The Department of Health and Human Services has announced
that it will begin using its new unified financial
management system, which replaces older accounting systems
at the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug
Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
and the Program Support Center, which provides accounting
services to HHS’s other agencies.
It said the new “business management tool” would improve
financial, business and operational functions throughout
the department, including general ledger, budget execution,
accounts payable and receivable, purchasing, grants
management and payroll activities.
HHS’s separate vendor databases have traditionally
duplicated information and combining the systems will result
in “the single largest civilian financial system in the
world,” according to the department.
It said the system will be rolled out at the CDC and FDA
beginning with general ledger and payroll, and HHS has
scheduled the full system to be running by 2007.
A separate system, the healthcare integrated general ledger
accounting system, will be used by CMS to handle Medicare
contractors and financial management, and is scheduled to
go live early next year, according to HHS.
It said the main system uses an off-the-shelf software
package called 11i Federal Financials, by Oracle, something
used at other agencies. More information is available at: