The Trump administration wants to require health insurance companies to hand over troves of sensitive, detailed, and identifiable medical records from millions of federal workers and retirees, along with their families. The move is raising immediate concern from legal and health policy experts, according to a report by KFF Health News.
The unprecedented proposal was quietly revealed in a short notice from the Office of Personnel Management in December, KFF notes. OPM said it is seeking “service use and cost data,” which would be harvested from medical records such as “medical claims, pharmacy claims, encounter data, and provider data.”
That list could give the federal government access to prescriptions employees have filled and their diagnoses, as well as provider information, doctors’ notes, treatments, and visit summaries, among other sensitive health information. The collection would affect more than 8 million Americans and harvest data from 65 insurance companies, according to KFF.
Experts who spoke to KFF said OPM’s brief explanation for collecting the data—which would occur monthly—is vague and broad. The agency said it’s needed to oversee benefits programs and “ensure they provide competitive, quality, and affordable plans.” It also claimed that as an oversight agency, it is authorized to collect such protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).