On Oct. 27, CMS will recall all employees who were furloughed at the start of the month when the federal government shut down.
“In order to best serve the American people amid the Medicare and Marketplace open enrollment seasons, CMS is temporarily calling back all furloughed employees on Monday, October 27,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement to Becker’s. “CMS will continue to abide by rules governing the Democrat-led government shutdown.”
CMS furloughed 47% of its 6,700-person workforce when the shutdown began Oct. 1. That amounts to roughly 3,000 employees who will be brought back to work next week.
To pay staff during the shutdown, the agency will draw from user fees collected from researchers who access CMS data, with plans to reimburse the fund once the government reopens.
The decision to bring employees back comes one week into the open enrollment period for Medicare and just days before enrollment for ACA marketplace plans begins Nov. 1.
Across HHS, 41% of the department’s 79,717 workers were furloughed at the start of the shutdown. On Oct. 10, HHS also issued layoff notices to 982 employees, many of whom work at the CDC. A federal judge has temporarily blocked layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown, but HHS has said the order does not apply to it because affected staff were not represented by the unions that filed the lawsuit.
The shutdown, now in its fourth week, marks the third-longest federal funding lapse in U.S. history. As it drags on, disruptions to the nation’s healthcare system are mounting. Several states have already posted sharp premium increases for 2026 ACA plans. Additionally, many hospitals halted Medicare telehealth services and transferred hospital-at-home patients back to brick-and-mortar facilities after reimbursement for the models lapsed.
A House-approved measure that would extend funding for telehealth flexibilities and hospital-at-home failed in the Senate for a 12th time Oct. 22. The measure does not include an extension of ACA premium subsidies — a key sticking point for Democrats, who say they will not support any funding deal that excludes them.
