ACF and CMS Reject New York’s Request for Continued Federal Funding of State Project

Today, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) informed the State of New York it would no longer participate in funding the Integrated Eligibility System (IES) project. Since 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded the state a total $121 million for IES. 

“HHS is going to be radically transparent moving forward. We will no longer fund overpriced, slow-moving projects that deliver nothing for the American people,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “We will instead focus on cost-effective, efficient, life-saving solutions to Make America Healthy Again.” 

IES is an information system project aimed at handling eligibility for and enrollment in various health and human services programs administered by New York. It is primarily funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Services (FNS), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and ACF’s Office of Child Support Services (OCSS), who provided funding from 2021 to 2024.  

IES had been touted as a “flexible, statewide solution,” but eight months of analysis by ACF revealed that for nine years the state has made minimal progress on development of the IES project.  

Since Fiscal Year 2021, shared HHS costs for the IES project included approximately $52 million from CMS and $69 million from OCSS.  

The state developed a Mobile Document Upload system and Hearing Recording system between 2018 and 2021, but five other key modules within the IES project remain incomplete — Shared Services, Fair Hearings, Eligibility Enrollment Case Management, Financial Management, and Child Support. 

In a letter to the state (PDF), ACF explained that the agency could not continue to provide funding for a project that has made little progress since 2016 and encouraged the state to devise a plan that will deliver results and achieve the desired outcomes of the project, while ensuring efficient, effective, and economical uses of federal funding. 

ACF will fully implement Secretary Kennedy’s call for radical transparency to eliminate waste and defund programs that do not benefit Americans. In line with President Trump’s Radical Transparency About Wasteful Spending memorandum, HHS will take decisive steps to disclose terminated programs, publicly cancel contracts, and discontinue federal funding obligations. ACF will ensure that every tax dollar serves the national interest. 

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