{"id":57563,"date":"2023-07-03T16:15:41","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T20:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=57563"},"modified":"2023-07-03T16:15:42","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T20:15:42","slug":"new-york-64-million-vaccine-app-going-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/new-york-64-million-vaccine-app-going-away\/","title":{"rendered":"New York&#8217;s $64M vaccine app is going away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Excelsior Pass Plus, the COVID-19 vaccine verification app that New York State spent a reported $64 million on developing over the past two-plus years, is going away at the end of the month, state officials announced Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the state&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov\/excelsior-pass-update\">COVID-19 vaccination website<\/a>, Excelsior Pass Plus and NYS Wallet \u2014 a separate app that holds licenses and passes issued by state agencies \u2014 will no longer be offered or supported after July 28. In a statement, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul cited reasons for the decision, including the May 11 end of the federal public health emergency over COVID and because &#8220;demand for instant access to vaccine records has subsided.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vaccination data held in the Excelsior Pass Plus app will remain &#8220;private and secure,&#8221; state officials said, and while technical support will no longer be available after July 28, individuals can continue to use the app as a digital vaccine card if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/new-york-pilot-mobile-covid-19-vaccine-passport-ibm\/\">first version<\/a> of the app \u2014\u00a0called Excelsior Pass \u2014 launched in February 2021 as distribution of COVID-19 vaccines accelerated and New York businesses \u2014 especially restaurants, theaters and sports venues re-opening to the public after being shuttered for a year \u2014 needed a method to screen customers&#8217; and vaccination status. At the time, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo hailed it as a first-in-the-nation mobile app that would help reinvigorate the economy, costing about $2.5 million to develop based on an IBM digital health pass. After Cuomo resigned later that year, his successor, Hochul, praised the app&#8217;s &#8220;transformative impact on our\u00a0economy.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the price spiraled upward. According to an investigation published in May by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/state\/article\/excelsior-pass-ballooned-64-million-keeps-rising-18091575.php\">Albany Times-Union<\/a>, the state has paid two consulting firms \u2014 Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte \u2014 a combined $28 million to work on Excelsior Pass, while also paying IBM $36 million, pushing the project&#8217;s total cost to $64 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Internal investigations into Excelsior Pass&#8217; development and other pandemic-era contracts also led to the departure of high-ranking officials, <a href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/rajiv-rao-new-york-cto-resigns-contracts-investigation\/\">including Rajiv Rao<\/a>, New York&#8217;s chief technology officer of nearly eight years. Sandra Beattie, Hochul&#8217;s former acting budget director \u2014 who along with Rao oversaw COVID-related tech contracts \u2014 was also pushed out. Neither have been charged with any wrongdoing by the state Office of the Inspector General, which is investigating about $200 million in contracts awarded to BCG and Deloitte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the app shuts down, New Yorkers needing their vaccination records should request them from their health providers, state officials said. New York City residents can also obtain their COVID-19 jab histories from the city&#8217;s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excelsior Pass, the spiraling costs of which contributed to the resignation of former state CTO Rajiv Rao, is shutting down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":45265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":false,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20648],"tags":[108,6825,24027,24178],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4697],"class_list":["post-57563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-services","tag-new-york","tag-covid-19","tag-excelsior-pass","tag-vaccination-app","author-benjamin-freed"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.5 (Yoast SEO 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