HHS replaces COBOL-based payroll system
Michael A. McCoy/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
The deployment of the new cloud-based system came after eight months of collaboration between HHS, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
The Department of Health and Human Services has successfully replaced an outdated, COBOL-based payroll system “with a secure, cloud-based platform that reduces administrative burden and improves service delivery,” the agency announced on Wednesday.
HHS said the new platform is the culmination of an eight-month partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service to transition away from the legacy system. COBOL is a computer programming language that is often considered antiquated, despite the coding continuing to underpin many federal government systems.
In a press release, the agency said it worked with the FAA to analyze “complex business logic and mapped system dependencies,” while end-to-end testing was conducted with the FAA, DFAS and internal HHS teams. HHS said it led the “design, development, and deployment of the [new] solution on a secure cloud platform.”
The modernized system will reduce maintenance costs and speed up payroll processing, according to HHS, which said "tasks that once required up to six hours of manual effort are now completed in minutes through automation, improving speed, accuracy, and reliability.”
The effort was led by the Office of the Chief Information Officer, which — until very recently — did not directly oversee three of the top agencywide technology roles. HHS announced on March 31 that it was reversing a Biden-era restructuring of the agency and would be consolidating the chief technology officer, chief data officer and chief artificial intelligence officer roles within OCIO.
In a statement, HHS CIO Clark Minor said “by replacing outdated technology and driving collaboration across agencies, we are increasing efficiency, strengthening security, and delivering more reliable, higher-quality services to the American people.”
HHS said replacing its COBOL-based payroll system with the cloud-based platform is in keeping with the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Human Resources 2.0 initiative, which is working to combine more than 100 governmentwide HR systems into one platform.
In a brief detailing HHS’ proposed fiscal year 2027 budget that was released by the White House on Friday, the agency referenced OPM’s push to create a consolidated HR platform and said OCIO “will invest $16 million to maximize interoperability with this new governmentwide, secure, cloud-based system.”