ERISA Filing Acceptance System 2 (EFAST2): Making a Difference in Employee Benefits Reporting

In this project, EFAST, a legacy system, involved manual processing of millions of paper-based 5500 forms, which employers submitted to the federal government to report on trillions of dollars of investments in private sector employee benefit programs subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

When the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration decided to modernize its paper-based process for annual reporting of employee benefits programs, Mathematica’s Data Management and Analytics Department worked closely with DOL to acquire and implement a solution.

For EFAST2, Mathematica’s team provided a range of high quality services, including developing independent government cost estimates (ICGCEs); drafting statements of work (SOWs); performing system migration planning, and developing and overseeing project plans and work breakdown structures, contract support, oversight of program implementation and administration, extensive testing and validation, and security.

EFAST2 replaced the manual, paper-based system with a fully electronic process for submission of 5500 forms via the internet and processing of more than 22 million pages of paper annually. It also boosted electronic filing to 100 percent from 1 percent under the old system. As DOL’s largest outsourced IT project, EFAST2 continues to earn exceptional ratings on the Federal IT Dashboard, processing more than 1 million 5500 forms with 99.99 percent accuracy, and providing end user access to filing submission data within 24 hours.