New York’s obsolete COVID vaccine passport app still costing taxpayers $200K per month: report
ALBANY – The pandemic may be officially over but New York is still paying an eye-raising fee of $200,000 per month to maintain a state vaccine passport that nobody uses.
The Excelsior App was supposed to cost New York a mere $2.5 million when it debuted in the spring of 2021 as a way for New Yorkers to show their COVID-19 vaccinations as the state lifted pandemic restrictions on restaurants and live event venues.
But costs since then have ballooned to $64 million, the Albany Times Union reported Sunday.
“The original idea was definitely worth exploring,” Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy, said.
“What seems to be happening is a bonafide crisis opened the door to spending a lot of money off the radar without the usual checks and balances, without the usual oversight of the comptroller.”
Costs for the Excelsior app grew after state officials outsourced much of its development, which they say will allow the platform to serve purposes beyond showing vaccinations, though concrete plans for future applications have yet to be announced.
Creating a safe database for New Yorkers’ private information was not easy, with the total price tag increasing to $27 million by August 2021 when Gov. Kathy Hochul came into office following the resignation of disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
IBM is billing the state to maintain a secure database containing personal information stored with the app, which at least 11 million New Yorkers have downloaded over the past two years.
Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte received nearly $28 million for such work despite past claims by former Division of the Budget Deputy Director Sandra Beattie that the app was “for New Yorkers by New Yorkers,” according to the upstate newspaper.
Beattie left the administration earlier this year alongside former Chief Technology Officer Rajiv Rao amid questions about how the Hochul administration has handled state contracts inked during the public health emergency that suspended the normal procurement process.
The two companies received roughly $200 million in questionable state payments during the COVID emergency – the subject of an ongoing probe by the state Office of the Inspector General.
“We are eager for the Office of the Inspector General to complete its investigation,” Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays said.
But the administration is not giving up on the Excelsior app given its potential uses, the money invested in its development, and the ongoing costs.
“We have been exploring if the program’s infrastructure and security can be harnessed for additional, expanded purposes, in line with the Governor’s commitment to eliminating bureaucratic hurdles, simplifying processes, and utilizing new technology to improve the way New Yorkers access services and benefits from State agencies,” Crampton-Hays said.
