The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the latest Federal entity to make major cuts to its workforce including moves to centralize its information technology (IT) employees, according to a Thursday notice from the department.
HHS said the “dramatic restructuring” effort will lay off about 10,000 employees across its health agencies in an effort to streamline the department’s functions and eliminate redundancies.
The agency will also consolidate its 28 divisions into 15 new divisions, with restructuring primarily impacting administrative positions. According to HHS, it will “centralize core functions” including those working in IT, human affairs, procurement, external affairs, and policy.
It will also reduce the department’s regional offices from 10 to five, though details weren’t provided on exactly how the reductions and reorganizations will affect job functions.
“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,” Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., secretary of HHS, said in a statement. “This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
HHS is one of the three highest spenders on IT out of Federal civilian agencies, ranked just after the Department of Homeland Security and before the Department of the Treasury. Under former President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, HHS was also slated to receive major funding to modernize inpatient psychiatric and behavioral health facilities’ health IT.
It is currently unclear how the announced HHS restructuring may change IT spending or investments.
According to HHS, the upcoming layoffs combined with other incentives offered earlier this year will downsize the department from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees, adhering to the Trump administration’s goal of reducing the Federal workforce.
Another key change included in the notice is the creation of the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), which will consolidate multiple health agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will absorb the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, and a new assistant secretary for enforcement will “combat waste, fraud, and abuse in Federal health programs.”