J.P. Morgan 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 J.P. 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, J.P. 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.
D.C.