Existing technology allowed the State of Iowa to assist front-line workers in determining eligibility and benefits, to meet some Federal reporting requirements, assist in program evaluation, and to make information available for decisions regarding program and related personnel issues. To improve these information resources, the state allocated a little over $1 million in the 2001 fiscal year to the Welfare Reform Related Technology Fund with the available funding under TANF. These funds were appropriated in the Department of Human Services Appropriation Bill. The IT program was 100 percent funded by the TANF block grant funds.

The funding supported a variety of IT enhancements for welfare administration. They included enhancing application development and system programming, tracking client eligibility, increasing data storage and collection capability, and implementing software updates and changes. One of the expected results of these investments was the capacity to submit accurate and timely reports that comply with the requirements for Federal data reporting to the US Department of Agriculture (food stamps) and Department of Health and Human Services (Medicaid and TANF). The state has to comply with HIPAA requirements as well.

The information issues are large and complex. The needs of each welfare client may involve many agencies, each with its own personnel, mission, and policies. Each agency involved has its own IT systems, producing many barriers to information sharing and integration. None of the staff in any single department was able to access the complete information about an individual client from existing databases. Therefore, the investments of this project were aimed at creating standard protocols for data exchange, a data warehouse, electronic referral systems, resources directories, and related applications.

Sustainable and coordinated hardware and software development was required to reach these project goals and provide customers with better quality services. The technology supported programs that provide benefits and/or services annually to approximately 20,000 families being served by the Family Investment Program, 53,000 households receiving food stamps, and 204,165 individuals receiving Medicaid benefits (monthly averages).