Tennessee uses ‘one stop shop’ portal for benefits programs
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By
Chris Teale
The Volunteer State has moved away from a “fragmented” system to a more streamlined customer experience and used AI to help consolidate its call centers and make them more efficient.
The Tennessee Department of Human Services used to have around 20 separate phone numbers for its various divisions, while each of the state’s 95 counties also had a phone number residents could call for help with benefits programs.
It made enrolling, checking eligibility or otherwise getting help very “fragmented,” as well as inconsistent, said Pamela Fusting, TNDHS’ director of operations for customer experience. But in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state sped up its modernization journey and in 2022 launched a customer portal she said is designed to be a “one-stop shop” for benefits in the state.
Now, residents can apply for more than one assistance program on one application, track those applications on a central dashboard and keep track of any appeals and hearings associated with them on another dashboard. Meanwhile, those dozens of phone numbers have been consolidated into one, while call takers can use generative artificial intelligence to summarize calls so they can focus on listening, rather than taking notes. The telephony system is integrated with the state’s eligibility platform to ensure a unified approach, while a chatbot is also available to answer questions.
“I'm so grateful that we are able to really attack processes and business outcomes from a customer's perspective,” Fusting said in an interview last week during the ServiceNow Government Forum in Washington, D.C. “Doing what we're doing is really putting the power in the hands of the customer to get the information and access to the services that they need when they need them in a timely fashion, and through a tool that allows them to do it outside of business hours if necessary. It really puts the power in the hands of the customer.”
The uptake has been tremendous already. Since launching in 2022, the portal has had 1.6 million customer accounts registered and adds 20,000 new accounts each month, Fusting said, with around 300,000 logins each month. And on the employee side, the time it takes to wrap up a call and analyze the information contained in it has been cut by 55%, while about 90 seconds per call is saved as call-takers are not having to furiously take as many notes.
Residents can also verify their identities through the portal, which saves time. And, of the requests that are received by the AI-driven chatbot, 81% are handled there and then, with far fewer callers choosing to escalate to a live chat with a human agent. The use of AI, especially for summarizing calls and moving those service requests forward, has been a game changer since it launched last October, Fusting said.
“Just having the opportunity to use generative AI to give our staff an opportunity to pause on typing while they're talking to a customer and allow that call to be auto summarized for them, has really improved the quality of the interaction for our customers,” she said. “At the same time, it's ensured that the call output, the note that's generated and then documented, is consistent across the board. We know it's going to capture the information we want it to capture, and it always gives the human an opportunity to edit it where needed and confirm that it's accurate, but still, it provides it in a format that's consistent across the board.”
Numerous state agencies have turned to AI, including those in New Mexico and Maryland. It’s all part of a wider push towards a so-called “no wrong door” approach, where government services can be accessed from anywhere and do not require applicants to know the intricacies of which agency or division they need to communicate with.
Having the foundation in place from the COVID-19 pandemic, when TNDHS quickly stood up a portal to help residents access various relief programs, has established the agency in good stead as part of its modernization journey, Fusting said. And while there is more work to do, she said, knowing what is possible can help to get more divisions and employees on board.
“It was really a selling point,” Fusting said of the COVID-19 relief portal. “Folks realized the value of doing this and really kept marching toward making that something that was agency wide.”