Strategic Goal 4: Ensure Efficiency, Transparency, Accountability, and Effectiveness of HHS Programs

Objective A:  Strengthen program integrity and responsible stewardship by reducing improper payments, fighting fraud, and integrating financial, performance, and risk management

Objective B:  Enhance access to and use of data to improve HHS programs and to support improvements in the health and well-being of the American people

Objective C:  Invest in the HHS workforce to help meet America’s health and human services needs

Objective D:  Improve HHS environmental, energy, and economic performance to promote sustainability

As the nation’s largest health insurer and the largest grant-awarding agency in the federal government, HHS places a high priority on ensuring the integrity of its investments.  HHS manages 115 programs in basic and applied science, public health, income support, child development, and health and social services, awarding approximately 90,000 grants to states, localities, tribes and nonprofit organizations annually.

HHS recognizes that ensuring the efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs is more than just allocating and expending resources responsibly.  HHS is dedicated to developing the systems, workforce, and infrastructure that can address complicated and emerging challenges to improve the health and well-being of the nation.  Robust and secure information management systems, collaboration to develop innovative solutions, a highly skilled and diverse workforce, and a commitment to sustainability are all part of that effort.  Every operating and staff division within the Department is committed to ensuring the efficiency, transparency, accountability, and effectiveness of HHS programs.

HHS information management systems work to ensure effective internal controls, timely and reliable financial and performance data for reporting, and system integration.  As part of this effort, HHS maintains management systems, processes, and controls that ensure financial accountability; provide useful management information; and meet requirements of federal laws, regulations, and guidance.  HHS also complies with executive orders and federal laws requiring departments and agencies to safeguard personnel, information technology systems, critical infrastructure, and certain categories of sensitive information such as personally identifiable information, proprietary information, and classified national security information.

HHS is conducting multiple evaluations, including program integrity reviews of states’ Medicaid programs, to ensure compliance with federal program integrity regulations, provide technical assistance to state’s program integrity operations, and identify areas to improve efficiency and effectiveness.  HHS continues to enter into contracts that support Medicaid and Medicare integrity efforts and provide support and assistance to states through training and other educational programs.  These evaluations will help to ensure that HHS knows how its program dollars are spent and that HHS regularly shares the findings with its partners, stakeholders, and the public.

HHS embraces the power of Open Government, recognizing that with openness comes responsibility and accountability for results.  Through Open Government, HHS is promoting transparency, participation, and collaboration — vital enablers of success in the HHS mission to improve the health and well-being of all Americans.  HHS promotes participation with the broader public and Department staff to develop innovative solutions, to achieve efficiencies, and to improve program outcomes.

HHS has identified five guiding principles to help leverage the creativity of the Department’s employees and maximize the use of HHS data.  These include deploying tools and platforms that enable collaboration and enhance peer support, build networks, and enable effective knowledge transfer; introducing into the HHS workforce new methods for problem-solving, such as design thinking and lean startup methodologies, which have strong track records of success in the private sector; encouraging management support of employee-led entrepreneurship and experimentation; fueling innovation through open partnerships that leverage communities beyond the federal government; and developing objective measures to assess program results and provide a compass for better decision-making and iterative learning.

HHS is committed to helping recruit, develop, retain, and support a competent and diverse workforce to provide effective and efficient services and promote responsible stewardship.  HHS recognizes that investments in employee wellness and safety programs, tools for innovative practice, and recruitment strategies to strengthen diversity at HHS are essential to achieving our mission. 

To ensure the sustainability of operations, HHS continues to prioritize the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to protect the environment and the public’s health.  HHS also is working to anticipate the consequences of climate change to mitigate the risks experienced by HHS employees, programs, and the individuals, families, and communities the Department serves.

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Objective A:  Strengthen program integrity and responsible stewardship by reducing improper payments, fighting fraud, and integrating financial, performance, and risk management

Managing more than $900 billion in public investments is an enormous responsibility — and an opportunity.  To improve performance and ensure the responsible stewardship of federal funds, HHS continues to strengthen and integrate financial, performance, and risk management systems.  HHS is measuring successes at the program level, and identifying and addressing internal and external threats to success, to maximize the value of federal investments.

Critical to the Department’s risk management efforts is a focus on fraud, waste, and abuse.  The Affordable Care Act and the Small Business Jobs Act (P.L. 111-240) provide tools to help HHS combat health care fraud, waste, and abuse, including the establishment of state-of-the-art fraud detection technology, enhanced provider screening and enrollment requirements, and an enhanced ability to stop fraudulent payments before they are made.  The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act (P.L. 111-204) improves tools to prevent, reduce, and recover improper payments.

HHS engages in a number of initiatives to minimize improper payments, target emerging fraud schemes, and establish safeguards to correct programmatic vulnerabilities.  HHS has implemented powerful anti-fraud tools and implemented large-scale, innovative improvements to the Medicare program integrity strategy to prevent fraud before it happens.  These efforts include the nationwide Senior Medicare Patrol program, which recruits and trains volunteers to assist in, and educate Medicare beneficiaries on, preventing, detecting, and reporting health care fraud, waste, and abuse.  In 2012, the Senior Medicare Patrol program had more than 5,100 volunteers and educated more than 1.5 million people on Medicare fraud, waste, and abuse.  In addition, the Senior Medicare Patrol program referred more than 900 potential cases, worth more than $27.5 million, to CMS or OIG.

HHS is working in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice to detect Medicare fraud through the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Action Team (HEAT).  A key component of HEAT is the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, interagency teams of analysts, investigators, and prosecutors who can target emerging or migrating fraud schemes, including fraud by criminals masquerading as health care providers or suppliers.  Since 2007, HEAT has charged more than 1,400 defendants who falsely billed the Medicare program, recovering more than $4.6 billion.  HEAT also has coordinated the largest-ever federal health care fraud takedown involving $530 million in fraudulent billing in 2011. In 2013, CMS launched the Healthcare Fraud Prevention Partnership (HFPP) with OIG within HHS, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, private health insurance companies, and other health care and anti-fraud groups and associations.  The efficacy of CMS in identifying and preventing fraud, waste, and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs will be significantly enhanced by developing relationships and working together with private insurers and other stakeholders with a similar goal.

HHS also is working to improve program integrity across state Medicaid programs.  For example, the Medicaid Integrity Program is working on a number of initiatives in collaboration with states, including collaborative audits through the National Medicaid Audit Program, and is providing education resources.  The Medicaid Integrity Institute is one of the most significant achievements for CMS in Medicaid program integrity.  At the Medicaid Integrity Institute, CMS has a unique opportunity to offer substantive training, technical assistance, and support to states in a structured learning environment.  From its inception in 2008, CMS has offered free courses to train more than 4,000 state employees and officials from 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, to assist them in combating Medicaid provider fraud, waste, and abuse.

HHS continues to monitor and assist the efforts of states, territories, and tribes to prevent improper payments in Head Start, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), foster care, and child care.  For example, HHS encourages state TANF agencies to use employment data from the National Directory of New Hires to identify unreported and underreported income, thereby reducing improper assistance payments.  In addition, ACF uses Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Reviews to ensure program eligibility of foster care payment recipients.

The Secretary has launched a Departmentwide program integrity initiative to ensure that every program prioritizes risk management.  Linking financial, programmatic, and performance data helps provide an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability and ensures program efficiency and effectiveness.

HHS promotes research integrity through its program to enhance Responsible Conduct of Research, which is taught to scientists whose institutions receive funds from U.S. Public Health Service agencies.  HHS also conducts oversight review of institutional investigations of allegations of research misconduct in order to make separate HHS findings designed to protect the health and safety of the public, promote the integrity of U.S. Public Health Service-supported research and the research process, and conserve public funds.

HHS agencies and offices will contribute to this objective through the following key strategies.

Strategies

• Foster early detection and prevention of improper payments by focusing on preventing bad actors from enrolling or remaining in Medicare and Medicaid before improper payments are made, while ensuring that legitimate providers are able to enroll swiftly and easily;
• Improve Medicare and Medicaid payment accuracy by supporting ongoing initiatives that address the causes of improper payments to ensure that in every case Medicare and Medicaid programs pay the right amount, to the right party, for the right beneficiary, in accordance with the law and agency and state policies;
• Require Medicare and Medicaid providers and suppliers to undergo screening, including enhanced screening for certain high-risk providers and suppliers, and take action to exclude those known to have committed fraud;
• Strengthen oversight of Medicaid expenditures by working with state partners to improve financial accountability for managed care and fee-for-service, provider rate setting, accuracy of state claiming, and beneficiary and provider eligibility processes;
• Conduct oversight of Medicare Part C and Part D plan sponsors by conducting audits that detect whether plans are delivering the appropriate health care services and medications for which they are being paid;
• Improve contractor accountability, coordination, and integration across Medicaid and Medicare program integrity initiatives;
• Use public-private partnerships to prevent and detect fraud across the health care industry by sharing fraud-related information and data between the public and private sectors, promoting best practices, and educating the public and private sectors partners in fraud prevention;
• Enhance end-to-end acquisition management capabilities, including robust requirements development and cost-estimating processes and procedures, improved contract management practices, and improved coordination and planning cycles;
• Identify and proactively address internal and external risks to program performance, monitor programs, contractors, and grantees vigilantly, pursue prosecution and punishment for those who commit fraud, and remedy program vulnerabilities;
• Improve support of, and coordination with, law enforcement by working closely with OIG, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to focus on prevention, early detection, and data sharing, moving beyond the paradigm of pay-and-chase, while continuing an aggressive and robust program of criminal investigation and prosecution;

• Meet White House Cross-Agency Priority Cybersecurity goals for trusted Internet connection, continuous monitoring, and strong authentication to information technology networks;
• Improve physical security and critical infrastructure protection by identifying HHS critical infrastructure and by updating security policies to provide guidance on mitigation of risk to these facilities, in accordance with Presidential Policy Directive 21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience; and
• Integrate programs and processes for personnel suitability and national security clearance adjudication to improve the quality and timeliness of background investigations.

Performance Goals

• Decrease under-enrollment in Head Start programs, thereby increasing the number of children served per dollar.
• Decrease improper payments in the Title IV-E foster care program by lowering the national error rate.
• Reduce total amount of subgrantee Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) administrative funds expended each year per total subgrantee CSBG funds expended per year.
• For Home and Community-based Services including Nutrition and Caregiver services, increase the number of clients served per million dollars of Title III OAA funding.
• Reduce the percentage of improper payments made under the Medicare Fee-for-Service Program.
• Reduce the percentage of improper payments made under the Part C Medicare Advantage Program.
• Reduce the percentage of improper payments made under the Part D Prescription Drug Program.
• Increase the percentage of Medicare providers and suppliers identified as high risk that receive an administrative action.
• Estimate the improper payment rate in the Medicaid program.
• Estimate the improper payment rate in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
• Improve the average survey results from appellants reporting good customer service on a scale of one to five at the Administrative Judge Medicare Appeals level.
• Unprivileged Users 2 Factor Authentication.
• Privileged Users 2 Factor Authentication.
• Increase the number of innovative acquisitions for IT services throughout the Department in collaboration with the HHS IDEA Lab.

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Objective B:  Enhance access to and use of data to improve HHS programs and to support improvements in the health and well-being of the American people

The Open Government Initiative calls upon federal agencies to establish a system of transparency, participation, and collaboration to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of government programs. The principles of open government — transparency, participation, and collaboration — are critical to ensure that HHS achieves its mission of protecting the health of all Americans.

To increase government transparency, HHS has published more government information online in ways that are easily accessible and usable, such as HealthData.gov. Agencies have developed and disseminated accurate, high-quality, and timely information including the Data Navigator, the Health Information Technology Dashboard, and FDA-TRACK.  HHS has focused on increasing the transparency of financial data and has created the Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS).

HHS remains committed to expanding access and use of its data to encourage public participation in the analysis of the health problems facing our nation.  HHS instituted the Health Data Initiative to encourage and support the creation of innovative solutions using data to address these problems.  The Health Data Initiative will focus on strategic data liberation, appropriate dissemination of data, and data education. HHS will maximize the use of the HealthData.gov platform to enable greater access to the data and more robust communications about their value.  Finally, HHS will focus data education efforts on both internal and external audiences.  HHS has launched the Health Indicators Warehouse, which houses high-quality indicators to support research and applications.  The integrated database of national, state, and local indicators includes health outcomes, health determinants, and evidence-based interventions.

HHS continues to support Healthy People 2020, a comprehensive set of 10-year goals for improving the health of all Americans. The Healthy People framework has been expanded to include 42 topics and 1,200 measures. The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey captures data on health insurance coverage, and access, use, and cost of health services.  Data are accessible through publications, summary data tables, and interactive statistical tools and data files.  HHS also has launched an initiative to help guide the agency’s evolution from a fee-for-service-based payer to a value-based purchaser of care that links payments to quality and efficiency of care, rather than sheer volume of services.

Enhanced data access and utilization will bring new transparency to health care to help spark action to improve performance; help those discovering and applying scientific knowledge to locate, combine, and share potentially relevant information across disciplines to accelerate progress; and enhance entrepreneurial value, catalyzing the development of innovative products and services that benefit the public and fuel the private sector’s economic growth.

HHS uses data analysis and management to inform decision-making to increase efficiency and effectiveness of programs. Integrating strategic, financial, and programmatic data supports evidence-based decision-making that drives business process improvements and more effective and efficient program operations. For example, the Performance Improvement and Management System (PIMS) is designed to improve the quality of planning, implementation, and evaluation of funded programs addressing health disparities.

To support collaboration and standardization in data collection and analysis activities, the HHS Data Council oversees an integrated data collection strategy and the coordination of health data standards, and privacy policy activities. In response to the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, HHS has formed the HHS Data Center Consolidation Plan to promote enterprise solutions and data center operation policies that will result in efficient data center utilization.

Through the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, the Working Group on HHS Data Access and Use will make recommendations to HHS on improving data access and innovative use, including content, technology, media, and audiences. The Working Group also will advise HHS on promoting and facilitating communication to the public about HHS data and will facilitate HHS access to expert opinion and public input regarding policies, procedures, and infrastructure to improve data access and use.

HHS is committed to data security and the protection of personal privacy and confidentiality as a fundamental principle governing the collection and use of data. The HHS Cybersecurity Program ensures compliance with federal mandates and legislation, including the Federal Information Security Management Act (P.L. 107-247). HHS protects the confidentiality of individually identifiable information in all public data releases, including publication of datasets on the Web.

HHS agencies and offices will contribute to this objective through the following key strategies.

Strategies

• Assess data needs, gaps, and opportunities; improve data quality; develop plans and recommendations for evaluation and performance information; and identify ways to share existing and new data with the public and key audiences, to the extent authorized under law, in ways that adhere to transparency principles and advance the initiative;
• Coordinate HHS data collection and analysis activities, and ensure effective long-term planning for surveys and other investments in major data collection;
• Improve data collection efforts to monitor the health and health status for population subgroups such as racial and ethnic populations, persons with disabilities, the reentry population, rural populations, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations;
• Explore effective ways to gather, share, and analyze data from numerically smaller populations, such as American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian and Pacific Islander groups, and others, while maintaining the highest standards of data confidentiality;
• Monitor, stimulate, and incorporate innovative and beneficial uses of HHS data through systematic dialogue with key stakeholder groups;
• Monitor efforts to increase access to transportation and its effects on quality of life, and share the data with federal partners, including the Veterans Health Administration and the U.S. Departments of Labor and Transportation;
• Expand the focus of CMS’s data environment from claims processing to state-of-the-art data analysis, predictive analytics, and information sharing;
• Use Data 2020 to track progress toward achieving the nation’s health objectives contained in Healthy People 2020;
• Ensure that data and websites are in compliance with Section 508 requirements and are accessible to individuals with disabilities;
• Establish governance within Freedom of Information Act (P.L. 89-487) (FOIA) operations to promote the proactive publishing of information and include FOIA officers across the Department in transparency and data-sharing planning activities; and

• Enhance internal and external information sharing and safeguarding of national security information in accordance with privacy and civil liberties policies.

Performance Goals

• Decrease the number of months required to produce Medical Expenditure Survey data files (point-in-time, utilization, and expenditure files) for public dissemination following data collection.
• Increase the electronic media reach of CDC Vital Signs through use of mechanisms such as the CDC website and social media outlets, as measured by page views at http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns, social media followers, and texting and email subscribers.
• Increase the combined count of webpage hits, hits to the locator, and hits to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) for SAMHSA-supported data sets.
• Increase the number of strategically relevant data sets published across the Department as part of the Health Data Initiative.
• Increase the number of consumers for whom Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey data is collected.
• Expand access to the results of scientific research.

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Objective C: Invest in the HHS workforce to help meet America’s health and human services needs

The federal government has been instrumental in responding to the challenges that face our nation, such as ensuring adequate health care for our citizens, accelerating the process of scientific discovery, and advancing the health, safety, and well-being of the American people. To continue making progress toward these challenges, HHS is engaging in a variety of activities to strengthen its human capital and to address challenges in workforce recruitment, development, and retention.

To build a strong biomedical research workforce, HHS is undertaking new initiatives to recruit and retain a diverse pool of scientific talent and creativity. HHS recruits talented staff through internships, fellowships, and leadership and research opportunities. HHS continues to promote the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to attract, develop, and retain diverse clinical and public health professionals assigned to federal, state, local, and tribal agencies or international organizations. In response to the Presidential Memorandum, “Improving the Federal Recruitment and Hiring Process,” HHS continues to implement the HHS Accelerated Hiring Process and is preparing guidance on integrating hiring processes to improve the timeliness of background investigations.

HHS operating and staff divisions are developing training curricula for all positions and offering diverse modalities for instruction, such as in-person classroom and online training, on-the-job training, and shadow assignments. HHS also is training managers and employees on the performance feedback process and their respective roles in providing and receiving effective feedback. HHS has launched FedStrive, a comprehensive and integrated health and wellness program, modeled after best practices in private industry, to reduce health risks and improve productivity among its employees.

Building upon the President’s updated Strategy for Innovation, HHS established the HHS Innovation Council, with a mission of advancing a culture of innovation and success within HHS. The Innovation Council plays an important role in identifying barriers to innovation and promoting crosscutting solutions involving policy change and project execution.  The Innovation Council initiates and oversees a number of crosscutting initiatives to foster innovation among employees, including HHSignite (beta), which provides seed funding for promising ideas; the HHSinnovates program, which recognizes and rewards employee-led innovation; and the HHSentrepreneurs program, which provides a mechanism for allowing agencies to bring in external entrepreneurs to work with internal HHS innovators.

HHS agencies and offices will contribute to this objective through the following key strategies.

Strategies

• Recruit, hire, and retain a talented and diverse HHS workforce;
• Promote the Commissioned Corps as a health resource to provide public health services in hard-to-fill assignments as well as to respond to public health emergencies;
• Support a culture of wellness and safety across HHS, including a harassment-free and inclusive workplace;
• Harness employees’ insights and experiences to help develop high-impact solutions to important health, public health, and human services challenges;
• Ensure accountability and fair appraisal of HHS workforce and leadership;
• Ensure the HHS workforce has the tools, systems, and resources to perform at the highest levels;
• Provide electronic tools and platforms that can enhance HHS employees’ ability to collaborate and share knowledge;
• Expand use of platforms such as Yammer (a Departmentwide social networking tool) and pilot task management tools and other connectivity platforms to enable better prioritization, increased connection with colleagues across the Department, and more productive work;
• Initiate and expand programs that provide HHS employees with resources and mentoring as well as the evaluation tools necessary to pilot and refine good ideas;
• Enhance innovation by allowing HHS employees the freedom to experiment;
• Promote programs such as HHSentrepreneurs program and HHSignite (beta), and develop new initiatives that foster an environment in which employees can effectively innovate;
• Continue to incentivize innovation through providing recognition and rewards for good ideas, including through the Secretary’s Innovation Awards program; and
• Strengthen the Department’s Counterintelligence and Insider Threat programs, and integrate intelligence and security information, to identify vulnerabilities and disrupt insider or external threats that could detrimentally impact the Department’s staff, facilities, assets, and information or the operational mission.

Performance Goals

• Increase HHS employee engagement.
• Attract, hire, develop, and retain a diverse and inclusive workforce.
• Increase the top talent at HHS through recruitment, training and retention.
• Increase hiring speed (i.e., the percentage of hires made within 80 days).

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Objective D:  Improve HHS environmental, energy, and economic performance to promote sustainability

When President Obama signed Executive Order 13514, “Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance ,” on October 5, 2009, he committed the federal government to take a leadership role in promoting sustainability and responding to climate change.  Actions called for in the order, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving water and other resources, will help build a clean energy economy while contributing to sustainability and mitigating climate change.  The order also requires each federal agency to evaluate risks and vulnerabilities associated with both short and long-term impacts of climate change on its ability to carry out its mission.  Sustainability is integral to the HHS mission.  Conducting activities in a sustainable manner will benefit Americans today as well as secure the health and well-being of future generations of Americans.  HHS seeks to be a leader in promoting sustainability to benefit the Nation’s health and well-being.

By helping to control greenhouse gas emissions generated by HHS operations — from employee travel, to facility construction, to patient care and laboratory research — HHS will reduce releases that impact health.  Sustainable purchasing, management and consolidation of existing buildings and leased space, and increasing reuse and recycle options to decease solid waste can help HHS meet its health mission while managing costs.  Operational efficiencies, such as reductions in paper, water, and energy use, allow more resources to be devoted to mission-specific purposes.  Reuse and recycling efforts will reduce the amount of land devoted to landfills, air emissions from waste incinerators, and raw material extraction.  Managing waste reduces the level of toxic substances that enter water sources and food chains.  Protecting plant and animal species ensures biodiversity, maintains ecosystems, and offers potential to use these as sources of new medical treatments.

Sustainable facilities improve the safety and health of HHS staff, the populations HHS serves, and other building occupants.  Worker absenteeism, acute disease, and chronic diseases are associated with stressors and pollutants in the indoor environment.  Efforts are underway to promote healthy, sustainable, and climate-resilient buildings that contribute to wellness and patient safety and that protect investments in health infrastructure and communities.  Ventilation improvements, green cleaning, and pest management practices can reduce the adverse health effects of toxic chemicals in the environment.  HHS is exploring options to control or eliminate health hazards in housing, health care facilities, and other settings.  HHS also is studying the environmental health impacts that can be mitigated through reduction or elimination of toxins in the built environment to reduce exposures in homes, schools, and communities.  Additionally, HHS is working to improve access to and compatibility of health data for integration with climate and environmental data to enhance environmental health protection and climate resilience.

Climate change is already impacting human health in the United States and will continue to do so in the future.  Hazards linked to climate change include increases in the frequency and severity of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, heavy rainfall, and flooding; changes in rates and ranges of infectious and allergic diseases; and threats to communities from rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Individuals and communities with underlying vulnerabilities that contribute to poor health, such as poverty, being very young or old, having pre-existing health (including behavioral health) conditions, and living in vulnerable geographic areas, may be the most at risk of harm from climate change.  The Department has dual roles to play in reducing its environmental impact while facilitating understanding of and adapting to climate change.  Through these actions, HHS will set the example of responsible stewardship and improve individual and community resilience, supporting a healthier future for the American people.

Meeting sustainability goals, in compliance with Executive Order 13514, is a shared responsibility, underpinning the functions of agencies and offices throughout HHS.  It also is the responsibility of the individuals directly employed by HHS, as well as its grantees and contractors.  HHS will work to educate its grantees on sustainability and climate resilience-related guidance and best practices and will build partnerships with complementary efforts such as the National Prevention Strategy, Environmental Justice Strategy, and Healthy People 2020.

HHS agencies and offices will contribute to this objective through the following key strategies.

Strategies

• Integrate sustainability and climate change resilience into the Department’s health and human services mission;

• Lead, communicate, and engage the community on the benefits of sustainability in all policies and actions;
• Conserve resources through sustainable purchasing, operations, and waste management;
• Promote and protect human and environmental health through sustainability planning, appropriate land use and community design initiatives, and operations;
• Improve the quality of facilities where health care is provided to reduce negative environmental exposures from building materials and to create settings that contribute to physical and psychosocial well-being;
• Improve access to and compatibility of health data for integration with climate and environmental data to enhance environmental health protection and climate resilience;
• Consider sustainability, climate resilience, and health factors in Capital Investment Planning;
• Promote sustainable laboratory practices within the HHS intramural and extramural research and development programs;
• Incorporate sustainability principles into laboratory and health facility construction grants, projects, and programs;
• Translate research into tools and assessment systems that improve the health and sustainability of environments from the micro to the macro community level;
• Review and update policies and guides (e.g., emergency response and continuity plans and procedures, laboratory procedures, procurement planning, and personal and electronic property disposal) to better integrate sustainable and climate change considerations;
• Install meters to measure and monitor industrial, landscaping, and agricultural water use; and
• Support research on the relationship between sustainability and human health and well-being.

Performance Goals

• Increase the percentage of HHS employees on telework or on Alternative Work Schedule.
• Reduce HHS fleet emissions.
• Ensure Power Management is enabled in 100% of HHS computers, laptops, and monitors.

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