS selected and approved 12 States to participate in the Direct Certification with Medicaid Demonstration Projects. This brings the number of States to 38 that use Medicaid data from HHS and Supplemental Security Income data from SSA data to directly certify students as eligible to receive free and reduced-price meals. The demonstration project streamlines and expands access to the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program by removing the barrier of the application process for families and lightening the administration burden for schools.
- In September 2023, FNS awarded a cooperative agreement to streamline enrollment in WIC through data matching. The recipients will provide subgrants and support to WIC state agencies for expanding the use of data matching—with appropriate participant consent—to identify, refer, and enroll eligible participants of other federal programs like Medicaid and SNAP. In April 2023, FNS encouraged state agencies to embark on the journey to connect eligible moms and kids in SNAP and Medicaid with WIC benefits; this funding and technical assistance supports progress toward that goal by reducing administrative burden for both participants and administering agencies.
Design and implement a simplified direct farm loan application process
- A new online Loan Assistance Tool was launched in October 2022 to provide a gateway for new and existing customers to learn about and access Farm Loan Program credit products and services. The tool is to help farmers and ranchers better navigate the farm loan application process by providing an online guide that explains each step of the loan application process in plain language. It provides a uniform explanation of loan application requirements and processes, ensuring customers receive a consistent customer experience. A fillable version of the new Direct Loan Application will be available in the Loan Assistance Tool in March 2023. Together, the new Direct Loan Application and Loan Assistance Tool can improve customer experiences and increase equitable credit access by refining the process to be more easily navigable.
- USDA has simplified and streamlined its Farm Loan Programs’ Direct Loan Application that is submitted more than 25,000 times annually by farmers and ranchers seeking credit to start, sustain, or grow their operation. The new application, which was approved by OMB on January 13, 2023, is written in plain language, has more detailed instructions, and compared to the previous form is reduced from 29 pages to 13 pages and from 10 forms to one form, with a projected reduction in average customer content response by 50% or more. The new Direct Loan Application will be published in March 2023 once its companion Loan Assistance Tool guide is updated.
The Secretary of Agriculture shall:
Test the use of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits for online purchasing
- Through a grant with the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition, Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) has made four awards to State agencies and vendors to implement and test online shopping capabilities for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant and Children (WIC) benefits.
- FNS has approved 46 American Rescue Plan Act waivers for WIC State agencies to support outreach, innovation, and modernization and has posted a table listing all approved waivers on the FNS webpage.
- USDA FNS has awarded more than $10 million in grants to 20 State agencies to improve the shopping experience through projects such as testing new ways of conducting outreach to potential WIC participants, making it easier for WIC participants to use their benefits in store, and laying the groundwork for online shopping in the future. USDA FNS has also awarded $23 million in grants to 66 State agencies for technology enhancements that improve the WIC participant experience, reduce unnecessary administrative burden for both participants and administrators, and retain eligible participants while improving equity. These improvements can include improved text messaging, online appointment scheduling, plain language improvements and collecting data to measure customer experience.
- In February, FNS will propose a new rule to address key regulatory barriers to online ordering in the WIC Program by making changes to the provisions that prevent online transactions and types of online capable stores from participating in the program. Information related to the rule can be found here.
Identify opportunities to reduce individuals' and families' burdens by simplifying enrollment and recertification for nutrition assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the WIC, including expanding the use of direct certification
- FNS selected and approved 12 States to participate in the Direct Certification with Medicaid Demonstration Projects. This brings the number of States to 38 that use Medicaid data from HHS and Supplemental Security Income data from SSA data to directly certify students as eligible to receive free and reduced-price meals. The demonstration project streamlines and expands access to the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program by removing the barrier of the application process for families and lightening the administration burden for schools.
- In September 2023, FNS awarded a cooperative agreement to streamline enrollment in WIC through data matching. The recipients will provide subgrants and support to WIC state agencies for expanding the use of data matching—with appropriate participant consent—to identify, refer, and enroll eligible participants of other federal programs like Medicaid and SNAP. In April 2023, FNS encouraged state agencies to embark on the journey to connect eligible moms and kids in SNAP and Medicaid with WIC benefits; this funding and technical assistance supports progress toward that goal by reducing administrative burden for both participants and administering agencies.
Design and implement a simplified direct farm loan application process
- A new online Loan Assistance Tool was launched in October 2022 to provide a gateway for new and existing customers to learn about and access Farm Loan Program credit products and services. The tool is to help farmers and ranchers better navigate the farm loan application process by providing an online guide that explains each step of the loan application process in plain language. It provides a uniform explanation of loan application requirements and processes, ensuring customers receive a consistent customer experience. A fillable version of the new Direct Loan Application will be available in the Loan Assistance Tool in March 2023. Together, the new Direct Loan Application and Loan Assistance Tool can improve customer experiences and increase equitable credit access by refining the process to be more easily navigable.
- USDA has simplified and streamlined its Farm Loan Programs’ Direct Loan Application that is submitted more than 25,000 times annually by farmers and ranchers seeking credit to start, sustain, or grow their operation. The new application, which was approved by OMB on January 13, 2023, is written in plain language, has more detailed instructions, and compared to the previous form is reduced from 29 pages to 13 pages and from 10 forms to one form, with a projected reduction in average customer content response by 50% or more. The new Direct Loan Application will be published in March 2023 once its companion Loan Assistance Tool guide is updated.
The Secretary of Labor shall:
Update existing rules and policies, consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, to allow individuals entitled to medical treatment under their workers' compensation plans to conduct their routine medical treatment appointments using telehealth platforms
- The Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) has updated policies so that beneficiaries can use telehealth options for routine medical treatment appointments.
Update rules, policies, and procedures to eliminate, consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, requirements for workers' compensation claimants to submit physical documents, but to retain the option for physical submission for claimants who cannot otherwise submit them
- OWCP’s Black Lung program developed and implemented an outreach and awareness campaign to promote use of the C.O.A.L. Mine electronic document submission portal and expects to see increased usage throughout FY 2023. In addition, the Black Lung Program implemented an artificial intelligence (AI) system which handles incoming annual benefit forms from the C.O.A.L. Mine Portal, ensuring that continued benefits are processed instantaneously upon receipt.
- OWCP’s Energy program enhanced its Energy Document Portal (EDP) to allow digital signatures on new applications and payment forms that previously required wet signatures, such as the digital submission of the Employee’s Claim Form, Survivor’s Claim Form, and Acceptance of Payment form. Using identity proofing and digital signatures provides a more secure and expeditious way to submit new claims and receive compensation and medical benefits.
The Secretary of Labor shall:
Update existing rules and policies, consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, to allow individuals entitled to medical treatment under their workers' compensation plans to conduct their routine medical treatment appointments using telehealth platforms
- The Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP) has updated policies so that beneficiaries can use telehealth options for routine medical treatment appointments.
Update rules, policies, and procedures to eliminate, consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, requirements for workers' compensation claimants to submit physical documents, but to retain the option for physical submission for claimants who cannot otherwise submit them
- OWCP’s Black Lung program developed and implemented an outreach and awareness campaign to promote use of the C.O.A.L. Mine electronic document submission portal and expects to see increased usage throughout FY 2023. In addition, the Black Lung Program implemented an artificial intelligence (AI) system which handles incoming annual benefit forms from the C.O.A.L. Mine Portal, ensuring that continued benefits are processed instantaneously upon receipt.
- OWCP’s Energy program enhanced its Energy Document Portal (EDP) to allow digital signatures on new applications and payment forms that previously required wet signatures, such as the digital submission of the Employee’s Claim Form, Survivor’s Claim Form, and Acceptance of Payment form. Using identity proofing and digital signatures provides a more secure and expeditious way to submit new claims and receive compensation and medical benefits.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall:
Continue to design and deliver new, personalized online tools and expanded customer support options for Medicare enrollees
- The Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) used extensive user interviews and prototyping to better understand Medicare customers’ needs to inform improvements to Medicare.gov such as redesigned homepages, navigation, mobile responsiveness, and task lists for the 2022 Open Enrollment Season. More details on these improvements are as follows:
- A redesigned Medicare Plan Finder summary page that highlights existing coverage, drugs, and pharmacies and allows easy access to edit those items directly without going through multiple page clicks
- A comparison of year-over-year coverage – what your existing plan will look like next year if you don’t take any action during the 2022 open enrollment period
- An in-network pharmacy finder – highlighting lower-cost pharmacy options
- A notification flagging when a user takes a drug for which there is a newly available Interchangeable Biologics (IB) treatment option which often costs less.
- As a result of changes like these, Medicare has found that there is a 72% increase in satisfaction (up from 52%) in Medicare for those operating behind an authenticated login experience, and a 15% increase in authenticated uses of its website by returning users.
Strengthen requirements for maternal health quality measurement, including measuring perinatal quality and patient care experiences, and evaluating the measurements by race and ethnicity to aim to better identify inequities in maternal health care delivery and outcomes
- In July 2022, CMS released a Maternity Care Action Plan to support and implement the Biden-Harris Maternal Health Blueprint. The action plan takes a holistic and coordinated approach across CMS to improve health outcomes and reduce inequities for people during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.
- On August 1, 2022, CMS finalized the creation of a “Birthing-Friendly” hospital designation through the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Care Hospitals (LTCH PPS) Final Rule. This designation will be available on a consumer-friendly display, to indicate a hospital’s commitment to improving maternal health outcomes through participation in maternity care quality activities. CMS will give this designation to hospitals that report “yes” to both questions in the Maternal Morbidity Structural Measure for CY 2022, reporting to the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program. Designation results will be posted to a CMS website in Fall 2023. In the future, CMS may consider a more robust set of criteria that may include other maternal health-related measures for awarding the designation.
- CMS finalized the FY 2023 IPPS-LTCH PPS final rule FY 2023 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Care Hospitals (LTCH PPS) Final Rule, which also includes two perinatal Electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs)—Cesarean Birth and Severe Obstetric Complications—available for self-selection beginning with the CY 2023 reporting period/FY 2025 payment determination followed by mandatory reporting beginning with the CY 2024 reporting period/FY 2026 payment determination.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support coordination between benefit programs to ensure applicants and beneficiaries in one program are automatically enrolled in other programs for which they are eligible
- The Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families, in collaboration with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announced a new policy to make it easier for familiesto demonstrate eligibility for Head Start by showing proof of their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation.
- The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), in collaboration with the United States Digital Service (USDS), announced the release of the Guide to Creating a Family Friendly Child Care Assistance Application. This digital resource provides states with guidance on how to simplify the child care assistance application process for families and adopt best practices for eligibility processing, including the elimination of non-essential enrollment requirements and bringing applications online.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support streamlining State enrollment and renewal processes and removing barriers, including by eliminating face-to-face interview requirements and requiring prepopulated electronic renewal forms, to ensure eligible individuals are automatically enrolled in and retain access to critical benefit programs
- The Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) program within Medicare Part D is designed to facilitate access to Medicare benefits for individuals with limited incomes. Similarly, the MSPs share comparable income and resource eligibility criteria. Nonetheless, a significant number of LIS program enrollees remain unenrolled in MSPs, despite comparable eligibility requirements. To address this inefficiency, CMS now allows States to transfer an applicant’s information from the LIS program to the same individual’s application for MSPs and to determine eligibility in the MSPs. This change, announced in a CMS final rule in September 2023, will alleviate administrative burdens for individuals and make it easier for States to enroll eligible LIS recipients into the MSPs.
Develop guidance for entities regulated pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) on providing telehealth in compliance with HIPAA rules, to improve patient experience and convenience following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency
- The Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released guidance explaining how audio-only telehealth may be provided by practitioners in compliance with the HIPAA Rules, including when OCR’s Notification of Enforcement Discretion for Telehealth Remote Communications (Telehealth Notification) and the COVID-19 public health emergency is no longer in effect, making it easier for Americans to access vital care while protecting their health information privacy.
Test methods to automate patient access to electronic prenatal, birth, and postpartum health records (including lab results, genetic tests, ultrasound images, and clinical notes) to improve patient experiences in maternity care, health outcomes, and equity
- The Office of the National Coordinator for Health (ONC) has worked to test methods to automate patient access to electronic health records to improve patient experiences in maternity care, health outcomes, and equity to benefit pregnant mothers, social service providers, clinicians, other payors / providers, developers, vendors, others. With the first pilot, 4,000 women have been empowered to better understand their lab results with information approved and verified by their provider to ensure a healthy pregnancy and the healthy delivery of their child. This workflow will now become part of the company’s UX and be a feature that is on the roadmap for all providers supporting women during pregnancy.
- In the subsequent pilot, enhancements were made available to a Patient Request tool to customers nationwide. As of November 30, 2022, the Patient Request tool has been implemented at over 1,000 healthcare provider sites, used by more than 700,000 patients, and received positive feedback from more than 95% of those patients. The partnership and roll-out of the tool with Virginia-based Sentara health care represents an opportunity to change the experience women have during pregnancy and beyond. HHS would also like to recognize Path Group, Datavant, and Luminate Health for their participation.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall:
Continue to design and deliver new, personalized online tools and expanded customer support options for Medicare enrollees
- The Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) used extensive user interviews and prototyping to better understand Medicare customers’ needs to inform improvements to Medicare.gov such as redesigned homepages, navigation, mobile responsiveness, and task lists for the 2022 Open Enrollment Season. More details on these improvements are as follows:
- A redesigned Medicare Plan Finder summary page that highlights existing coverage, drugs, and pharmacies and allows easy access to edit those items directly without going through multiple page clicks
- A comparison of year-over-year coverage – what your existing plan will look like next year if you don’t take any action during the 2022 open enrollment period
- An in-network pharmacy finder – highlighting lower-cost pharmacy options
- A notification flagging when a user takes a drug for which there is a newly available Interchangeable Biologics (IB) treatment option which often costs less.
- As a result of changes like these, Medicare has found that there is a 72% increase in satisfaction (up from 52%) in Medicare for those operating behind an authenticated login experience, and a 15% increase in authenticated uses of its website by returning users.
Strengthen requirements for maternal health quality measurement, including measuring perinatal quality and patient care experiences, and evaluating the measurements by race and ethnicity to aim to better identify inequities in maternal health care delivery and outcomes
- In July 2022, CMS released a Maternity Care Action Plan to support and implement the Biden-Harris Maternal Health Blueprint. The action plan takes a holistic and coordinated approach across CMS to improve health outcomes and reduce inequities for people during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.
- On August 1, 2022, CMS finalized the creation of a “Birthing-Friendly” hospital designation through the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Care Hospitals (LTCH PPS) Final Rule. This designation will be available on a consumer-friendly display, to indicate a hospital’s commitment to improving maternal health outcomes through participation in maternity care quality activities. CMS will give this designation to hospitals that report “yes” to both questions in the Maternal Morbidity Structural Measure for CY 2022, reporting to the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program. Designation results will be posted to a CMS website in Fall 2023. In the future, CMS may consider a more robust set of criteria that may include other maternal health-related measures for awarding the designation.
- CMS finalized the FY 2023 IPPS-LTCH PPS final rule FY 2023 Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Care Hospitals (LTCH PPS) Final Rule, which also includes two perinatal Electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs)—Cesarean Birth and Severe Obstetric Complications—available for self-selection beginning with the CY 2023 reporting period/FY 2025 payment determination followed by mandatory reporting beginning with the CY 2024 reporting period/FY 2026 payment determination.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support coordination between benefit programs to ensure applicants and beneficiaries in one program are automatically enrolled in other programs for which they are eligible
- The Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families, in collaboration with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announced a new policy to make it easier for familiesto demonstrate eligibility for Head Start by showing proof of their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation.
- The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), in collaboration with the United States Digital Service (USDS), announced the release of the Guide to Creating a Family Friendly Child Care Assistance Application. This digital resource provides states with guidance on how to simplify the child care assistance application process for families and adopt best practices for eligibility processing, including the elimination of non-essential enrollment requirements and bringing applications online.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support streamlining State enrollment and renewal processes and removing barriers, including by eliminating face-to-face interview requirements and requiring prepopulated electronic renewal forms, to ensure eligible individuals are automatically enrolled in and retain access to critical benefit programs
- The Low-Income Subsidy (LIS) program within Medicare Part D is designed to facilitate access to Medicare benefits for individuals with limited incomes. Similarly, the MSPs share comparable income and resource eligibility criteria. Nonetheless, a significant number of LIS program enrollees remain unenrolled in MSPs, despite comparable eligibility requirements. To address this inefficiency, CMS now allows States to transfer an applicant’s information from the LIS program to the same individual’s application for MSPs and to determine eligibility in the MSPs. This change, announced in a CMS final rule in September 2023, will alleviate administrative burdens for individuals and make it easier for States to enroll eligible LIS recipients into the MSPs.
Develop guidance for entities regulated pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) on providing telehealth in compliance with HIPAA rules, to improve patient experience and convenience following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency
- The Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released guidance explaining how audio-only telehealth may be provided by practitioners in compliance with the HIPAA Rules, including when OCR’s Notification of Enforcement Discretion for Telehealth Remote Communications (Telehealth Notification) and the COVID-19 public health emergency is no longer in effect, making it easier for Americans to access vital care while protecting their health information privacy.
Test methods to automate patient access to electronic prenatal, birth, and postpartum health records (including lab results, genetic tests, ultrasound images, and clinical notes) to improve patient experiences in maternity care, health outcomes, and equity
- The Office of the National Coordinator for Health (ONC) has worked to test methods to automate patient access to electronic health records to improve patient experiences in maternity care, health outcomes, and equity to benefit pregnant mothers, social service providers, clinicians, other payors / providers, developers, vendors, others. With the first pilot, 4,000 women have been empowered to better understand their lab results with information approved and verified by their provider to ensure a healthy pregnancy and the healthy delivery of their child. This workflow will now become part of the company’s UX and be a feature that is on the roadmap for all providers supporting women during pregnancy.
- In the subsequent pilot, enhancements were made available to a Patient Request tool to customers nationwide. As of November 30, 2022, the Patient Request tool has been implemented at over 1,000 healthcare provider sites, used by more than 700,000 patients, and received positive feedback from more than 95% of those patients. The partnership and roll-out of the tool with Virginia-based Sentara health care represents an opportunity to change the experience women have during pregnancy and beyond. HHS would also like to recognize Path Group, Datavant, and Luminate Health for their participation.
The Secretary of Education shall:
Consider providing eligible recipients of student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-329), as amended, with the option to receive information about certain benefits and services for which they may qualify
- In light of the pandemic, many students struggled to stay in school and make ends meet, so it is crucial that they are aware of benefits that may be available to them. Federal Student Aid (FSA) issued guidance to institutions of higher education about how and when FAFSA data may be used to help inform students of benefits and opportunities that may be available to them, like the Affordable Connectivity Program. Federal Student Aid (FSA) has also conducted email outreach campaigns to those students who may be eligible for other programs.
Design and deliver a repayment portal capability on StudentAid.gov for Direct Loan borrowers
- To deliver a repayment portal on StudentAid.gov, Federal Student Aid must award new, long-term loan servicing contracts. These contracts are being procured under the Unified Servicing and Data Solution effort, which is gaining momentum as FSA moves ahead with negotiations with prospective servicers. After awards are made, FSA will work with the new servicers to build out single sign-on functionality, which will provide borrowers with the ability to seamlessly move between servicer websites and StudentAid.gov. Over time, repayment functionality will be transitioned to StudentAid.gov, which will achieve the goal of having a single repayment portal.
- In August 2022, the Administration announced a one-time student loan debt relief program that would provide low- and middle-income Americans most likely to struggle repaying their student loans up to $20,000 in student debt relief. In just a few weeks, FSA implemented an agile, customer-driven approach to develop a process and form through which more than 26 million American applied. The form was simple, requiring only the applicants’ name, Social Security number, date of birth, and contact information. Applying took less than five minutes and required no additional documentation - no forms to upload and no special log-in to remember. The application was accessible, available in English and Spanish, and on desktop and mobile.
- Nearly 8 million borrowers were eligible to receive relief without applying—unless they choose to opt out—because relevant income data is already available to the U.S. Department of Education. The team put user needs at the center of all decisions, which led to significant positive feedback both from users and the public, press, and government tech community.
- In a recent survey, 97% of Americans with student loans who applied for debt relief described the experience as positive and almost 70% very positive.
- At present, court orders are preventing the Department of Education from providing the debt relief.
The Secretary of Education shall:
Consider providing eligible recipients of student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-329), as amended, with the option to receive information about certain benefits and services for which they may qualify
- In light of the pandemic, many students struggled to stay in school and make ends meet, so it is crucial that they are aware of benefits that may be available to them. Federal Student Aid (FSA) issued guidance to institutions of higher education about how and when FAFSA data may be used to help inform students of benefits and opportunities that may be available to them, like the Affordable Connectivity Program. Federal Student Aid (FSA) has also conducted email outreach campaigns to those students who may be eligible for other programs.
Design and deliver a repayment portal capability on StudentAid.gov for Direct Loan borrowers
- To deliver a repayment portal on StudentAid.gov, Federal Student Aid must award new, long-term loan servicing contracts. These contracts are being procured under the Unified Servicing and Data Solution effort, which is gaining momentum as FSA moves ahead with negotiations with prospective servicers. After awards are made, FSA will work with the new servicers to build out single sign-on functionality, which will provide borrowers with the ability to seamlessly move between servicer websites and StudentAid.gov. Over time, repayment functionality will be transitioned to StudentAid.gov, which will achieve the goal of having a single repayment portal.
- In August 2022, the Administration announced a one-time student loan debt relief program that would provide low- and middle-income Americans most likely to struggle repaying their student loans up to $20,000 in student debt relief. In just a few weeks, FSA implemented an agile, customer-driven approach to develop a process and form through which more than 26 million American applied. The form was simple, requiring only the applicants’ name, Social Security number, date of birth, and contact information. Applying took less than five minutes and required no additional documentation - no forms to upload and no special log-in to remember. The application was accessible, available in English and Spanish, and on desktop and mobile.
- Nearly 8 million borrowers were eligible to receive relief without applying—unless they choose to opt out—because relevant income data is already available to the U.S. Department of Education. The team put user needs at the center of all decisions, which led to significant positive feedback both from users and the public, press, and government tech community.
- In a recent survey, 97% of Americans with student loans who applied for debt relief described the experience as positive and almost 70% very positive.
- At present, court orders are preventing the Department of Education from providing the debt relief.
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall:
Provide digital services through a single, integrated, and equitable digital platform on VA.gov and the VA mobile app and provide on-demand customer support through the channels that work best for customers, including personalized online chat with a virtual or live agent
- The Department Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.S. Digital Service (USDS) released the VA Health and Benefits mobile app. With over 1 million downloads and over 500k+ monthly users the app is proving to be a valuable tool to provide Veterans with quick, easy access to important services. Veterans can use the app to locate VA facilities, view or cancel their appointments, securely message their health care providers, view the status of their claim(s) and appeal(s), view payments, and access Veteran crisis services. On both Google Play and the Apple App Store, VA’s mobile app has ~4.6+ star combined ranking with 70,000 ratings. VA has also addressed accessibility for Veterans who do not have access to a smart device by providing a tablet to Veterans who need it to use VA’s mobile app.
- VA quickly stood up a digital front door to support implementation of the PACT Act (Pub. L. 117-168). Of the 117,800 Veterans who filed a PACT Act claim by November 2022, more than 24,000 provided feedback to VA–with 66.3% “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” with the statement “It was easy to file my PACT Act claim” and nearly 30% of respondents saying that they found out about applying through a notification from VA (on par with those that learned through a Veteran Service Officer or Organization). Further actions associated with the PACT Act include:
- Communications and Outreach: VA created a customer touchpoint map and customer personas to use as foundational outreach tools to speak to customers in a way that builds trust and encourages Veterans and survivors to apply for PACT Act-related care and benefits.
- Landing Page (VA.gov/pact): On August 11, 2022, the day after the bill was signed into law, VA.gov/PACT garnered more than 3.3 million views.
- Call Centers: VA enhanced 1-800-MyVA411 (1-800-698-2411)—an easy-to-remember telephonic front door for Veterans and their supporters—to include self-service PACT Act Frequently Asked Questions and seamless navigation to 24/7 live agents to address Veteran concerns.
- Chatbot: Updated chatbot on VA.gov shortly after the enactment of the legislation, to be able to answer PACT questions and help with VA.gov navigation relating to PACT.
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall:
Provide digital services through a single, integrated, and equitable digital platform on VA.gov and the VA mobile app and provide on-demand customer support through the channels that work best for customers, including personalized online chat with a virtual or live agent
- The Department Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.S. Digital Service (USDS) released the VA Health and Benefits mobile app. With over 1 million downloads and over 500k+ monthly users the app is proving to be a valuable tool to provide Veterans with quick, easy access to important services. Veterans can use the app to locate VA facilities, view or cancel their appointments, securely message their health care providers, view the status of their claim(s) and appeal(s), view payments, and access Veteran crisis services. On both Google Play and the Apple App Store, VA’s mobile app has ~4.6+ star combined ranking with 70,000 ratings. VA has also addressed accessibility for Veterans who do not have access to a smart device by providing a tablet to Veterans who need it to use VA’s mobile app.
- VA quickly stood up a digital front door to support implementation of the PACT Act (Pub. L. 117-168). Of the 117,800 Veterans who filed a PACT Act claim by November 2022, more than 24,000 provided feedback to VA–with 66.3% “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” with the statement “It was easy to file my PACT Act claim” and nearly 30% of respondents saying that they found out about applying through a notification from VA (on par with those that learned through a Veteran Service Officer or Organization). Further actions associated with the PACT Act include:
- Communications and Outreach: VA created a customer touchpoint map and customer personas to use as foundational outreach tools to speak to customers in a way that builds trust and encourages Veterans and survivors to apply for PACT Act-related care and benefits.
- Landing Page (VA.gov/pact): On August 11, 2022, the day after the bill was signed into law, VA.gov/PACT garnered more than 3.3 million views.
- Call Centers: VA enhanced 1-800-MyVA411 (1-800-698-2411)—an easy-to-remember telephonic front door for Veterans and their supporters—to include self-service PACT Act Frequently Asked Questions and seamless navigation to 24/7 live agents to address Veteran concerns.
- Chatbot: Updated chatbot on VA.gov shortly after the enactment of the legislation, to be able to answer PACT questions and help with VA.gov navigation relating to PACT.
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall:
Test the use of innovative technologies at airport security checkpoints to reduce passenger wait times
- To date, TSA has successfully launched four digital identity documents (IDs) with four different issuing authorities and enabled digital ID capabilities for TSA PreCheck® passengers at 12 airports across the country through the use of TSA’s 2nd generation Credential Authentication Technology (CAT-2). The use of digital IDs will increase passenger privacy protections, enhance airport security effectiveness, and reduce the risk of encountering stolen or counterfeited physical IDs. For the full list of airports, participating states/issuing authorities, and eligible digital IDs, visit https://www.tsa.gov/digital-id.
- All 10.2 million licensed drivers in Arizona, Colorado, and Maryland are now able to enroll in a mobile driver’s license (mDL) stored in Apple Wallet to use at select TSA PreCheck® checkpoints for airport security screening purposes.
- TSA also began processing TSA PreCheck® passengers that presented their American Airlines digital ID stored on an Android or iOS device select TSA PreCheck® checkpoints for airport security screening purposes.
- TSA continues to onboard additional mDL states and digital ID partners. TSA is coordinating with state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMVs), National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), and other stakeholders (e.g., International Organization for Standardization, International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC)) to align its digital identity strategies with industry standards and best practices to securely receive and authenticate digital ID information and verify a person’s identity.
- In addition, TSA is piloting facial identification technology, known as TSA PreCheck®: Touchless Identity Solution. This technology streamlines the passenger journey for Trusted Travelers (e.g., TSA PreCheck®, CBP Global Entry) who choose to participate at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) checkpoint and both the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) checkpoint and bag drop touchpoints. TSA PreCheck®: Touchless Identity Solution uses CBP’s Traveler Verification Service to compare a live image taken to a gallery of pre-staged photos that the passenger previously provided to the Federal Government (e.g., U.S. Passport or Visa) for identification purposes.
- Feedback from the pilot has been incredibly positive: “TSA’s airline partner reported 80% faster bag drop experience when passengers used TSA PreCheck®: Touchless Identity Solution to check their bags.”
- TSA is working to expand this capability to additional airports which will be announced at a later date.
- TSA is working to ensure the exploration of biometric and digital identity solutions is grounded in rigorous scientific study and analysis. TSA understands the importance of using these technologies carefully, and is committed to protecting passenger privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties and ensuring the public’s trust.
Provide new opportunities for customers to connect with the Transportation Security Administration, including as appropriate, online chat, improved communication during additional screenings, and additional mechanisms to provide customer feedback
- TSA has institutionalized a CX training for the entire screening workforce to emphasize how customer service supports TSA’s security mission and which departments are available to support staff in customer service needs. “CX Demystified” was added to the TSO new hire basic training program at the TSA Academy in Glynco, GA in May. The training is also offered on a monthly basis to the entire screening workforce, via targeted trainings to airports requesting customized sessions, and to TSA’s red “covert testing” teams. Over 6,750 TSA employees have received this training by the end of December 2022.
- TSA has developed a live chat feature for tsa.gov and is working to obtain a virtual assistant to support the launch of this feature. The tsa.gov website currently receives four million unique monthly visitors. The addition of virtual assistant and live chat on tsa.gov would be capable of responding to up to 75% of the monthly inquiries coming into the TSA Contact Center. The public’s time will be greatly reduced from agent-assisted services as the virtual assistant will be available 24/7/365.
Design and deliver a streamlined, online disaster assistance application
- In October 2022, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff from the Office of Administrator and Recovery Technology Program Division traveled to Fort Myers, FL to observe recovery efforts underway for Hurricane Ian. The observations, research, and designers’ firsthand experience of applicants’ pain points will be used as the basis to improve and simplify Disasterassistance.gov.
- FEMA increased translated content on FEMA.gov and Ready.gov to support over nine additional languages for key information concerning individual assistance and disaster preparedness.
- Additionally, FEMA launched a completely redesigned FEMA mobile app that is more accessible for people with disabilities and uses human-centered design principles to better support the disaster survivor experience.
Work with States to proactively update existing rules and policies on supporting documentation needed for disaster assistance processes to reduce burden and increase accessibility
- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through FEMA, has made it easier for survivors to navigate getting disaster assistance, particularly when it comes to providing documentation relating to ownership, occupancy, and self-certification. Through July 2, 2022, the expanded eligible ownership documentation resulted in an additional 43,283 survivors receiving and additional $199M in assistance. The expanded eligible occupancy documentation resulted in an additional 54,866 survivors receiving an additional $148M in assistance.
- Geospatial inspections (GIS), imagery, and models from Hurricane Ian substituted for wind-damage inspections for Individual Assistance and Public Assistance for the first time. 11% of cases were processed primarily using a machine learning algorithm without requiring an inspector--which represented the majority of destroyed or severely damaged homes.
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall:
Test the use of innovative technologies at airport security checkpoints to reduce passenger wait times
- To date, TSA has successfully launched four digital identity documents (IDs) with four different issuing authorities and enabled digital ID capabilities for TSA PreCheck® passengers at 12 airports across the country through the use of TSA’s 2nd generation Credential Authentication Technology (CAT-2). The use of digital IDs will increase passenger privacy protections, enhance airport security effectiveness, and reduce the risk of encountering stolen or counterfeited physical IDs. For the full list of airports, participating states/issuing authorities, and eligible digital IDs, visit https://www.tsa.gov/digital-id.
- All 10.2 million licensed drivers in Arizona, Colorado, and Maryland are now able to enroll in a mobile driver’s license (mDL) stored in Apple Wallet to use at select TSA PreCheck® checkpoints for airport security screening purposes.
- TSA also began processing TSA PreCheck® passengers that presented their American Airlines digital ID stored on an Android or iOS device select TSA PreCheck® checkpoints for airport security screening purposes.
- TSA continues to onboard additional mDL states and digital ID partners. TSA is coordinating with state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMVs), National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), and other stakeholders (e.g., International Organization for Standardization, International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC)) to align its digital identity strategies with industry standards and best practices to securely receive and authenticate digital ID information and verify a person’s identity.
- In addition, TSA is piloting facial identification technology, known as TSA PreCheck®: Touchless Identity Solution. This technology streamlines the passenger journey for Trusted Travelers (e.g., TSA PreCheck®, CBP Global Entry) who choose to participate at the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) checkpoint and both the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) checkpoint and bag drop touchpoints. TSA PreCheck®: Touchless Identity Solution uses CBP’s Traveler Verification Service to compare a live image taken to a gallery of pre-staged photos that the passenger previously provided to the Federal Government (e.g., U.S. Passport or Visa) for identification purposes.
- Feedback from the pilot has been incredibly positive: “TSA’s airline partner reported 80% faster bag drop experience when passengers used TSA PreCheck®: Touchless Identity Solution to check their bags.”
- TSA is working to expand this capability to additional airports which will be announced at a later date.
- TSA is working to ensure the exploration of biometric and digital identity solutions is grounded in rigorous scientific study and analysis. TSA understands the importance of using these technologies carefully, and is committed to protecting passenger privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties and ensuring the public’s trust.
Provide new opportunities for customers to connect with the Transportation Security Administration, including as appropriate, online chat, improved communication during additional screenings, and additional mechanisms to provide customer feedback
- TSA has institutionalized a CX training for the entire screening workforce to emphasize how customer service supports TSA’s security mission and which departments are available to support staff in customer service needs. “CX Demystified” was added to the TSO new hire basic training program at the TSA Academy in Glynco, GA in May. The training is also offered on a monthly basis to the entire screening workforce, via targeted trainings to airports requesting customized sessions, and to TSA’s red “covert testing” teams. Over 6,750 TSA employees have received this training by the end of December 2022.
- TSA has developed a live chat feature for tsa.gov and is working to obtain a virtual assistant to support the launch of this feature. The tsa.gov website currently receives four million unique monthly visitors. The addition of virtual assistant and live chat on tsa.gov would be capable of responding to up to 75% of the monthly inquiries coming into the TSA Contact Center. The public’s time will be greatly reduced from agent-assisted services as the virtual assistant will be available 24/7/365.
Design and deliver a streamlined, online disaster assistance application
- In October 2022, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff from the Office of Administrator and Recovery Technology Program Division traveled to Fort Myers, FL to observe recovery efforts underway for Hurricane Ian. The observations, research, and designers’ firsthand experience of applicants’ pain points will be used as the basis to improve and simplify Disasterassistance.gov.
- FEMA increased translated content on FEMA.gov and Ready.gov to support over nine additional languages for key information concerning individual assistance and disaster preparedness.
- Additionally, FEMA launched a completely redesigned FEMA mobile app that is more accessible for people with disabilities and uses human-centered design principles to better support the disaster survivor experience.
Work with States to proactively update existing rules and policies on supporting documentation needed for disaster assistance processes to reduce burden and increase accessibility
- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through FEMA, has made it easier for survivors to navigate getting disaster assistance, particularly when it comes to providing documentation relating to ownership, occupancy, and self-certification. Through July 2, 2022, the expanded eligible ownership documentation resulted in an additional 43,283 survivors receiving and additional $199M in assistance. The expanded eligible occupancy documentation resulted in an additional 54,866 survivors receiving an additional $148M in assistance.
- Geospatial inspections (GIS), imagery, and models from Hurricane Ian substituted for wind-damage inspections for Individual Assistance and Public Assistance for the first time. 11% of cases were processed primarily using a machine learning algorithm without requiring an inspector--which represented the majority of destroyed or severely damaged homes.
The Administrator of the Small Business Administration shall:
Establish baseline experience measures for key small business application processes in areas such as loans, grants, and certifications
-
The Small Business Administration (SBA) has implemented Customer Feedback Surveys with our Office of Field Operations and Office of Government Contracting and Business Development to establish baseline metrics of customer satisfaction.
Design and deliver a streamlined online disaster assistance application experience
- SBA is building a new borrower portal that will make it easier for SBA borrowers to apply for, manage, and pay back loans. The portal will launch in Spring 2023 with loan servicing and e-billing functionality for SBA's 4 million direct borrowers.
- SBA has designed a new online application for disaster lending and is now working to build out and test the system. This application will build off the success of the recently launched VetCert platform and will be incorporated into the borrower portal in 2023.
- The disaster assistance application has been rewritten in plain language and streamline by removing unnecessary questions and decreasing the reading level from post-graduate to grade 8.
The Administrator of the Small Business Administration shall:
Establish baseline experience measures for key small business application processes in areas such as loans, grants, and certifications
- The Small Business Administration (SBA) has implemented Customer Feedback Surveys with our Office of Field Operations and Office of Government Contracting and Business Development to establish baseline metrics of customer satisfaction.
Design and deliver a streamlined online disaster assistance application experience
- SBA is building a new borrower portal that will make it easier for SBA borrowers to apply for, manage, and pay back loans. The portal will launch in Spring 2023 with loan servicing and e-billing functionality for SBA's 4 million direct borrowers.
- SBA has designed a new online application for disaster lending and is now working to build out and test the system. This application will build off the success of the recently launched VetCert platform and will be incorporated into the borrower portal in 2023.
- The disaster assistance application has been rewritten in plain language and streamline by removing unnecessary questions and decreasing the reading level from post-graduate to grade 8.
The Commissioner of Social Security shall:
Within 120 days of the date of this order, provide a report to the Director of OMB that analyzes all services of the Social Security Administration that currently require original or physical documentation or in-person appearance as an element of identity or evidence authentication, and that identifies potential opportunities for policy reforms that can support modernized customer experiences while ensuring original or physical documentation requirements remain where there is a statutory or strong policy rationale
- SSA reviewed all 3,000 statutory, regulatory, and sub-regulatory policy forms and identified 31 services requiring original or physical documentation or in-person appearance as an element of identity or evidence authentication and removed wet signature or in-person appearance requirements from three policies (with a fourth policy currently in evaluation). Those three updated policies are:
- Allowing Direct Express Debit Cardholders who want to change their direct deposit information to provide alternative verification over the phone.
- Allowing alternate verification methods for individuals who file an Internet application which is later identified as potentially fraudulent or anomalous claims.
- Modifying the memorandum of understanding with Treasury and Comerica by changing the consent-based process for Direct Express card holders so that individuals can call Comerica.
Develop a mobile-accessible, online process so that any individual applying for or receiving services from the Social Security Administration can upload forms, documentation, evidence, or correspondence associated with their transaction without the need for service-specific tools or traveling to a field office
- In December 2022, SSA launched a redesign of SSA.gov, which serves over 180 million visitors per year, to improve customer service and ability to complete online business. This new website, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Digital Service, greets users with a task-focused site, is written in plain language, and has Spanish translations for every page.
- SSA partnered with the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS) to use State marriage certificates to allow newlyweds in five participating States (Missouri, Arkansas, South Dakota, Georgia, and Wyoming) to apply for an updated Social Security card based on name change. The online application is short, uses electronic signatures, and can verify marriage status electronically. In the future, SSA plans to expand the online application process for name change due to marriage to additional States, based on available State data and other resources. With about 2 million marriages annually in the United States, SSA we estimate that 1.3 million people per year could benefit from this online service if participation were expanded to all States.
Consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, maintain a public policy of technology neutrality with respect to acceptable forms of electronic signatures
- SSA now maintains a public policy of technology neutrality with respect to acceptable forms of electronic signatures. In conjunction with the release of the click-to-sign eSignature capability in September 2023, SSA amended GN 00201.015: Alternative Signature Methods in the Program Operations Manual System to include the following language: Our requirements for electronic signatures comply with applicable law and policies, such as Public Law 106-229.
Consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, revise any necessary regulations, forms, instructions, or other sources of guidance (to include the Program Operations Manual System of the Social Security Administration) to remove requirements that members of the public provide physical signatures
-
SSA inventoried more than 3,000 active agency forms to determine forms requiring a pen-and-ink signature. The SSA team
gathered additional data points, including the basis for the pen-and-ink signature and whether alternative signature
methods were also permitted. Since completing the inventory, SSA has prioritized forms/policies where either the
signature requirement can be removed, or, an eSignature option could be added.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support applicants and beneficiaries to identify other benefits for which they may be eligible and integrate Social Security Administration data and processes with those of other Federal and State entities whenever possible
- SSA and USDA – Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announced a strengthened partnership to help connect Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. USDA and SSA’s joint agreement, or memorandum of understanding, will improve efficiency, helping to advance food and nutrition security and reduce the hurdles families face to obtain the government assistance they need. SSA employees notify SSI applicants and recipients of their eligibility for SNAP and take applications for food assistance when everyone in a household is applying for or receiving SSI.
- SSA released a new fact sheet on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other programs and resources for both English and Spanish speakers with limited income.
The Commissioner of Social Security shall:
Within 120 days of the date of this order, provide a report to the Director of OMB that analyzes all services of the Social Security Administration that currently require original or physical documentation or in-person appearance as an element of identity or evidence authentication, and that identifies potential opportunities for policy reforms that can support modernized customer experiences while ensuring original or physical documentation requirements remain where there is a statutory or strong policy rationale
- SSA reviewed all 3,000 statutory, regulatory, and sub-regulatory policy forms and identified 31 services requiring original or physical documentation or in-person appearance as an element of identity or evidence authentication and removed wet signature or in-person appearance requirements from three policies (with a fourth policy currently in evaluation). Those three updated policies are:
- Allowing Direct Express Debit Cardholders who want to change their direct deposit information to provide alternative verification over the phone.
- Allowing alternate verification methods for individuals who file an Internet application which is later identified as potentially fraudulent or anomalous claims.
- Modifying the memorandum of understanding with Treasury and Comerica by changing the consent-based process for Direct Express card holders so that individuals can call Comerica.
Develop a mobile-accessible, online process so that any individual applying for or receiving services from the Social Security Administration can upload forms, documentation, evidence, or correspondence associated with their transaction without the need for service-specific tools or traveling to a field office
- In December 2022, SSA launched a redesign of SSA.gov, which serves over 180 million visitors per year, to improve customer service and ability to complete online business. This new website, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Digital Service, greets users with a task-focused site, is written in plain language, and has Spanish translations for every page.
- SSA partnered with the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS) to use State marriage certificates to allow newlyweds in five participating States (Missouri, Arkansas, South Dakota, Georgia, and Wyoming) to apply for an updated Social Security card based on name change. The online application is short, uses electronic signatures, and can verify marriage status electronically. In the future, SSA plans to expand the online application process for name change due to marriage to additional States, based on available State data and other resources. With about 2 million marriages annually in the United States, SSA we estimate that 1.3 million people per year could benefit from this online service if participation were expanded to all States.
Consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, maintain a public policy of technology neutrality with respect to acceptable forms of electronic signatures
- SSA now maintains a public policy of technology neutrality with respect to acceptable forms of electronic signatures. In conjunction with the release of the click-to-sign eSignature capability in September 2023, SSA amended GN 00201.015: Alternative Signature Methods in the Program Operations Manual System to include the following language: Our requirements for electronic signatures comply with applicable law and policies, such as Public Law 106-229.
Consistent with applicable law and to the extent practicable, revise any necessary regulations, forms, instructions, or other sources of guidance (to include the Program Operations Manual System of the Social Security Administration) to remove requirements that members of the public provide physical signatures
- SSA inventoried more than 3,000 active agency forms to determine forms requiring a pen-and-ink signature. The SSA team gathered additional data points, including the basis for the pen-and-ink signature and whether alternative signature methods were also permitted. Since completing the inventory, SSA has prioritized forms/policies where either the signature requirement can be removed, or, an eSignature option could be added.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, support applicants and beneficiaries to identify other benefits for which they may be eligible and integrate Social Security Administration data and processes with those of other Federal and State entities whenever possible
- SSA and USDA – Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) announced a strengthened partnership to help connect Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. USDA and SSA’s joint agreement, or memorandum of understanding, will improve efficiency, helping to advance food and nutrition security and reduce the hurdles families face to obtain the government assistance they need. SSA employees notify SSI applicants and recipients of their eligibility for SNAP and take applications for food assistance when everyone in a household is applying for or receiving SSI.
- SSA released a new fact sheet on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other programs and resources for both English and Spanish speakers with limited income.
The Administrator of General Services shall:
Develop a roadmap for a redesigned USA.gov website that aims to serve as a centralized, digital "Federal Front Door" from which customers may navigate to all Government benefits, services, and programs, and features streamlined content, processes, and technologies that use human-centered design to meet customer needs, including consolidating content currently appearing on Benefits.gov, Grants.gov, and other appropriate websites
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GSA has developed and is implementing a roadmap for USAGov to streamline its content and make it easier for the public
to find and access government benefits, services, and programs in English and Spanish. A beta site for USAGov has been
launched to test improvements and new features, and data is being collected to inform future improvements.
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GSA is working with the Department of Labor and OMB to do an analysis of Benefits.gov and develop a plan.
Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Administrator of General Services shall submit to the Director of OMB a
roadmap for the development of prioritized common services and standards (such as the United States Web Design System or
systems for login and identity management), platforms (such as notification capabilities), and digital products (such as
USA.gov) that support increased efficiency, integration, and improved service delivery of designated customer life
experiences.
- The Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer (OFCIO) at OMB and the General Services Administration (GSA) have been continuing to collaborate on how shared Federal digital products and services can be better designed and built to enable agencies to deliver a simple, seamless, and secure customer experience. GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) has developed a roadmap of the investments being made to improve shared digital services.
- The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) made its first project investments from the $100 million CX allocation to OFCIO and designated for technology projects that help streamline and improve public-facing digital services and agency systems. Ongoing updates on this commitment will be shared as part of the President’s Management Agenda on the Priority Area 2, Strategy 3 website.
Dedicate multi-disciplinary design and development teams to support priority projects of HISPs that will be selected and funded each fiscal year in consultation with the Director of OMB
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GSA is providing multi-disciplinary design and development teams to work directly with agency High-Impact Service
Providers (HISPs) to help them advance their CX capabilities. Teams within GSA’s TTS have provided support to many HISPs
as they work through their discovery efforts and plans to design and implement.
The Administrator of General Services shall:
Develop a roadmap for a redesigned USA.gov website that aims to serve as a centralized, digital "Federal Front Door" from which customers may navigate to all Government benefits, services, and programs, and features streamlined content, processes, and technologies that use human-centered design to meet customer needs, including consolidating content currently appearing on Benefits.gov, Grants.gov, and other appropriate websites
- GSA has developed and is implementing a roadmap for USAGov to streamline its content and make it easier for the public to find and access government benefits, services, and programs in English and Spanish. A beta site for USAGov has been launched to test improvements and new features, and data is being collected to inform future improvements.
- GSA is working with the Department of Labor and OMB to do an analysis of Benefits.gov and develop a plan.
Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Administrator of General Services shall submit to the Director of OMB a roadmap for the development of prioritized common services and standards (such as the United States Web Design System or systems for login and identity management), platforms (such as notification capabilities), and digital products (such as USA.gov) that support increased efficiency, integration, and improved service delivery of designated customer life experiences.
- The Office of the Federal Chief Information Officer (OFCIO) at OMB and the General Services Administration (GSA) have been continuing to collaborate on how shared Federal digital products and services can be better designed and built to enable agencies to deliver a simple, seamless, and secure customer experience. GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS) has developed a roadmap of the investments being made to improve shared digital services.
- The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) made its first project investments from the $100 million CX allocation to OFCIO and designated for technology projects that help streamline and improve public-facing digital services and agency systems. Ongoing updates on this commitment will be shared as part of the President’s Management Agenda on the Priority Area 2, Strategy 3 website.
Dedicate multi-disciplinary design and development teams to support priority projects of HISPs that will be selected and funded each fiscal year in consultation with the Director of OMB
- GSA is providing multi-disciplinary design and development teams to work directly with agency High-Impact Service Providers (HISPs) to help them advance their CX capabilities. Teams within GSA’s TTS have provided support to many HISPs as they work through their discovery efforts and plans to design and implement.
The Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) shall:
Review and revise, as appropriate, regulations, forms, instructions, or other sources of guidance relating to the application for grants and cooperative agreements in countries in which USAID works to ensure that such policies are clear and intelligible, do not contain unjustified administrative burdens or excessive paperwork requirements, and do not place undue burdens on local organizations and underserved communities
- USAID launched WorkwithUSAID.org, which is a free resource hub that provides the knowledge and networks for organizations to work with USAID. On the platform, USAID has translated key resources into nine languages, including Arabic, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, and more. More than 2,600 organizations have taken the pre-engagement assessment to determine their readiness to partner with USAID. More than 3,350 organizations have registered in the Partner Directory, over 60% are local partners and nearly 80% have not worked with USAID before. To date, the website has had over 1.8 million pageviews and over 190,000 unique users.
The Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) shall:
Review and revise, as appropriate, regulations, forms, instructions, or other sources of guidance relating to the application for grants and cooperative agreements in countries in which USAID works to ensure that such policies are clear and intelligible, do not contain unjustified administrative burdens or excessive paperwork requirements, and do not place undue burdens on local organizations and underserved communities
- USAID launched WorkwithUSAID.org, which is a free resource hub that provides the knowledge and networks for organizations to work with USAID. On the platform, USAID has translated key resources into nine languages, including Arabic, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, and more. More than 2,600 organizations have taken the pre-engagement assessment to determine their readiness to partner with USAID. More than 3,350 organizations have registered in the Partner Directory, over 60% are local partners and nearly 80% have not worked with USAID before. To date, the website has had over 1.8 million pageviews and over 190,000 unique users.
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Administrator of General Services shall:
Collaborate to provide seamless integration of Login.gov accounts to allow customers to access VA.gov, the VA mobile application, and other customer-facing digital products and to eliminate outdated and duplicate customer sign-in options
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In March 2022, Veterans Affairs successfully integrated GSA’s Login.gov for Veterans and their families to be able to
securely access VA’s online services. Since the launch, Login.gov has enabled 1.2 million members of the Veterans
community to access the online resources of VA.
-
GSA and VA are working together to migrate the VA’s legacy credentialing systems to fully adopt the Login.gov platform
as the sole federally hosted authentication system. Once completed, this will allow users whose identities were verified
through the VA to transfer those credentials to a verified Login.gov account.
The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Education, and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall:
Collaborate to enable a more streamlined Public Service Loan Forgiveness process for eligible borrowers, including those who serve in the United States Armed Forces or as civil servants, or who work for eligible nonprofit organizations
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The Department of Education made operational changes to assist Service Members and Veterans. These changes included
making it more convenient for Veterans to complete the PSLF form by including a copy of their U.S. Department of Defense
(DoD) Form DD 214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214) to certify periods of employment.
Additionally, active-duty Service Members can now submit their Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) status reports
from the DoD’s SCRA website in lieu of the employer information.
-
For Federal employees, FSA worked with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to issue a memorandum, “Public Service
Loan Forgiveness: Certification of Federal Employment for Federal Employees,” which provides guidance on allowing the
employee’s current agency official to certify past periods of employment with other Federal entities.
-
FSA released the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Employer Search in July 2022. This look-up functionality allows
borrowers to search employers to verify eligibility for PSLF and does not require login with an FSA ID. The PSLF
Employer Search also helps support borrowers who may benefit from the Limited PSLF Waiver by providing them with the
ability to review their employer’s eligibility prior to taking steps to consolidate their loans or complete a PSLF form.
The Director of OMB, including through the Administrator of the United States Digital Service, shall:
Collaborate across the Federal Government with multiple agencies and their respective customers in order to conduct human-centered design research and document customer experience challenges related to accessing grant programs to which Tribal governments are entitled, and shall propose ways to streamline processes and reduce administrative burdens on Tribal government customers
- The OMB CX Team, USDS, and Lab at OMB designers completed a multi-week discovery sprint to understand Tribal experiences accessing Federal grants. Throughout the project, the research team worked closely with the Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs from the Domestic Policy Council and the Interagency Policy Council on Support for Tribes related to the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act. The IPC included representatives from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency. You can read the report and learn more about the work on performance.gov/cx.
The Director of OMB, through the Administrator of the United States Digital Service; the Administrator of General Services; and the Postmaster General are encouraged to:
Collaborate on ways to update mailing address records across Government so that members of the public may change their respective mailing addresses for purposes of all Government services only once, through the United States Postal Service
-
GSA’s TTS has led preliminary meetings with USPS, OMB, and potential agency partners. The three agencies are scoping a
focused discovery effort to identify barriers and solutions and are also looking into staffing.
The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Education, and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall:
Collaborate to enable a more streamlined Public Service Loan Forgiveness process for eligible borrowers, including those who serve in the United States Armed Forces or as civil servants, or who work for eligible nonprofit organizations
- The Department of Education made operational changes to assist Service Members and Veterans. These changes included making it more convenient for Veterans to complete the PSLF form by including a copy of their U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Form DD 214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214) to certify periods of employment. Additionally, active-duty Service Members can now submit their Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) status reports from the DoD’s SCRA website in lieu of the employer information.
- For Federal employees, FSA worked with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to issue a memorandum, “Public Service Loan Forgiveness: Certification of Federal Employment for Federal Employees,” which provides guidance on allowing the employee’s current agency official to certify past periods of employment with other Federal entities.
- FSA released the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Employer Search in July 2022. This look-up functionality allows borrowers to search employers to verify eligibility for PSLF and does not require login with an FSA ID. The PSLF Employer Search also helps support borrowers who may benefit from the Limited PSLF Waiver by providing them with the ability to review their employer’s eligibility prior to taking steps to consolidate their loans or complete a PSLF form.
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs and the Administrator of General Services shall:
Collaborate to provide seamless integration of Login.gov accounts to allow customers to access VA.gov, the VA mobile application, and other customer-facing digital products and to eliminate outdated and duplicate customer sign-in options
- In March 2022, Veterans Affairs successfully integrated GSA’s Login.gov for Veterans and their families to be able to securely access VA’s online services. Since the launch, Login.gov has enabled 1.2 million members of the Veterans community to access the online resources of VA.
- GSA and VA are working together to migrate the VA’s legacy credentialing systems to fully adopt the Login.gov platform as the sole federally hosted authentication system. Once completed, this will allow users whose identities were verified through the VA to transfer those credentials to a verified Login.gov account.
The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Education, and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall:
Collaborate to enable a more streamlined Public Service Loan Forgiveness process for eligible borrowers, including those who serve in the United States Armed Forces or as civil servants, or who work for eligible nonprofit organizations
- The Department of Education made operational changes to assist Service Members and Veterans. These changes included making it more convenient for Veterans to complete the PSLF form by including a copy of their U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Form DD 214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214) to certify periods of employment. Additionally, active-duty Service Members can now submit their Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) status reports from the DoD’s SCRA website in lieu of the employer information.
- For Federal employees, FSA worked with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to issue a memorandum, “Public Service Loan Forgiveness: Certification of Federal Employment for Federal Employees,” which provides guidance on allowing the employee’s current agency official to certify past periods of employment with other Federal entities.
- FSA released the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Employer Search in July 2022. This look-up functionality allows borrowers to search employers to verify eligibility for PSLF and does not require login with an FSA ID. The PSLF Employer Search also helps support borrowers who may benefit from the Limited PSLF Waiver by providing them with the ability to review their employer’s eligibility prior to taking steps to consolidate their loans or complete a PSLF form.
The Director of OMB, including through the Administrator of the United States Digital Service, shall:
Collaborate across the Federal Government with multiple agencies and their respective customers in order to conduct human-centered design research and document customer experience challenges related to accessing grant programs to which Tribal governments are entitled, and shall propose ways to streamline processes and reduce administrative burdens on Tribal government customers
- The OMB CX Team, USDS, and Lab at OMB designers completed a multi-week discovery sprint to understand Tribal experiences accessing Federal grants. Throughout the project, the research team worked closely with the Senior Advisor on Tribal Affairs from the Domestic Policy Council and the Interagency Policy Council on Support for Tribes related to the American Rescue Plan Act and the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act. The IPC included representatives from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Treasury, and the Environmental Protection Agency. You can read the report and learn more about the work on performance.gov/cx.
The Director of OMB, through the Administrator of the United States Digital Service; the Administrator of General Services; and the Postmaster General are encouraged to:
Collaborate on ways to update mailing address records across Government so that members of the public may change their respective mailing addresses for purposes of all Government services only once, through the United States Postal Service
- GSA’s TTS has led preliminary meetings with USPS, OMB, and potential agency partners. The three agencies are scoping a focused discovery effort to identify barriers and solutions and are also looking into staffing.
The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Education, and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall:
Collaborate to enable a more streamlined Public Service Loan Forgiveness process for eligible borrowers, including those who serve in the United States Armed Forces or as civil servants, or who work for eligible nonprofit organizations
- The Department of Education made operational changes to assist Service Members and Veterans. These changes included making it more convenient for Veterans to complete the PSLF form by including a copy of their U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Form DD 214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214) to certify periods of employment. Additionally, active-duty Service Members can now submit their Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) status reports from the DoD’s SCRA website in lieu of the employer information.
- For Federal employees, FSA worked with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to issue a memorandum, “Public Service Loan Forgiveness: Certification of Federal Employment for Federal Employees,” which provides guidance on allowing the employee’s current agency official to certify past periods of employment with other Federal entities.
- FSA released the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Employer Search in July 2022. This look-up functionality allows borrowers to search employers to verify eligibility for PSLF and does not require login with an FSA ID. The PSLF Employer Search also helps support borrowers who may benefit from the Limited PSLF Waiver by providing them with the ability to review their employer’s eligibility prior to taking steps to consolidate their loans or complete a PSLF form.
Additionally, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has taken concrete steps in spirit of the Executive Order to improve Customer Experience of key services:
Designing and delivering modernization efforts of Federal Housing Authority’s call center and provide expanded self-service options
- In FY 2022, Federal Housing Authority (FHA) replaced a seven-year-old legacy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to enable a multichannel experience for customers to contact the FHA resource center. FHA has endured leveraging various legacy CRM systems since 2005 that prevented Housing from providing optimal customer service to our external partners.
- The FHA Resource Center project recently launched a pilot technology modernization project to improve the efficiency and productivity of telephone-based communication by enabling concurrent computer-based tasks—this pilot will be expanded to allow HUD employees to communicate with our customers more efficiently and effectively.
- The FHA Resource Center is in the process of developing a customer self-service portal to allow for lenders and program participants to easily submit FHA documents online. This will reduce costs and processing times.
Designing and delivering trauma informed tools and/or services for complainants utilizing the housing discrimination complaint process
- In FY 2022, HUD, in partnership with GSA’s CX Center of Excellence, researched the lived experiences of complainants filing housing discrimination complaints to uncover pain points and opportunity areas to improve satisfaction and trust in HUD.
- In FY 2023, HUD is working to incorporate Voice of the Customer surveys into the housing discrimination complaint process and to create a new trauma-informed service within the complaint process to address findings from the research.
Additionally, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has taken concrete steps in spirit of the Executive Order to improve Customer Experience of key services:
Designing and delivering modernization efforts of Federal Housing Authority’s call center and provide expanded self-service options
- In FY 2022, Federal Housing Authority (FHA) replaced a seven-year-old legacy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to enable a multichannel experience for customers to contact the FHA resource center. FHA has endured leveraging various legacy CRM systems since 2005 that prevented Housing from providing optimal customer service to our external partners.
- The FHA Resource Center project recently launched a pilot technology modernization project to improve the efficiency and productivity of telephone-based communication by enabling concurrent computer-based tasks—this pilot will be expanded to allow HUD employees to communicate with our customers more efficiently and effectively.
- The FHA Resource Center is in the process of developing a customer self-service portal to allow for lenders and program participants to easily submit FHA documents online. This will reduce costs and processing times.
Designing and delivering trauma informed tools and/or services for complainants utilizing the housing discrimination complaint process
- In FY 2022, HUD, in partnership with GSA’s CX Center of Excellence, researched the lived experiences of complainants filing housing discrimination complaints to uncover pain points and opportunity areas to improve satisfaction and trust in HUD.
- In FY 2023, HUD is working to incorporate Voice of the Customer surveys into the housing discrimination complaint process and to create a new trauma-informed service within the complaint process to address findings from the research.
