CMS job cuts may erode Trump’s promises on Medicare, Medicaid

The federal company that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, and different main well being care applications is going through worker firings, flagging morale, complicated messaging, and the specter of further disruption — compromising its oversight and administration of key applications that finance look after half of People.

Leaders on the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies nonetheless haven’t formally obtained an inventory of who was fired within the preliminary spherical of cuts from the Trump administration, which centered on staff of their probationary durations. CMS leaders assume at the very least 300 of the company’s 6,700 staff have been let go, or just a little beneath 5%, one senior CMS official advised STAT.

The Trump administration, guided by Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, has minimize hundreds of individuals throughout federal well being businesses, and extra firings seem like coming throughout departments, with plans due by March 13. An order for staff to return to their workplaces can be more likely to contribute to attrition. Nevertheless, some terminated CMS staff who’re attorneys or work on Medicare Benefit have been requested to return again — an indication of the haphazard method to the job cuts.