Some furloughed workers will return to manage health insurance open enrollment as shutdown drags on

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NEW YORK (AP) — The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will temporarily bring all its furloughed employees back to work starting Monday to manage health insurance open enrollment, according to an agency spokesperson.

The recall to duty amid the more than three-week-long government shutdown is what's needed to “best serve the American people amid the Medicare and Marketplace open enrollment seasons,” the spokesperson said Thursday.

It will be paid for by user fees gathered from sharing data with researchers, the agency said.

The decision to call the employees back shows how significantly shutting down the government and losing staffing has impacted federal government operations during a crucial season, as millions of Americans are selecting their health insurance plans for next year. CMS provides health coverage to more than 160 million people, according to its website.

It also comes during a moment of uncertainty for Affordable Care Act enrollees, with Congress deadlocked on how to handle expiring subsidies that have made marketplace health insurance less expensive for millions since 2021. Democratic lawmakers are demanding a deal to extend the COVID-era subsidies before they agree to fund the government, while Republican lawmakers want to reopen the government before negotiating that question.

As their stalemate and the resulting government shutdown continue, the cost of next year's health insurance for many of the 24 million ACA enrollees is still unknown, even with open enrollment beginning in a week.

Though CMS didn't specify for how long the employees will return, the open enrollment period for Medicare runs between Oct. 15 and Dec. 7, while the open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act marketplace runs between Nov. 1 and Jan. 15.

While the agency didn't answer questions about how many employees would return to work, about 3,300 of CMS's staff, or a little over half, were expected to be retained during the shutdown, according to the agency's contingency plans. That would mean about 3,000 furloughed workers are being called back to work Monday.

While CMS has not seen any layoffs during the current shutdown, its parent agency — the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — was among the hardest hit by the government-wide reduction in force. Nearly 1,000 HHS staff were abruptly fired earlier this month, though a judge has temporarily paused those layoffs from taking effect.