A screenshot of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services news website, as of Jan. 22, 2025, without news. Credit: CMS
The administration of President Donald Trump has suspended most public communications coming from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The pause appears to apply to HHS agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics and the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which reports on topics such as influenza outbreaks and diabetes prevalence data.
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The Washington Post broke the news in an article Wednesday, based on reports from unnamed sources, and listed the agencies that appeared to be affected.
At press time, the scope of the pause and the duration was unclear.
The CDC confirmed the existence of the pause in a statement.
"HHS has issued a pause on mass communications and public appearances that are not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health," a spokesperson said in the statement. "This is a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization. There are exceptions for announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical, but they will be made on a case-by-case basis."
Representatives for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the pause.
Press reports: Trump was inaugurated Monday. The Washington Post reported that officials in the new administration want to suspend most outgoing communications until political appointees are available to review the communications.
The Associated Press reporters said they have seen a memo indicating that the pause could last until Feb. 1.
The news websites: At press time on Jan. 22, the newest press release on the HHS website news website was from Jan. 17.
The CMS news website was empty, and CMS canceled a webinar on HealthCare.gov health plan effectuation for marketplace assisters that had been scheduled for 2 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday.
The newest CDC news release was from Jan. 10.
The newest National Center for Health Statistics press release was from Jan. 13, but the center still says it expects to post a report on cesarean delivery rates in Puerto Rico and on the U.S. mainland Jan. 28.
Factors that may have slowed the flow of news include the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and the disruption created by a presidential transition.
Reactions: The board of the Bethesda chapter of AFCEA, a group originally known as the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association International, reported on X and other social media channels that it has postponed its Health IT Summit, which was set to start Jan. 28, because the new federal health communications pause forced a majority of its scheduled speakers to withdraw from the program.
What it means: For employers, health insurers and benefits brokers, one question is whether the communications pause will really apply to routine releases of data on matters such as how many people are entering the hospital because of flu-like illnesses, how many people have died in the previous month, and recent trends in the top causes of death.
Benefit plan managers and their advisors are already compiling the data needed for requests for proposals for 2026 coverage, and health insurers are assembling the data they need for rate filings for 2026 coverage.
Any long disruptions in the flow of health and mortality data could throw off 2026 planning efforts.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
