Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

CMS Freedom of Information Group

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a federal statute that allows individuals to request access to federal agency records, except to the extent records are claimed as exempt from disclosure under one or more of the nine (9) exemptions of the Freedom of Information Act. The Freedom of Information Group (FIG) is the office within CMS responsible for overseeing the agency’s responsibility under FOIA.

What We Do

The Freedom of Information Group handles FOIA and certain Privacy Act issues and requests. We respect the right of the public to access information in the possession of the Agency, but also protect privileged information.

Departmental and CMS FOIA Regulations allow us to recover part of the costs associated with the processing of FOIA requests.  Unless you state a specific fee limit in your request, we will assume that you are willing to pay all the fees incurred in the processing of your request and will not contact you concerning the FOIA fees.

Under the statute, federal agencies are required to respond to a FOIA request within twenty business days from when the request is received by the XXXX that maintains the records. Therefore, FOIA requests that are region specific should be forwarded to the office that maintains the records in which you have an interest.  CMS receives thousands of requests each year. Many of these requests require a line-by-line review of hundreds or even thousands of pages of documents. CMS makes every effort to respond to FOIA requests as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

Meet the Director

Michele Edmondson-Parrott became the Director for the Office of Freedom of Information Group in 2023.