HHS plans 10,000 more job cuts, taking target to 20,000
New US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has said he intends to save $1.8 billion per year, thanks to another wave of job cuts at the department and agencies it oversees.
The "dramatic restructuring" will see 10,000 full-time employees lose their jobs and – combined with other efforts including an early retirement scheme, the 'Fork in the Road' scheme of deferred resignation, and the wholesale firing of probationary workers – the net result is that HHS' headcount will be reduced by 20,000 to 62,000.
Also included in the new plan is the dismantling of "redundant units" among HHS' 28 divisions, which will be winnowed down to 15 while a new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) – a nod to President Donald Trump's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) drive – will be formed with elements of other divisions. 10 regional offices will also be reduced down to five, said HHS.
The AHA will "improve coordination of health resources for low-income Americans" and will focus on areas like primary care, maternal and child health, mental health, environmental health, HIV/AIDS, and workforce development, according to HHS.
"We are streamlining HHS to make our agency more efficient and more effective," said Kennedy in a social media post.
"We will eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organisation," he added, claiming that the HHS budget swelled 38% under the previous Biden administration. "This overhaul will improve the health of the entire nation."
Job cuts breakdown
The FDA looks set to bear the brunt of the job losses, with 3,500 workers earmarked for redundancy, followed by the CDC, which is expected to get rid of 2,400, and the NIH, which will shed 1,200. CMS – which oversees Medicare and Medicaid – is due to be reduced by around 300 positions.
The FDA cuts will concentrate on operational and administrative staff and will not affect reviewers or the inspection teams, while the CDC will return to its "core mission of preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks" and absorb the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which handles disaster and public healthy emergency responses and employs around 1,000 people.
The NIH reductions will come from centralisation of procurement, human resources, and communications functions, while those at CMS are designed to handle "minor duplication" of roles in the agency.
"This will be a painful period for HHS as we downsize […] but we are keenly focused on paring away excess administrators while increasing the number of scientists and frontline health providers so we can do a better job for the American people," said Kennedy.
Among other changes, HHS will also create a new assistant secretary for enforcement, who will oversee the Office for Civil Rights, Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, and the Departmental Appeals Board. The Administration for Community Living, which support older adults and people with disabilities, will be absorbed into other HHS agencies.
