Decreasing Transparency for Certain Department of Health and Human Services Actions

Authors

Carmel Shachar, Harvard Law School
Nicole Huberfeld, Boston University School of Public Health; Boston University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Editorial

Publication Date

3-27-2025

ISSN

0098-7484

Publisher

JAMA Network

Language

en-US

Abstract

On February 28, 2025, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a significant departure in how it will interact with its key stakeholders, which include physicians, health care organizations, and patients in public programs like Medicaid. Specifically, HHS will no longer provide an opportunity for public comments on many actions around contracts, grants, and benefits.¹ Additionally, it will not engage in public comments when it decides there is “good cause” to bypass them. On the surface, this may appear to be a minor, technical shift in HHS’ administrative processes, but this change may have significant implications for transparency in HHS policies as well as health care practitioners’ and patients’ ability to influence rulemaking.

Recommended Citation

Carmel Shachar & Nicole Huberfeld, Decreasing Transparency for Certain Department of Health and Human Services Actions , 333 JAMA 1862 (2025).
Available at: https://doi.org/doi:10.1001/jama.2025.4732