Weekly Spotlight
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is axing 10,000 people from the agency he leads, saying it will streamline the bloated federal health care bureaucracy. But several former agency leaders said they doubt his claim that the Health and Human Services Department will deliver Americans better service with three-quarters of its current ranks. On Thursday morning, Louisiana Senator and physician, Bill Cassidy said, the two had breakfast to discuss Kennedy’s plans to lay off 10,000 Health and Human Services Department employees. HHS layoffs rile Democrats, but Republicans say they trust RFK Jr.’s cuts will not hamper core operations.
See below for a more on the impacts of Trump administration changes from around the agency.
Other Regulatory News
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS to host webinar on AHEAD Model hospital global budget methodology
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a webinar April 8 at 2 p.m. ET to review the States Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development Model hospital global budget methodology.
#Hospital
CMS ramping up enforcement of hospital price transparency rule
The greater number of enforcement actions came before President Donald Trump signed an executive order to step up oversight of price transparency rules.
#Hospital
Shared Savings Program ACOs wary as CMS halts pay models
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy playbook for the Trump administration calls for axing the Medicare Shared Savings Program.
#Provider, #Patient
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
FDA’s novel medical device clearances slow to a crawl
According to the FDA’s public database, since the start of this year, the agency has issued only two de novo medical device clearances. By comparison, during the first quarter of 2024, the FDA had cleared 12 de novo devices—about the agency’s quarterly average spanning more than the past two years.
#Device
Health and Human Services (HHS)
Meet the guy who’ll lead the federal study on vaccines and autism
You may not have heard of David Geier, but news that he was hired by HHS to conduct a federal study on immunizations and autism has been met with dropped jaws among vaccine experts. Geier (who does not have a medical degree) and his father (who has the degree but, in multiple states, lost his license to practice) have long promoted claims that the use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines led to an increase in autism diagnoses.
#All
Trump taps controversial GOP aide for chief HHS watchdog
President Donald Trump’s pick to be the top official investigating waste, fraud and abuse at the Health and Human Services Department has firsthand experience with improper payments at government agencies. Attorney March Bell, whom Trump nominated to be HHS inspector general on Monday, lost his job as deputy director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in 1997 after an audit accused him of authorizing an improper payment to a former employee.
#All
Hill Happenings
Senators seek to lower Medicaid cuts in House GOP tax plan
The change may win the votes of Republican senators representing states with high Medicaid usage who have expressed concern about the House tax blueprint.
#All
Trump Picks to Lead FDA, NIH Confirmed by Senate
The Senate voted largely along party lines to confirm Marty Makary as the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and Jay Bhattacharya as director of the National Institutes of Health.
#All
Senate Committee Backs Dr. Oz for CMS Administrator
The Senate Finance Committee voted 14-13 along party lines Tuesday to recommend that Mehmet Oz, MD, MBA, be confirmed as Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator.
#All
Wyden claims Pfizer used a ‘colossal’ scheme to avoid paying billions in U.S. taxes
Pfizer sold $20 billion in medicines to U.S. customers six years ago, but did not report any profits from those sales on its 2019 tax returns because all of the income was supposedly earned offshore, according to an investigation by the Democratic staff of the Senate Finance Committee.
#Drug
Notable Notes
Empathy’s effect on patient outcomes, satisfaction
Physician empathy is associated with greater patient satisfaction and outcomes, researchers found, according to a column published March 26 in the American Osteopathic Association’s magazine, The DO.
#All
Exclusive: Trump tariff threats prompt some drugmakers to expedite shipments to US
Some drugmakers are taking the unusual step of sending more medicines by air to the U.S., two executives and two logistics firms said amid fears President Donald Trump’s April 2 tariffs announcement could include products made in Europe.
#Drug
Advancing Surgical Care Through ACS Quality Programs
Improving quality remains a perennial challenge for hospitals across America constantly facing cost and regulatory pressures. For more than 110 years, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has supported hospitals in achieving the highest quality care and outcomes for patients undergoing surgery.
#Hospital
How thoracic, vascular surgery faired on Match Day 2025
Both thoracic and vascular surgery specialties hit a 100% fill rate for Match Day 2025, according to the National Resident Matching Program’s data.
#Provider
Trump Admin Reorg Impacts
NIH is removing some outside scientific advisers who evaluate agency research
Prominent outside scientists who help the National Institutes of Health evaluate its internal research programs are being abruptly removed, according to five advisers whose positions were terminated and a recording of an internal meeting obtained by STAT.
NIH cuts halt 24-year program to prevent HIV/AIDS in adolescents and young adults
On Friday, the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Intervention was notified that the two major grants that support its operations had been halted by the National Institutes of Health, in a move that legal experts say may be found illegal if it were challenged in court.
Tara Schwetz, who oversaw creation of ARPA-H, placed on leave by NIH
The National Institutes of Health on Wednesday placed deputy director Tara Schwetz on administrative leave, according to a source familiar with the decision, marking the third time a senior leader has departed the agency since the Trump administration took power roughly nine weeks ago.
Cancer research, long protected, feels ‘devastating’ effects under Trump
For decades, cancer held a near-sacred spot in the American biomedical enterprise, commanding the lion’s share of research dollars and support from both Democrats and Republicans. Now, not even cancer is protected from political change. More than a dozen people in the cancer field — including researchers, clinicians, policy experts, advocates, and patients — told STAT that government and congressional actions since President Trump’s inauguration are threatening treatment for cancer patients and the development of new therapies or cures.
Two of FDA’s top cancer regulators to depart, heightening worries about drug reviews
Both deputy directors at the key Food and Drug Administration center that oversees the regulation of cancer drugs plan on departing the agency, sources told STAT Thursday, highlighting the drain on talent at the FDA created by layoffs, uncertainty, and shifts in policy at the agency even as it is set to lay off thousands more people.
DOGE removed their jobs. They discuss its potential impact on healthcare.
Meet two former federal health technologists from CMS Innovation Center and USDS whose work halted due to DOGE
HHS Closing Long COVID Office
he Office of Long COVID Research and Practice will close as soon as this week, according to an internal HHS email obtained by Inside Medicine.
Patient Safety Research May Be Imperiled if AHRQ Is Downsized, Experts Warn
The Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) are causing alarm among public health workers as well as researchers who study patient safety and diagnostic errors.
Model Predicts Global Effects of HIV Funding Cuts
Funding cuts by five countries that provided over 90% of total international HIV funding as of 2023 may lead to millions more HIV deaths and new HIV infections globally over the next 5 years, a modelling study showed.
Trump Administration Abruptly Cuts Billions From State Health Services
States have been told that they can no longer use grants that were funding infectious disease management and addiction services.
Trump to OPM – you have the power to fire federal employees
Trump memo titled, “Strengthening the Suitability and Fitness of the Federal Workforce” ostensibly gives OPM the authority to fire federal employees.
White House scraps public spending database
The White House budget office has taken down its website where approvals of federal funding provided in appropriations laws are statutorily required to be posted for public viewing, a move likely to face major blowback from members of Congress and government watchdogs.
#All
GSA to ‘quadruple’ in size to centralize procurement across the government
A new executive order moves some agencies’ contracting work to the General Services Administration, which already plays a key role in government procurement, agency leadership told employees in an all-hands meeting. Trump reportedly signed the contracting-focused executive order on Thursday. The text of the order wasn’t immediately available, and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
