With more than 8 million residents, out applications. ACCESS NYC drastically
New York City has an extremely large job changes that process by enabling citizens
to do in providing health and human to apply for and manage social services
services (HHS) benefits. Along benefits electronically.
with the difficulties of serving an “We can prevent the client from
immensely diverse population, having to run around when they’re
the city has struggled with the already in a bad situation,” said
internal roadblocks inherent in Kamal Bherwani, CIO for Health
government. and Human Services and execu-
The desire to help people tive director of HHS-Connect in
has always been there, but New York’s Office of the Deputy
the barriers between the Mayor for Health and Human
city’s numerous HHS agen- Services.
cies often prevented citizens Bherwani, who oversees tech-
from receiving as much aid as nology strategy and architecture
they were qualified for. Difficul- for all New York City HHS agencies,
ties in sharing information, lack of said ACCESS NYC lets citizens enter
coordination among independent demographic and financial data and
HHS programs and perceived privacy quickly determine which programs they
issues made it tough for New York City can take advantage of.
to achieve the outcomes social services “In many cases, clients don’t know
recipients need. which programs even exist and the details
Much of that has changed with the Business Application Suite™, ACCESS of them — and they shouldn’t have to,”
creation of ACCESS NYC, the city’s cen- NYC uses a “no wrong door” approach said Bherwani. “Now they can get online,
tral HHS Web portal for citizen-driven that screens applicants for HHS programs and the system will say, ‘These are the
self-service. Using ACCESS NYC, city for which they may qualify, regardless of seven programs you might be eligible for.’
residents can determine potential eligi- why they arrived at the site. Therefore, citi- It’s a very client-centric program.”
bility for 35 city, state and federal human zens don’t need to know about a specific ACCESS NYC is designed to be user-
service benefit programs as well as print program in order to apply for it. friendly, even for citizens with low computer
literacy. The layout is easy to navigate, and
each step is clearly labeled and logically
“Now they can get online, and the system will say, ‘These ordered. The site even helps users fill out
are the seven programs you might be eligible for.’ It’s a some of the applications.
very client-centric program.”
Positive Outcome
– Kamal Bherwani, CIO for Health and Human Services and executive director of HHS-Connect, New York City
Unlike many online HHS offerings,
ACCESS NYC was built to provide citizen-
application forms, search for office loca- ACCESS NYC empowers citizens like driven self-service, allowing benefits re-
tions, and create an account to access never before, allowing them to play an cipients to interact electronically with city
their information at a later time. ACCESS active role in their own health and human agencies in meaningful ways. Perhaps a
NYC is also designed to reach New York’s services benefits. Citizens get the help user’s marital status or household com-
diverse population by providing informa- they need more quickly — and they position has changed since last updating
tion in seven languages: English, Spanish, interact with HHS programs at their own the system; that will change their status for
Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and convenience through the always-available some benefits. With ACCESS NYC, users
Haitian Creole. Web interface. can update their own records. In the future,
From a simple home page, users clients will be able to check on the status of
can get information on child care, food Improving Lives their applications online.
stamps, school meals, Head Start, Med- The people who need services most The initial approach for ACCESS NYC
icaid, senior services, housing assistance are often those who have the hardest was to use an incremental moderniza-
and other programs. Using the Cúram time getting to government offices to fill tion and transformation (IMT) strategy to
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deal with the client, the worker, the agency complete picture of the services and ben-
and the third-party provider.” efits they receive from the city.”
Sharing data among agencies also
Bright Future will improve the quality of interac-
ACCESS NYC went live in fall tions between those agencies and
2006 and has proven popular with the public. Caseworkers can be
New Yorkers. The innovative Web more effective when they have
portal also has drawn wide inter- more complete client informa-
est from government officials tion, and that leads to better
both domestic and abroad. outcomes for recipients of social
“Several places have contacted services.
us. We built the largest and most “It’s really transforming the
in-depth pre-screening eligibility culture of how we interact with cli-
tool on the planet,” Bherwani said. ents,” Bherwani said. “And once we
“There’s a lot of interest because we’re link the data together, we’ll be able
regarded as one of the few that are really to analyze the data to improve service
out there on the leading edge with what delivery and target resources where the
we’ve already done, and because of our need is greatest.”
vision for the future, which integrates data HHS officials expect use of ACCESS
that has never been integrated before.” NYC to continue growing as the por-
One project involves deploying new mon Client Index. That links data together tal’s availability becomes more widely
case-management systems. “That also between different organizations for the known. The city publicizes the portal in
happens to be Cúram Software,” said benefit of clients, workers and — one day public libraries, subway platforms and
Bherwani. “We’re linking case-manage- — providers. In the future, clients will log trains, community centers and schools.
ment systems to something called a Com- in to ACCESS NYC and be able to get a Community-based organizations have
also played an important role in spreading
“Once we link the data together, we’ll be able to analyze the word about ACCESS NYC. Bherwani
the data to improve service delivery and target resources is confident that even more citizens will
benefit from future enhancements of
where the need is greatest.” ACCESS NYC and will be able to use
– Kamal Bherwani, CIO for Health and Human Services and executive director of HHS-Connect, New York City those features to improve their lives.
To learn how Cúram Software can help your agency transform your service delivery and achieve positive outcomes, contact a Cúram Software
Representative at 1-866-41-CÚRAM or info@curamsoftware.com