Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Selects Okta to Modernize Critical Identity Infrastructure

Updated on October 28, 2016

U.S. federal agency chooses the Okta Identity Cloud to improve the security, reliability, scalability and user experience for its Quality Payments Program web presence

Okta, a leading provider of identity for the enterprise, announced today the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has selected Okta to transition the federal agency to a modern and flexible identity architecture.

“We’re in the midst of a massive technological transformation, and the public sector has the opportunity to bring the benefits of the cloud — improved user experience, productivity, security and cost savings — to the public at a scale and with impact that surpasses any other industry,” said Frederic Kerrest, co-founder and chief operating officer of Okta. “Agencies like CMS are passionate about better serving their constituents and are working to close the innovation gap by adopting best-of-breed technologies and building cloud services portfolios.”

The Okta Identity Cloud will enable CMS to improve the user experience for healthcare providers, modernize the CMS backend systems and make its infrastructure more agile as the agency’s constituents continue to increase in number and frequency of authentications. Okta will solve major pain points for the agency by integrating with CMS’s existing Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) identity and access control system to greatly improve the end user experience and security. Benefits of the Okta Identity Cloud include:

  • Scalability: Okta’s cloud-based architecture provides a solution that can accommodate millions of users and scale up during peak periods.
  • Security: Okta enables CMS to securely control user access to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) website and other services, quickly provision and deprovision users, enable multifactor authentication and mitigate unauthorized access.
  • Agility: With Okta, CMS IT architecture is more agile, allowing for much faster deployment of applications, services and new functionalities, removing the need for patching, maintenance and upgrades.
  • User experience: Okta improves the user experience for system administrators, employees and customers, by upgrading the user interface and enabling self-service features such as automated password reset.

Partnering with Okta is one of many steps CMS has taken to build a technologically forward-thinking public agency. The win demonstrates Okta’s ability to provide identity and access management solutions that fit the scale, reliability and regulatory environments  of large public sector IT systems, also evidenced by Okta’s achievement of HIPAA compliance and its current pursuit of FedRAMP authorization under the sponsorship of the Department of Justice.

Okta worked with channel partner V3Gate, a certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) to secure the award as a qualified NASA Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP V) contractor.

“We’re excited to partner with Okta to bring innovative, best-of-breed technology to government agencies like CMS,” said Guy Nielsen, EVP and Principal at V3Gate. “At V3Gate, we’re passionate about providing our clients in the federal government with agile solutions that will simplify their infrastructure and reduce costs. We’re confident the Okta Identity Cloud will enable CMS to create a more flexible IT environment, while improving the experience and increasing the security of user interactions with QPP.”

Okta is a leading provider of identity for the enterprise. The Okta Identity Cloud connects and protects employees of many of the world’s largest enterprises. It also securely connects enterprises to their partners, suppliers and customers. With deep integrations to over 5,000 apps, the Okta Identity Cloud enables simple and secure access from any device. Thousands of customers, including Experian, 20th Century Fox, LinkedIn, Flex, News Corp, Dish Networks and Adobe trust Okta to work faster, boost revenue and stay secure. Okta helps customers fulfill their missions faster by making it safe and easy to use the technologies they need to do their most significant work. For more information, go to http://okta.com.

The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.