A report that the office administering the CLASS Act, the long-term care insurance component of the health care reform law, was to be shut down on Friday was making the rounds on Thursday, but the Department of Health and Human Services denied it in a statement issued later in the day.
A Wall Street Journal report cited Bob Yee, chief actuary for the HHS office that administers the program, as saying that he had been let go and the office was to shut its doors on Friday. He was quoted saying, “My understanding is they’re slowing down the development [of the program]. They’re taking a pause and reducing the amount of work being done.”
Yee was hired in January to develop actuarially sound figures for CLASS Act premiums and payouts. He said he had done so, and submitted the information. He also said he did not know how officials were explaining the staff reductions, but said in the report, “Clearly, all the people are reassigned, I’m leaving, so there’s nobody else except maybe the head of the office.”