Strategic Work Information Folder Transfer System (SWIFT)

SWIFT is Government Off-the-Shelf (GOTS), a method to enable reuse of software across multiple projects. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been the primary sponsor of the SWIFT platform since 2008 and is directly responsible for a significant majority of upgrades and enhancements in that time.

CMS is the primary custodian of the software source code and will have the prerogative to define the software architecture, establish development standards and select restricted software components for integration. The purpose of Strategic Work Information and Folder Transfer (SWIFT) is to collect, route, track, and manage correspondence, regulations, memos, invitations, requests for meeting, briefings, and Reports to Congress.

These documents come from the general public, Congress, state and local government officials, and internal HHS offices.

The Office of the Secretary (OS) Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary (IOAS) SWIFT application is located on servers maintained by the Management Application Hosting Center (MAHC) and is being used by the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to house their SWIFT modules.

The type of information the system collects are from scanned documents received by the office and correspondence generated in response to those documents. The information includes structured data about the individual, organization or contact that mailed or emailed the documents. Contact information can be name, organization, address, city, state, zip code, telephone and e-mail.

Correspondence could conceivably contain any kind of information, including health, financial, commercial, congressional, emergency disasters, invitations, or HHS related information. Personally identifiable information (PII) includes contact information (if the author of the original correspondence is an individual) and may include any other type of information provided by the correspondent. Information provided is entirely voluntary and consists of unsolicited correspondence.

The SWIFT contractors are direct contractors, and they maintain SWIFT remotely through the HHS assigned laptop via HHS virtual private network (VPN) using their HHS Elevated Alt Card provided by the HHS Office of Security and Strategic Information (OSSI).