Department of Health and Human Services(HHS)
Cabinet department for Medicare, Medicaid, public health, biomedical research, food and drug regulation, child and family services, and health privacy/civil rights.
Function
Cabinet department
Parent
Top-level (no parent)
FY2026 Budget Authority
$3379.87B
Official Data
USAspending.govEvidence & Review
Evidence Confidence
HighVerification Status
AI-researched, unverifiedLast Reviewed
Jul 5, 2026
Retrieved On
Jul 5, 2026
Modernization Levers
CMS claims and provider data modernization, public-health data exchange, FDA review workflow tools, NIH portfolio analytics, and benefit-service design.
Administrative Burden Review
Patients, providers, states, and researchers face separate documentation regimes; simplification must protect eligibility, safety, privacy, and scientific integrity.
Duplication & Coordination Review
Overlap between CMS, CDC, NIH, FDA, ACF, USDA, VA, and states is unavoidable; shared data standards and outcome definitions reduce harmful fragmentation.
Risk & Guardrails
Do not cut public-health surveillance, research peer review, Medicaid eligibility protections, or FDA safety review under a modernization label.
Innovation Party Proposal
Put HHS on a public-value budget: payment accuracy, faster trusted service, interoperable public-health data, and research/regulatory capacity targeted at measurable health gains.