As the shutdown progresses, some furloughed employees will return to manage health insurance open enrollment

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will temporarily bring all of its furloughed employees back to work starting Monday to manage health insurance open enrollment, according to an agency spokesperson.

Returning to duty amid more than three-week-long government shutdown is essential for “best service” American People in the midst of Medicare and the Marketplace open enrollment season,” the spokesperson said Thursday.

The agency said it would be paid for from user fees collected from sharing data with researchers.

The decision to recall the employees shows how much the government shutdown and staffing shortages have affected the federal government’s operations during a crucial season, as millions of Americans are selecting their health insurance plans for next year. According to its website, CMS provides health coverage to more than 160 million people.

It also comes during a moment of uncertainty for those enrolled in the Affordable Care Act Congress There is a standoff over how to handle expiring subsidies that have made marketplace health insurance less expensive for millions of people since 2021. democratic Whereas, MPs are demanding a deal to extend Covid-era subsidies before agreeing to fund the government republican Lawmakers want to reopen the government before negotiating that question.

As their standoff and the resulting government shutdown continues, next year’s health insurance costs for many of the 24 million ACA enrollees are still unknown, even with the start of open enrollment in a week.

Although CMS did not specify when workers would return, the open enrollment period for Medicare runs between October 15 and December 7, while the open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act Marketplace runs between November 1 and January 15.

Although the agency did not answer questions about how many employees would return to work, about 3,300 CMS employees, or just over half, were expected to be retained during the shutdown, according to the agency’s contingency plans. This would mean that around 3,000 furloughed employees are being called back to work on Monday.

While CMS has seen no layoffs during the current shutdown, its parent agency — the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — has been hit hardest by government-wide cuts. Nearly 1,000 HHS employees were abruptly laid off earlier this month, though a judge has temporarily blocked those layoffs from taking effect.