DOGE turns focus to CMS spending, contracts, news report says

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Staff from the new federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have gone to work this week at the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Citing “people familiar with the matter,” the Journal reported the representatives have access to key payment and contracting systems.

“The DOGE representatives have been on site at the agency’s offices this week, the people said, and they are looking at the systems’ technology as well as the spending that flows through them, with a focus on pinpointing what they consider fraud or waste,” the Journal report said. “DOGE representatives are also examining the agency’s organizational design and how it is staffed, the people added.”

As of mid-afternoon Feb. 5, leaders at the White House and DOGE did not comment, according to the Journal. The report described CMS as “a highly politically and economically sensitive agency. … the nerve center of much of the nation’s complex healthcare economy, with outlays of about $1.5 trillion in fiscal 2024, or about 22% of the federal total.” CMS has approximately 6,700 employees overseeing Medicare and Medicaid.

The Journal report cited a person familiar with the work stating the DOGE staffers did not have access to databases with indentifiable personal health information of beneficiaries. Access to CMS databases was “read-only,” meaning the staff could not make changes to the systems, the report said.

A spokesperson said CMS leaders “were taking a thoughtful approach” to find ways to be more effective and efficient in spending, in line with the goals of President Donald J. Trump, the report said.

The president established DOGE by executive order on Jan. 20. The department’s goal is to implement the president’s “DOGE Agenda, by modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” according to the White House.

DOGE has made headlines for cutting contracts, including spending of more than $1 billion for diversity, equity and inclusion across various federal departments and agencies. That change included 15 such contracts at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), for savings of more than $28.18 million, according to the list posted on the DOGE account on social media site X, formerly Twitter.

This week multiple news outlets have reported on DOGE’s efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, as an independent agency. The president and DOGE leader Elon Musk have criticized USAID as wasteful; Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said it could move under the jurisdiction of the State Department, according to news reports.

The president has nominated Mehmet Oz, MD, to succeed Chiquita Brooks-LaSure as CMS administrator. The nomination has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee, which on Feb. 4 voted 14-13 to advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary.