Child Support: All children in the program are receiving regular, reliable child support payments on a monthly basis from their parent(s) and the children have healthcare coverage. Medicaid Recovery: Medicaid avoids paying for, or is reimbursed for, medical expenses billed to Medicaid as measured by cost avoidance estimates and collection totals.
Cost effectiveness IV-D program (federal)
Current Value
$4.03
Definition
Measure Definition
Cost-effectiveness in the IV-D child support program is a federal measure that compares the child support dollars collected against the program’s expenditures. The target cost-effectiveness for ORS is currently set at $4.00.
For Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2025, ORS collected $4.03 in child support for every $1.00 expended to operate the program, placing Utah just above the national average of $4.00 for the same period.
This metric is calculated annually on September 30th. The accompanying graph illustrates ORS's cost-effectiveness for the IV-D Child Support program over the last seven federal fiscal years, with the national average serving as the comparative target data.
Story Behind the Curve
The cost-effectiveness of the IV-D program is calculated by comparing the dollars collected against the dollars expended to operate the child support program. While the ideal scenario is for collections to increase as expenses decrease, national trends show a decline in both child support cases and collections. Concurrently, expenses are rising due to increased personnel services and the costs associated with modernizing ORS' information system.
The decline in cost-effectiveness began in Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2020 when the ORS information system was migrated off the mainframe. This metric further decreased during the FFY 2021-2022 timeframe as efforts to move the ORS database to the cloud were undertaken, culminating in completion in April 2024. Additional modernization efforts, which started in August 2024, are contributing to higher technology expenses while collections continue their downward trend.
Given that the ORSIS modernization is a multi-year effort, it is anticipated that the cost-effectiveness ratio may continue to decline until collections and expenditures stabilize.
It is important to note, however, that a lower cost-effectiveness figure does not indicate poor program performance. Instead, it reflects a strategic investment of resources—driven by modernization and other program initiatives—to ensure the program leverages contemporary technologies, such as data analytics, and enhances the overall customer experience.
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