IE&E Pathway to Progress: A Journey through IE&E's Health and Human Services Transformation

Introduction to IE&E's Pathway to Progress

The Pathway to Progress exhibit guides participants through the process clients experience when accessing essential health and human service benefits like cash assistance, child care subsidy, food assistance, and medical assistance programs. This interactive exhibit highlights the obstacles that Washingtonians face when accessing these benefits. The exhibit also identifies the future state of the Integrated Eligibility and Enrollment (IE&E) Modernization Program, sharing the strategies and approaches needed to address these challenges and transform health and human services for all Washingtonians.

Participate in the Pathway to Progress Exhibit

The exhibit offers guided tours in downtown Olympia through February 2025.

If you are interested in participating in a tour of the Pathway to Progress exhibit, email the IE&E Program Team at IE&EProgram@dshs.wa.gov.

Contact us to stay informed on IE&E Modernization progress and future engagement opportunities.

How do I Partner with IE&E?

I'm a Washington State Legislator: As a Washington state legislator, you can partner with IE&E by offering the financial support and resources needed to continue our efforts to modernize the systems and process to transform health and human service programs for all Washingtonians.
I'm a Community Partner/Advocate: As a Community Partner and Advocate, you can partner with IE&E by staying up to date on our progress, participating in future engagement opportunities, and helping to communicate upcoming improvements and changes to clients. Additionally, you can take part in information sessions and training sessions to learn how to effectively use new systems, understand processes, and provide support to our clients.
I'm a Customer/Client: As someone who receives health and human service benefits, you can partner with IE&E by taking part in activities and sharing your thoughts on products, processes, trainings, and more. Your ideas and feedback are essential for a successful transformation and will ensure that the products created meet the needs of all Washingtonians. If you want to be part of future client-engagement opportunities, please send an email to IEEUserEngagement@dshs.wa.gov.
I'm an HHS Coalition Organization Leader: As an HHS Coalition leader, you can partner with IE&E by promoting and championing the IE&E modernization work within your respective organization, sharing the benefits of this work with your peers, community partners, and clients.
I'm an HHS Coalition Employee: As an employee of a Health and Human Services organization, you can partner with IE&E by staying informed, actively participating in staff engagement opportunities, and providing feedback. Your firsthand experience working in our current HHS environments and deep understanding of our clients’ needs are invaluable.

photos of various groups of people and individuals

What is IE&E?

With a focus on people, business, and technology, the IE&E Modernization Program will transform how Washingtonians access health and human services by developing a modern, integrated eligibility solution where:

Washingtonians tell their story one time as the new system and underlying business processes securely guide them through the possibilities.

HHS Coalition organizations can quickly respond to program, partner, client and legislative needs, aided by improved technology and business processes.

Our approach to this transformation begins with human-centered design principles, incorporating the voice and lived experiences of clients and staff, while using an agile approach to design, configure, develop, test, and produce new features and functions – bringing value early and often to our customers. Transformation will be incremental based on the feedback captured from clients, partners, and staff along the way ensuring our commitment to accessibility for all.

Washington Health and Human Services Programs
Who We Serve.

The Current State of IE&E

The Health and Human Services Coalition, collectively serves more than 2.9 million Washingtonians through more than 75 health and human services programs, including cash assistance, childcare subsidy, food assistance, qualified health plans and medical assistance programs aimed at helping individuals and families reach their full potential.

Over 1 million Washingtonians are served by programs offered by at least two HHS Coalition organizations, with more than 200,000 clients being served by at least three organizations.

Clients, especially those served by multiple health and human service organizations, must provide the same information to multiple organizations across separate, often lengthy applications. This often involves applications that are not currently available online or in mobile-responsive, user-friendly formats. Establishing an integrated and modernized solution would address these challenges and more.

The Future State of IE&E

The future state of IE&E continues its focus on people, business, and technology. IE&E is currently updating their modernization roadmap to identify essential business capabilities and supporting functionalities needed to modernize our health and human service programs and service delivery models. This modernization effort will enhance services for Washington residents and address the need to replace our existing legacy system while prioritizing policy enhancements, equitable access to services, and an improved overall customer experience for all Washingtonians.

Watch this short video to learn more about the Future of IE&E.

IE&E recently conducted a survey to gather crucial insights, which became the basis for creating a plan to implement modernized capabilities. This feedback helped shape an updated IE&E roadmap, outlining business informed priorities and supporting capabilities. Some of these business priorities and supporting capabilities are noted below.

Business Informed Priorities

Simplified Eligibility Application: An easy-to-understand and streamlined application available in both online and paper version, resulting in a quicker completion time, fewer errors, and less rework for clients and staff.
Coordinated Benefit Enrollment and Issuance: A coordinated benefit enrollment process that supports transparency for the clients about what their benefits are, when they need to be renewed, and the requirements to do so.
Comprehensive and Individualized Case Management: A case management approach that recognizes that each individual and family are typically enrolled in multiple benefit programs at the same time, allowing programs to better coordinate services to ensure clients receive the support they need when they need it.
Modernized Customer Support: Customer support that empowers the customer to get the information they need using multiple coordinated methods, including self-directed, chat and phone conversations, and in-person assistance.

Supporting Capabilities

Document Management: The document upload feature will offer comprehensive document management enabling clients to effortlessly submit their required information/documentation electronically.
Letter Generation and Print: The letter generation and print feature empower clients to conveniently access eligibility and determination letters and communications in a centralized location.
Reporting and Analytics: The reporting and analytics feature provides access to client service-related information, data, and reports, offering leaders and staff real-time data on call volumes, wait times, and more.