HHSC Plan Emphasizes Cybersecurity, AI, Data Governance

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission's (HHSC) fiscal years 2027-2031 strategic plan places cybersecurity, artificial intelligence governance, data quality and IT procurement reform among the agency’s core operational priorities.

The plan outlines four goals focused on improving health outcomes, ensuring access to services, protecting vulnerable Texans and continuously enhancing efficiency and accountability. HHSC says it serves millions of Texans every year through programs including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants and Children.

HHSC’s fourth goal calls for improving business strategies with optimized technology, responsible AI adoption and data-driven decision-making. The agency’s cybersecurity action item calls for modernizing enterprise security capabilities through Zero Trust access, continuous monitoring, advanced data protection, Public Key Infrastructure certificate automation and post-quantum cryptography to protect agency systems, cloud platforms and third-party integrations against cyber and AI threats.

AI also appears in HHSC’s program integrity work. The plan calls for expanding data-informed insights in Office of Inspector General investigations, audits, inspections and reviews by using secure data analysis techniques that combine artificial and human intelligence to detect fraud, waste and abuse.

HHSC also plans to strengthen responsible AI governance and workforce readiness through embedded standards, clear value metrics and role-based training. The plan’s second volume says eligible employees must complete AI awareness training certified by the Department of Information Resources (DIR) and that HHSC could not finalize certification until the June 1 through Aug. 31 completion window closed.

Data management is another focus. HHSC says it will establish policies documenting data management and stewardship roles to support clean, consistent data across agency sources and systems. The plan also calls for a curated, flexible data mart with strengthened data governance, technical and business metadata, and improved analytics and reporting capabilities in coordination with the Data Governance and Performance Management council.

The plan includes several system-specific efforts. HHSC says it will enhance the Provider Enrollment and Management System to support timely application completion, predictable enrollment processes, improved operational efficiency and system integrity. It also plans to implement or improve IT systems for requisitions, contract management, monitoring and reporting, and to launch an advanced IT system for accepting and managing Public Information Act requests.

Access-to-services work also has a digital component. HHSC plans to improve navigation and accessibility on 211texas.org and market the site as a self-service option to increase page views by 30 percent. The plan also calls for a Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program quality rating system website designed to give beneficiaries comparable quality information about managed care plans.

The agency’s budget structure continues to identify the Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System and supporting technologies as capital work tied to eligibility determination and enrollment. The system supports eligibility services for financial assistance, medical benefits and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Procurement reform is one of the plan’s more direct vendor-facing items. HHSC says overlapping procurement and oversight requirements extend timelines and create duplicative review processes for large-scale IT procurements. The plan says Contract Advisory Team review can take up to 30 days, Quality Assurance Team review for major information resources project contracts requires a minimum of 30 days and combined state and federal review processes can add up to 90 days to some procurement timelines.

HHSC recommends raising the DIR cooperative contract threshold to $20 million and indexing it to inflation, allowing exceptions for enterprise-wide and monolithic IT systems, raising Contract Advisory Team and Quality Assurance Team review thresholds to $20 million for health and human services agencies and giving explicit rider authority to carry forward unspent IT capital funds across biennia. The agency says the changes would streamline procurement, reduce duplicative reviews and improve its ability to manage and scale large IT systems.