The real-life impact of our current government

I received the following a few days ago from a person I know well, a Rochester native, who is bright and very dedicated to their work as a public servant. They live in Maryland now and work for a federal agency within the U.S. government providing essential services to people of all ages, and doing research to make sure the services are as effective as possible. It is critical that truth, including real stories affecting people, be spread about the processes and impacts of recent actions by our government. We need truth to inform our actions.

I want to share with you what has been going on with so many Americans recently who work for the federal government. There is a war on the federal civil service by Trump and Elon. It is devastating because there is no rhyme or reason to it. I received a list of probationary employees (in their first year of federal service) 2 weeks ago to decide whether to retain them or not. Our Center (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation) put forward to largely retain those persons on the list. The new political appointee of the Center, Abe Sutton, indicated to management since then that they had not received push back on that list. We were given a false sense of hope. Tensions were high among staff on Thursday and Friday as news leaked the firings would sweep the federal HHS workforce. I was given assurance or hope to call and assure staff they would be safe; our people weren’t included. Then came 3:30 or so on Friday when we, CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is the umbrella agency) managers, received an impromptu appointment to join a scripted meeting where we were informed “some” of CMS’ probationary employees would be fired. Chaos ensued. The Center’s leadership, including Trump’s political appointee didn’t know. The late Friday afternoon call was the first he heard of it. An emergency meeting was held to answer questions to which no one had answers. “Are there lists of employees being fired?” “No.” “Would we ever receive a list?” “We don’t know.” Managers, including myself, stood vigil over our computers into Saturday waiting for any sign as to whether our staff were fired. Then, slowly, one probationary employee after the other received a letter. The letter read in short because their performance was not “adequate.” Let me be clear – the people who now used to report to me and those I have worked with in my years at CMS Innovation Center – are some of the most dedicated and hard-working public servants (and workers in general) I have met who sincerely want to improve healthcare for ALL Americans. It is frightening what is going on in our country. Are there people who don’t perform in the federal government and it is incredibly difficult to fire them? Heck yes. But these are not the people. I had finished annual performance reviews last week with these persons on my staff, including one who was working late into the night often this past week because of a request by the new Center Director, Abe. This person is very smart and dedicated and came to the government to make a difference from the inside. This is a devastating and disgusting time. I’m lucky to be here still. But what about the hard-working individuals giving themselves to serve the American people until yesterday who aren’t now? One of our staff has been making the news circuits since she received her letter yesterday. You can get a glimpse from her perspective here. Please fight with me. This is terrible and excruciating what is happening. PS – I acknowledge I am only sharing what’s happening from my lens and I know there is more on top of this that is being impacted since January 20. My intention was to share one view of the inside from a dedicated public servant. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and health insurance portability standards. In addition to these programs, CMS has other responsibilities, including the administrative simplification standards from the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), quality standards in long-term care facilities (more commonly referred to as nursing homes) through its survey and certification process, clinical laboratory quality standards under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, and oversight of HealthCare.gov. CMS actively inspects and reports on every nursing home in the United States. This includes maintaining the 5-Star Quality Rating System. The CMS Innovation Center was established by Congress in 2010 to identify ways to improve healthcare quality and reduce costs in the Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs. Following this charge, the CMS Innovation Center, through its models, initiatives and Congressionally-mandated demonstrations, has accelerated the shift from a health care system that pays for volume to one that pays for value.

Jane Bleeg

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