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1994.09.01 : Reinventing HHS: The "CIP" Initiative

Date: September 1, 1994
Contact: HHS Press Office (202) 690-6343

                            Reinventing HHS: The "CIP" Initiative

In 1993, after Vice President Gore began the National Performance Review, HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala established a Continuous Improvement Program (CIP)
at the Department of Health and Human Services. The Secretary
stated that " this is not a race, but a start on a continuous
journey to improve the services of this Department."

CIP involves HHS employees in an ongoing process of creating a more
customer-oriented, efficient government. While senior management
directs the process through a Steering Committee and an Advisory
Group, managers and employees at all levels are contributing through
work groups based on related sets of issues. The work groups are
charged with examining a wide range of functions in the Department,
from agency-wide planning processes to individual procurement
rules. There are six work groups covering:
                            Strategic Planning
                            Customer Services/Services Integration 
                            Budget and Financial Management 
                            Organization and Management 
                            Human Resources Management
                            Support Services.

The work groups help implement the recommendations
of the National Performance Review, and seek to make HHS operations
and services "work better and cost less." Accomplishments
of the CIP project so far are covered in the report Moving Forward.

A few highlights of the report follow:

Improving Strategic Planning:

A CIP work group designed and began implementation
of the first-ever Department Strategic Planning Process. Similarly,
the Health Care Financing Administration presented its first strategic
plan to each of its 4,200 employees and received thousands of
comments that were used in revising the draft plan. Senior staff
at the Administration for Children and Families is using strategic
planning to sharpen goals and objectives, and incorporating the
goals into individual performance agreements.

Another work group conducted a Future Search Conference to re-define Human Resource Management in an environment that is less bound by internal controls.

Cutting Paperwork and Internal Controls:

In the Office of the Secretary, 16 Personnel Manual instructions (482 pages) were abolished, and in the budget process, justification materials required in developing the FY 1996 budget were cut by 75 percent.

Senior policy officials in the Office of the
Secretary have re-delegated procurement authority for federal
information processing resources to the operating division level
(and further down in PHS, to the agency level) so that they may
competitively procure up to $2.5 million worth of computer hardware,
software and services.

In the agencies, efforts to cut
paperwork are also ongoing. For example, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) has terminated 130 unnecessary internal
issuances.

Working Cooperatively:

At the very beginning
of the CIP program, an employee outreach effort resulted in over
3,000 suggestions for improvements, which were forwarded for analysis
and action to work groups and program offices.

A CIP work
group has conducted a retreat with union leadership to define
the nature and role of a Department-level National Partnership
Council at HHS.

Testing New Technology:
Some of the
most innovative changes stem from new applications of information
technology:

CDC is testing automated procurement tracking
and electronic data interchange with vendors;

The Office
of the Secretary and CDC are using (and others are testing) automated
travel management systems, and HCFA is developing a new Medicare
Transaction System which will process more than one billion claims
a year;

HHS is riding the information superhighway. The
Department has set up a new home page on Internet which provides
the public access to a wide range of information about HHS programs.

Setting Customer Standards:

Three of the Department's major programs
that provide direct service to customers -- the Social Security
Administration, the Indian Health Service, and the Medicare program
in HCFA -- have published Customer Service Brochures detailing
our commitments to improve service to our customers, as well as
the performance measures by which we will be held accountable.

The Department has also made commitments to state and local
governments and community service providers to improve our service
to them, so that we can better serve the customers we share. ACF
has developed satisfaction surveys for grantees.

Reinventing and Re-engineering:
"Reinvention Labs" created under
the National Performance Review are testing a number of concepts:

IHS Medical Centers in Alaska and Phoenix are seeking
better customer service and satisfaction;

The Grant Review
System at NIH is being reformed to streamline the process;

HCFA is testing new methods of developing and issuing regulations;

The Social Security Administration used a cross-agency
team to plan a re-engineering of the Disability Claims Adjudication
Process. Implementation of the cross-agency team's proposal begins
this fall.

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