The Employment Development Department won the inaugural Government Transformation Award of Excellence at a symposium on Wednesday co-hosted by the California Government Operations Agency.
Judges chose the EDD’s Disability Insurance Program as the winning entry, the department said, because the SDI Online project successfully converted a complicated paper-based and manual data entry process to an electronic system benefiting Californians.
The new system, called SDI Online, was implemented in 2012 in partnership with Deloitte. SDI Online has eliminated the manual entry and processing of millions of forms and gives EDD the capability to detect and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. Through the system, California residents, medical providers and employers have around-the-clock access to claim information and the ability to apply for benefits and submit information online.
"The EDD is proud to receive this inaugural honor recognizing EDD’s commitment to innovating the delivery of our services, making them more accessible and convenient for our customers," EDD Director Patrick W. Henning, Jr. said in a statement. "We understand how important disability benefits are to Californians at some of the most vulnerable times in their lives, and as part of our ongoing effort to enhance our services, we’re preparing to launch a mobile version of this Disability Insurance system."
The EDD’s Disability Insurance Branch provides State Disability Insurance for the majority of California’s workers. On average it handles one million new claims, five million continued claims, and pays over $4 billion in benefits each year, according to the department.
The award judges were GovOps Secretary Marybel Batjer, California Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Homes Diane Vanderpot and California State Association of Counties Executive Director Matt Cate.
"All of the presenters showed us that there are good, transformative projects happening in state government that allow us to better serve Californians," Batjer said. "EDD’s Disability Insurance Automation Process stood out because it required working with citizens who are in difficult circumstances, doctors and other stakeholders to modernize a system that was archaic, inflexible and highly-dependent on manual entry processes. The new online system, by contrast, is automated, accessible to customers and has greatly increased the department’s ability to cut down on waste, fraud and abuse."
