HHS Announces Workforce Reduction and Division Restructuring

Last Thursday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a dramatic restructuring that will eliminate about 10,000 full-time employees. When combined with other workforce reductions, such as early retirement, the restructuring will result in a total downsizing of 62,000 full-time employees from 82,000.

The HHA also announced it will streamline the functions of the department, consolidating its 28 divisions into 15 new divisions, including a new Administration for Healthy America (AHA). The AHA will combine multiple agencies — the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) — into a new, unified entity.

The consolidation will centralize functions such as human resources, information technology, external affairs, and policy. In addition, HHS will reduce its regional offices from 10 to five.

Other changes that will be put into place through the restructuring include:

• Transferring the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), responsible for national disaster and public health emergency response, to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

• Creating a new position, assistant secretary for enforcement, to oversee the Departmental Appeals Board (DAB), Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA), and Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
• Merging the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation (ASPE) with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to create the Office of Strategy, to enhance research that informs the Secretary’s policies and improves the effectiveness of federal health programs.
• Reorganizing the Administration for Community Living (ACL), which supports older adults and people with disabilities, so its programs are integrated into other HHS agencies, including the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), ASPE, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. “This Department will do more—a lot more—at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

Following the announcement of these HHS cuts, public health experts said that maintaining services would be a challenge due to the  existing public health workload, steep reductions in funding to state and local health departments, and possible cuts to Medicaid, CNN reported.