The main point: With staffing and funding reductions and the reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), health agencies are losing key leaders, programs, and functions. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is being hit particularly hard.

The details:

• AHA: Sources say HHS is moving forward with its planned reorganization, despite lack of congressional support, and that the leadership-less SAMHSA is becoming the first to roll into the new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). In addition to the staffing cuts described above, the administration has cut SAMHSA’s grant office, government affairs, and IT staff. Many SAMHSA employees have left, and stakeholders are concerned the few people left seem to be prohibited from publicly speaking, which will limit the agency’s education efforts.
• Transfers to IHS: HHS Secretary Kennedy is transferring around 70 public health corps officers from their posts around the country to work 120-day stints at Indian Health Service (IHS) centers with severe staffing shortages. Public health corps officers can work during the shutdown while their colleagues are furloughed, making it particularly hard to lose these key leaders for four months. Top SAMHSA officials were among those transferred, including Dr. Chris Jones, who runs SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality.

The reaction:

• Sources have described SAMHSA as a “black hole” this year on communication, and the agency has come under recent scrutiny due to its new strategic priorities, as well as concerns that HHS redirected or withheld $95 million in behavioral health grants.
• Current and former officials warn the 120-days details for officers will strain the health agencies they are leaving, while failing to solve the IHS clinics’ staffing shortages long term. Some officials fear the IHS assignments, which are significantly longer than usual and target a chronic issue rather than an isolated emergency, are designed to pressure more federal workers to resign their posts.