The Trump administration has gutted two small federal agencies filled with researchers who study how the health care system functions and how to improve it.
More than half of employees at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality — both part of the Department of Health and Human Services — have been laid off, according to several current and former employees. The two agencies operate on less than $600 million combined, or about 0.04% of what the federal government spends on health care.
ASPE had roughly 150 employees at the start of the year and now has fewer than 50, four former employees told STAT. AHRQ started the year with over 300 employees, and Tuesday’s cuts took out 111 of them, three laid-off workers told STAT. Former and current workers at both agencies said the layoffs will severely impair what they do, with one current employee calling the cuts “devastating.”
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