HHS' charge card programme wins GSA SmartPay 2 innovation award New York, January 12th 2011 - JP Morgan today announced that its client, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has saved $1.4 million in administrative costs since launching its GO!cardTM program in March. The savings are an estimated 20 to 40 percent reduction over HHS' former paper-based, manual program. The JP Morgan-issued "Green Option" Commuter Card is a preloaded Visa-branded charge card given to eligible HHS employees for the purchase of mass transit fares. HHS introduced the program to help improve the distribution and overall management of mass transit subsidies, as well as contribute to the General Service Administration's Zero Environmental Footprint (ZEF) goals. The General Services Administration also recently awarded the GSA SmartPay® 2 "Top Innovative Product/Service" award to HHS for their GO!card program. David Flynn, Director, Division of Transportation Services, who accepted the award stated, "Transit vendors continue to modernize their systems to provide customers with automated ways to procure bus or train passes. The days of standing in line or making special trips to pick up transit passes are ending." GO!card automates the agency's labor and time-intensive manual process of issuing paper checks for transit subsidies. With the GO!card, HHS employees receive their monthly mass transit allotments which are loaded on their GO!card account. The card is automatically reloaded each month in accordance with an employee's transit allowance. Commuters can use the card to purchase transit passes at the station, online, by phone or via mail. "The cards also help reduce fraudulent activity and administration costs related to tracking cash outlays," said Eduardo Vergara, global commercial card executive, JP Morgan. "Eligible employees receive only the amount they need based on their location and commutes. The amount is reviewed on a quarterly basis and is adjusted according to employee moves and/or change of transportation modes." The program is being rolled out in a phased approach with about 40 percent of HHS employees currently having access to GO!cards. The agency plans to issue up to 80,000 cards when the program is fully implemented. HHS has also trademarked the GO!card name and is in the process of introducing it to other federal agencies. HHS was able to launch and expand the program quickly and accurately using PaymentNet, JP Morgan's proprietary electronic access system for card program administration. Using PaymentNet, HHS managers can set up and monitor employee fare usage based on approved Merchant Category Codes for mass transit. The agency also set up a customer service function to help cardholders change their address, reset their limits, and ask about security issues. The GO!card is part of the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) SmartPay® 2 program, the largest government charge card program in the world. The program is used by federal agencies and organizations to obtain purchase, travel, fleet and integrated charge card services, as well as help the US Government to create significant process efficiencies, implement controls to manage risks, and generate rebates for the participating agencies and the GSA. As part of the GSA SmartPay program, GO!card contributes to HHS' annual rebates. Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker
