Public health experts and advocates say that HHS regional offices<\/a>, like the one in New York City, form the connective tissue between the federal government and many locally based services. Whether ensuring local social service programs like Head Start get their federal grants, investigating Medicare claims complaints, or facilitating hospital and health system provider enrollment in Medicare and Medicaid programs, regional offices provide a key federal access point for people and organizations. Consolidating regional offices could have serious consequences for the nation\u2019s public health system, they warn.<\/p>\n \u201cAll public health is local,\u201d said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. \u201cWhen you have relative proximity to the folks you\u2019re liaising to, they have a sense of the needs of those communities, and they have a sense of the political issues that are going on in these communities.\u201d<\/p>\n The other offices slated to close are in Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle. Together, the five serve 22 states and a handful of U.S. territories. Services for the shuttered regional offices will be divvied up among the remaining regional offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n The elimination of regional HHS offices has already had an outsize impact on Head Start, a long-standing federal program that provides free child care and supportive services to children from many of the nation\u2019s poorest families. It is among the examples cited in the lawsuit<\/a> against the federal government challenging the HHS restructuring brought by New York, 18 other states, and the District of Columbia, which notes that, as a result, \u201cmany programs are at imminent risk of being forced to pause or cease operations.\u201d<\/p>\n The HHS site included a regional Head Start office that was closed and laid off staff last month. The Trump administration had sought to wipe out funding<\/a> for Head Start, according to a draft budget document that outlines dramatic cuts at HHS, which Congress would need to approve. Recent news reports<\/a> indicate the administration may be stepping back from this plan; however, other childhood and early-development programs could still be on the chopping block.<\/p>\n Bonnie Eggenburg, president of the New Jersey Head Start Association, said her organization has long relied on the HHS regional office to be \u201cour boots on the ground for the federal government.\u201d During challenging times, such as the covid-19 pandemic or Hurricanes Sandy and Maria, the regional office helped Head Start programs design services to meet the needs of children and families. \u201cThey work with us to make sure we have all the support we can get,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, payroll and other operational payments have been delayed, and employees have been asked to justify why they need the money as part of a new \u201cDefend the Spend<\/a>\u201d initiative instituted by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, created by President Donald Trump through an executive order.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, most programs don\u2019t have anyone to talk to and are unsure as to whether or not that notice of award is coming through as expected,\u201d Eggenburg said.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n HHS regional office employees who worked on Head Start helped providers fix technical issues, address budget questions, and discuss local issues, like the city\u2019s growing population of migrant children, said Susan Stamler, executive director of United Neighborhood Houses<\/a>. Based in New York City, the organization represents dozens of neighborhood settlement houses \u2014 community groups that provide services to local families such as language classes, housing assistance, and early-childhood support, including some Head Start programs.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, the real problem is people weren\u2019t given a human contact,\u201d she said of the regional office closure. \u201cThey were given a website.\u201d<\/p>\n To Stamler, closing the regional Head Start hub without a clear transition plan \u201cdemonstrates a lack of respect for the people who are running these programs and services,\u201d while leaving families uncertain about their child care and other services.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s astonishing to think that the federal government might be reexamining this investment that pays off so deeply with families and in their communities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Without regional offices, HHS will be less informed about which health initiatives are needed locally, said Zach Hennessey, chief strategy officer of Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit provider of health services in New York City.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere it really matters is within HHS itself,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are the folks that are now blind \u2014\u00a0but their decisions will ultimately affect us.\u201d<\/p>\n Dara Kass, an emergency physician who was the HHS Region 2 director under the Biden administration, described the job as being an ambassador.<\/p>\n \u201cThe office is really about ensuring that the community members and constituents had access to everything that was available to them from HHS,\u201d Kass said.<\/p>\n At HHS Region 2<\/a>, division offices for the Administration for Community Living, the FDA\u2019s Office of Inspections and Investigations, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration have already closed or are slated to close, along with several other division offices.<\/p>\n HHS did not provide an on-the-record response to a request for comment but has maintained that shuttering regional offices will not hurt services.<\/p>\n Under the reorganization, many HHS agencies are either being eliminated or folded into other agencies, including the recently created Administration for a Healthy America, under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/p>\n \u201cWe aren\u2019t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,\u201d Kennedy said in a press release<\/a> announcing the reorganization.<\/p>\n Regional office staffers were laid off at the beginning of April. Now there appears to be a skeleton crew shutting down the offices. On a recent day, an Administration for Children and Families worker who answered a visitor\u2019s buzz at the entrance estimated that only about 15 people remained. When asked what\u2019s next, the employee shrugged.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s downsizing effort will also eliminate six of 10 regional outposts of the HHS Office of the General Counsel, a squad of lawyers supporting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other agencies in beneficiary coverage disputes and issues related to provider enrollment and participation in federal programs.<\/p>\n Unlike private health insurance companies, Medicare is a federal health program governed by statutes and regulations, said Andrew Tsui, a partner at Arnall Golden Gregory who has co-written<\/a> about the regional office closings.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have the largest federal health insurance program on the planet, to the extent there could be ambiguity or appeals or grievances,\u201d Tsui said, \u201cresolving them necessarily requires the expertise of federal lawyers, trained in federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall, the loss of the regional HHS offices is just one more blow to public health efforts at the state and local levels.<\/p>\n State health officials are confronting the \u201ctotal disorganization of the federal transition\u201d and cuts to key federal partners like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CMS, and the FDA, said James McDonald, the New York state health commissioner.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019m seeing is, right now, it\u2019s not clear who our people ought to contact, what information we\u2019re supposed to get,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re just not seeing the same partnership that we so relied on in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Healthbeat is a nonprofit newsroom covering public health published by Civic News Company<\/a> and KFF Health News<\/a>. Sign up for its newsletters here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.dangeladvertising.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/HHS_01.jpg\")
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