OHA and ODHS outline plan to move payments off the mainframe by 2029; project framed as multi‑biennium effort

Chris Kautz, deputy director for administration at the Oregon Health Authority and executive sponsor of the Mainframe Modernization Project, told the subcommittee that the state remains reliant on legacy mainframe technology for high‑volume payments and eligibility functions and that work to modernize those systems is now underway. "Over 1,000,000 payments are made through the system," Kautz said, emphasizing the operational scale and the potential risk of continued dependence on aging code and personnel nearing retirement.

Oregon Department of Human Services CFO Rob Coduri and other agency technical leads described a phased approach that focuses first on financial applications: systems that generate payments, create treasury files, and produce summary interfaces used for federal grant drawdowns and statewide accounting. Shawn Jacobson, the agencies’ controller and the financial‑systems sponsor, told members the mainframe last month processed roughly 5,200 payments, about 852,000 benefit issuances and more than 41 million summarized transactions that feed the statewide financial system.

The approach: agency leaders said they will use a stage‑gate project methodology and an agile implementation for financial modernization so the state can deliver iterative improvements across biennia, reduce redundancy, and preserve seamless integration with the statewide financial management application. The agencies have added permanent technology positions (presenters cited roughly 31 authorized FTEs from previous policy option packages) and procured new tooling to support transition and testing. Simon Hayes, chief technology officer for the Office of Information Services, said these positions are intended to operate and maintain modern systems going forward, not only to support a short transition.

Governance and oversight: Debbie Estebrugg, chief information officer for ODHS and OHA, described a layered governance structure — joint technology governance board, joint technology governance council and an executive steering committee — and said projects over $5 million require independent quality management. NTT DATA was referenced earlier in the meeting as an independent QA vendor for the benefits management project; Estebrugg described similar oversight expectations for major IT investments.

Challenges and timeline: presenters highlighted procurement complexity, data migration and staff transition risks, and the long history of processes built around the mainframe. Simon Hayes said the financial modernization effort aims to secure payment delivery by the end of the 2027–29 biennium (presenters referenced 2029 as the target year to begin moving payments off the mainframe). Agency leaders said they have reviewed other states' approaches and plan to reuse lessons rather than build new code from scratch where feasible.

Ending: presenters invited questions from members; Representative Scharf asked whether new positions were limited duration and was told the positions are permanent. The subcommittee took no formal action. Agency presenters said the work will continue across multiple biennia and they will return with further details and procurement milestones.