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The General Services Administration’s pilot program to send personalized SMS reminders to Americans at critical times of enrollment and renewal of federal perk systems, such as the next application, has incorporated two states and two separate cities and counties, the GSA announced Thursday. State and local governments can also use the service to send messages to their own staff, the GSA says.
Norfolk, Virginia and Maryland County, as well as the states of Wisconsin and Washington, will use the pilot task, called Notify. gov, to send messages about locally managed federal systems, according to a GSA spokesperson.
GSA had previously worked with the Norfolk Department of Human Services as the first partner in an SMS campaign around changes to eligibility regulations for federal systems at the end of the coronavirus pandemic public health emergency, particularly in recertification for Medicaid, defining on performance.
The first texts were sent out in November, said Emily Herrick, a research and engagement lead at the GSA Public Benefits Studio, which is running the pilot, during a performance.gov event Friday.
“Our project is to make it less difficult for agencies to achieve success for others who participate in their systems and to build access to the benefits and resources to which they are entitled,” Amy Ashida, director of the Public Benefits Studio, said in a statement. Through those partnerships, we will be able to verify and verify the potential impact of Notify. gov. “
GSA will use the tool’s next pilot and then measure the effects to see how many other people choose to receive text messages and whether texting has been the recipient’s experience. The pilot will also involve whether SMS reminders have greater use of the benefits of receiving systems and reduced attrition, or whether beneficiaries who gain advantages lose the policy and then have to reapply.
As part of the Biden administration’s work on the tourism experience, the pilot is part of a package of projects aimed at improving the way Americans enjoy key moments in government life.
Notify. gov is part of the interagency task on the time of life “Having a Child and the Early Years,” a time when many low-income families also receive government benefit programs. Other birth-like allowances and early formative years come with those who help others access government: they get benefits and newborn resource kits that provide basic materials to families after birth.
“It’s not about shipping a few products. It’s about systems that replace paints,” said Amira Boland, CX manager for the Office of Management and Budget, about life’s experience with paints at Friday’s event. “It will be a matter of rethinking the forms, the recommendations to the States, the way in which all the processes and systems are designed and implemented. “
“Over the course of more than two centuries, the U. S. government has created committees for appropriations, statutory corporate missions, budget lines, programs, and even other IT departments, and we want to do a bigger job of bringing people where they are and responding to their needs. “how they get through critical moments in their lives,” he said.
While texting can help improve reporting and access to benefits by achieving better communication and moving the government away from paper-based communications, the GSA says advantages agencies cite limited internal capacity, high costs, and legal issues as barriers to texting use. .
GSA intends to fill that gap with this web-based interface for agency partners. Anyone interested in piloting the text service — which GSA touts as easy to use — can contact the agency, according to the blog. Per Notify.gov, the service doesn’t require technical integration or technical knowledge to make message templates.
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