Kennedy Proposes Massive Reorganization, Staff Cuts at HHS

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

HHS will undergo a massive reorganization and reduce its staff by 20,000 employees under a plan announced today by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy said the plan will cut HHS spending by $1.8 billion annually and usher in a “new era of responsiveness and a new era of effectiveness.” Kennedy’s plans call for the FDA reducing its workforce by 3,500, the largest decrease among the HHS agencies. The HHS-issued factsheet about the staffing cuts says they will not affect drug, medical device or food reviewers or inspections.

Democratic senators, healthcare unions and other groups slammed Kennedy’s plan for harming public health and serving private interests.

“It does not take a genius to understand that pushing out 20,000 workers at pre-eminent health agency, choking off funding for cancer research and eliminating funding to prevent infectious diseases like measles will not make Americans healthier,” said Sen. Patty Murray at a joint press conference today with Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Edward Markey.

A statement from the National Nurses United, a union for registered nurses, said that “it is clear to union nurses that the goal of this administration and congressional Republicans is not to improve health but to slash services and ultimately privatize the goods and services that are meant to serve all of us, so that their billionaire donors can boost their profits.”

The HHS announcement about the reorganization and staffing cuts says 10,000 HHS employees took advantage of an earlier offer to retire early or resign with severance pay and that another 10,000 will lose their jobs. As a result, the HHS workforce will shrink from its current level of 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000, according to the announcement.,

The factsheet says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) workforce will decrease by 2,400 employees, although the factsheet argues that once the 1,000-employee Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response is folded into the CDC, the staffing cut will be 1,400.

The National Institutes of the Health workforce will be cut by 1,200 employees, according to the factsheet, with the reductions coming from centralization of procurement, human resources and communications.

The CMS staff reductions are relatively small, amounting to 300 employees.

The reorganization plan

The biggest change in the reorganization announced by Kennedy is the creation of a new entity called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA, a slightly shorter version of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) slogan and agenda that emphasizes chronic disease prevention and a more healthful food supply. AHA will consolidate what are now five independent HHS agencies: the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Other reorganization changes include the creation of a new Assistant Secretary of Enforcement position that will have authority over the Department Appeals Board, the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, and the Office for Civil Rights. A new Office of Strategy will merge the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation’s office with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Lastly, the functions and responsibilities of the Administration for Community Living will be distributed across several agencies, including CMS.

Sarita A. Mohanty, M.D., M.P.H., MBA, president and CEO of The SCAN Foundation, issued a statement today that called the Administration for Community Living “the only dedicated government agency that helps older adults age in their home and in their community” and that its realignment “must preserve the essential work the government has long done to improve the lives of older adults and ensure alignment with Medicare and Medicaid.”

In a six-minute video released today, Kennedy made a case for the reorganization and staff cuts, saying that HHS has more than 100 communications offices, 40 IT departments, dozens of procurement offices, and nine human resources departments. The new AHA department will centralize those functions.

Without naming them, Kennedy said “little fiefdoms” at HHS had hoarded patient medical data and had sold it to each other for profit.

After praising HHS as being filled “for the most part” with competent, conscientious public service, Kennedy said later in the video that “a few isolated divisions are neglecting public health altogether and seem only accountable to the industries that they’re supposed to be regulating.” Kennedy said that in one case, “defiant bureaucrats impeded the secretary’s office from accessing the closely guarded databases that might reveal the dangers of certain drugs and medical interventions.”