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In a major shift away from the coercive medical policies of the COVID era, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has announced the elimination of a Biden-era rule that tied hospital reimbursement to the reporting of staff vaccination rates—a move that rewarded data compliance and punished medical freedom.
The policy reversal comes just days after a mainstream-published study in JAMA Health Forum revealed that COVID-19 shots “saved far fewer lives than first thought”—especially among younger populations—prompting top researchers to denounce aggressive mandates as “zealotry.”
It also comes on the heels of another damning HHS investigation revealing that some hospitals began harvesting organs from patients who were still showing signs of life—a chilling example of how federal incentives and oversight failures have driven parts of the medical system to prioritize profit and data over human dignity and informed consent.
The old policy, created under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) during the previous administration, financially incentivized hospitals to report employee vaccination status.
“Medical decisions should be made based on one thing: the wellbeing of the person—never on a financial bonus or a government mandate,” said Secretary Kennedy.
Hospital employee data wasn’t merely collected.
It was posted publicly to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network, effectively pressuring hospitals to comply with federal vaccine policies or risk public shaming and reduced funding.
“The data was published on CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network as a tool for public shaming, not public health,” the announcement states.
The implications of the repeal are significant:
Ending Coercion by Checkbook
By decoupling federal money from vaccination reporting, HHS has severed one of the strongest levers the federal government used to compel behavior under the guise of public health.
The newly ended policy had essentially paid hospitals to enforce federal vaccination norms by making staff health data a prerequisite for reimbursement.
This was seen by many as a form of indirect mandate that violated the spirit of informed consent.
“Doctors deserve the freedom to use their training, follow the science, and speak the truth—without fear of punishment,” said Secretary Kennedy.
This move sends a clear signal: the practice of coercing compliance with controversial medical protocols using taxpayer money is over.
At least for now.
Restoring Medical Autonomy
Rather than treating doctors like data-entry clerks for the CDC, the new policy frees healthcare professionals to think critically and act independently.
It protects the individual rights of both healthcare workers and their patients, acknowledging that the doctor-patient relationship should not be governed by fear of financial retaliation.
“Doctors and other providers should have the same autonomy to choose what’s right for their own individual health care needs as the patients for whom they care,” said CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. “Today’s announcement helps put that power back in their hands.”
In an era when federal policies turned medicine into a political compliance game, this marks a long-overdue return to ethical medical decision-making.
CMS has recently come under fire for launching Trump’s so-called “Next-Generation Digital Health Ecosystem”—a sweeping data centralization scheme that hands Americans’ private health records to Big Tech and AI firms like OpenAI and Oracle, setting the stage for nationwide surveillance, experimental research without consent, and biosecurity overreach masquerading as patient empowerment.
Dismantling the Government’s ‘Snitch State’ Infrastructure
The CDC’s public-facing vaccination dashboard for hospital staff was a digital scarlet letter system, designed not to inform the public but to stigmatize non-compliance.
The fact that the government openly admits this system was intended to shame—rather than heal—is a stunning admission.
“[The] data was published on CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network as a tool for public shaming, not public health.”
Ending the practice is not just a rollback.
It’s a repudiation of the psychological warfare tactics employed under the name of public health.
Refocusing on Care, Not Compliance
Hospitals should be places of healing, not bureaucratic hubs funneling vaccine compliance data to Washington in exchange for budgetary survival.
This repeal allows medical institutions to prioritize patient care over politics, shifting their attention back to evidence-based treatment, not ideological enforcement.
“The policy repeals are part of a broader HHS effort to restore medical autonomy in federally funded programs and root out financial and regulatory pressures that incentivize physicians towards pre-scripted medical decisions rather than individualized, evidence-based care.”
A Step Toward Decentralizing Federal Control
In combination with other policy changes under RFK Jr.’s leadership, this latest move suggests that HHS may be aiming for a deeper restructuring of its relationship with the medical community.
It now favors decentralization and professional freedom over command-and-control enforcement.
For doctors who spoke out during COVID—and were punished or blacklisted for it—this announcement offers a measure of vindication.
For the American people, it represents a course correction toward a system where care is chosen, not coerced.
And for those watching closely, it signals that medical freedom is finally making a comeback inside the very agencies that once stripped it away.
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