Becker's Hospital Review

21 21 CEO/STRATEGY White House releases extensive plan to reorganize HHS: 9 things to know By Julie Spitzer T he White House released its 132- page plan to restructure several federal agencies and impose work require- ments on government assistance programs. e plan is the result of a March 2017 exec- utive order that asked the Office of Manage- ment and Budget to explore ways of making the government "lean, accountable and more efficient," according to NPR. Officials said it includes 34 examples of consolidation, ac- cording to CNN. Here are nine things to know about the Of- fice of Management and Budget plan released June 21: 1. Officials proposed moving noncommodity nutrition assistance programs — including the SNAP food stamps program — from the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutri- tion Service to HHS, which it would rename the Department of Health and Public Welfare. 2. A Council on Public Assistance would over- see those programs, and the council would be able to impose uniform work requirements for program participants, which Democrats strongly oppose, according to e Hill. "Democrats and Republicans in Congress have rejected President [Donald] Trump's proposals to drastically gut investments in education, healthcare and workers — and he should expect the same result for this lat- est attempt to make government work worse for the people it serves," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said. 3. Under the proposal, three HHS research di- visions — the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute for Occu- pational Safety and Health, and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research — would be rolled un- der the National Institutes of Health, according to the American Hospital Association. 4. e plan also aims to merge the Depart- ment of Agriculture's food safety regulators with those in the FDA and proposes renaming the regulatory body the Federal Drug Admin- istration to focus on drugs, devices, biologics and tobacco. A new agency within the USDA, the Federal Food Safety Agency, would take over over the review of food safety. 5. e plan also seeks to combine the Depart- ments of Education and Labor, on the premise that education and job training should go to- gether. e two entities weren't separate until President Jimmy Carter broke up the Depart- ment of Health, Education and Welfare into the Education and Health departments in 1979, according to CNN. 6. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos praised the restructuring plan, calling it a "big step" in ful- filling President Trump's promise to "reduce the federal footprint in education and to make the federal government more efficient and effective." "is proposal will make the federal govern- ment more responsive to the full range of needs faced by American students, workers, and schools," Ms. DeVos said in a statement, accord- ing to CNN. "I urge Congress to work with the administration to make this proposal a reality." 7. To address the federal cybersecurity work- force shortage, the plan proposes "establishing a unified cyber workforce capability across the civilian enterprise, working through [the Department of Homeland Security] and OMB in coordination with all Federal de- partments and agencies," MIT Technology Re- view reports. 8. e plan also seeks to privatize the U.S. Postal Service so that it can run in a more sus- tainable manner. 9. Many of the proposed changes would re- quire congressional approval, and MIT Tech- nology Review noted lawmakers are likely to challenge many of the plan's proposals. n New York hospital seeks new management contract within hours of CEO's sudden resignation By Ayla Ellison I mmediately after the abrupt resignation of Massena (N.Y.) Memorial Hospital CEO Robert Wolleben on June 18, town officials announced plans to con- tract with another hospital to operate Massena Memorial as an interim step to forming a private nonprofit and having a health system take over the facility completely, according to the Watertown Daily Times. Mr. Wolleben told town officials he was stepping down as hospital CEO on the afternoon of June 18, and by the end of a regularly scheduled board meeting that evening, the hospital hired Ann Gilpin as the facility's interim leader. She previously served as president and CEO of Oswego (N.Y.) Health System. Massena Town Supervisor Steven D. O'Shaughnessy told the Watertown Daily Times. At the time of her appointment, Ms. Gilpin was expected to serve as inter- im CEO for two months. "In the meantime, we're going to be seeking a management contract with anoth- er hospital to push us to privatization and possible affiliation," Mr. O'Shaughnessy said. "We want to make it a priority. We wanted it to be way before now. The man- agement team will run the hospital and get it privatized and get it affiliated." The process of transitioning Massena Memorial from a municipal hospital to a private facility began a few years ago. In 2016, officials contacted 17 health sys- tems to determine if they were interested in affiliating with Massena Memori- al once the hospital privatizes. Hospital officials received six responses, five of which met the hospital's requirements for affiliation. Of those, two were chosen for further discussions, according to the report. The hospital will choose an affiliate once the asset transfer agreement between the town and the hospital is complete. The agreement determines which assets and liabilities carry over to the new organization, according to the report. n

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