About DHHS
About HHS
It is the mission of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans. We fulfill that mission by providing for effective health and human services and fostering advances in medicine, public health, and social services.
HHS Family of Agencies
The Office of the Secretary, Operating Divisions, and Regional Offices administer HHS programs. Many HHS-funded services are provided at the local level by state or county agencies, or through private sector grantees.
The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is a uniformed service of more than 6,000 health professionals who serve in many federal agencies. The Surgeon General is head of the Commissioned Corps.
HHS Agencies & Offices
HHS has 11 operating divisions, including eight agencies in the U.S. Public Health Service and three human services agencies. These divisions administer a wide variety of health and human services and conduct life-saving research for the nation, protecting and serving all Americans.
The Office of the Secretary (OS), HHS’s chief policy officer and general manager, administers and oversees the organization, its programs, and its activities. The Deputy Secretary and a number of Assistant Secretaries and Offices support OS.
Strategic Plan FY 2018 - 2022
Every four years, HHS updates its Strategic Plan, which describes its work to address complex, multifaceted, and evolving health and human services issues. An agency strategic plan is one of three main elements required by the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993 (P.L. 103-62) and the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-352). An agency strategic plan defines its mission, goals, and the means by which it will measure its progress in addressing specific national problems over a four-year period.
For the period FY 2018—2022, HHS is publishing its Strategic Plan as a Web document, which will be updated periodically to reflect the Department’s strategies, actions, and progress toward its goals. The Web version of the Strategic Plan, rather than focusing on a static set of performance measures, provides priorities, accomplishments, and next steps that are tracked and updated frequently, reinforcing the Strategic Plan’s function as a living, vital document that serves a genuine management purpose. The Strategic Plan was last updated February 28, 2018.