The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today that it is reversing a 2024 reorganization and returning department-wide technology leadership roles to the HHS Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), while narrowing the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) mission.
Under the July 2024 reorganization, HHS dually titled ONC as the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ASTP/ONC). It also moved oversight of the chief technology officer (CTO), chief data officer (CDO), and chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO) roles to the ASTP/ONC.
Today’s announcement reverses those moves, restoring ONC as a singularly titled office, and shifting the roles, responsibilities, and offices of the HHS CTO, CAIO, and CDO back under the HHS chief information officer’s (CIO) leadership.
“This structure allows OCIO to provide an integrated backbone for cloud, cybersecurity, data, and AI that every HHS component can rely on,” HHS CIO Clark Minor said in the press release.
“By bringing CTO, CAIO, and CDO functions together under one roof, we can move faster on shared platforms, protect our systems more effectively, and support ONC and the operating divisions with the technology capabilities they need to innovate for patients,” Minor said.
Minor added that the OCIO’s close partnership with ONC “means that as policies and standards evolve, the department’s technology infrastructure will be ready to implement them at scale in a secure and cost-effective way.”
ONC will continue to operate as a staff division within the HHS Office of the Secretary, enabling ONC to focus on advancing health IT policy, standards, and certification. The previous reorganization had increased the office’s responsibilities to support the broader tech mission.
HHS said the national coordinator will continue to report directly to the secretary.
“With this department?wide alignment, ONC can focus even more on standards, certification, and policy, while our close partnership with OCIO ensures that the infrastructure and cybersecurity foundation are in place to support the health care system of tomorrow,” said National Coordinator Dr. Thomas Keane, MD, MBA.
“ONC and OCIO are now tightly coordinated in how we set policy, build infrastructure, and deploy AI and data capabilities,” added Dr. Keane. “Together, we will drive toward true data liquidity across the health system so that the right information is available to the right person at the right time – improving outcomes and lowering costs for the American people.”