Senate Democrats on Aug. 17 called on federal officials to end Medicaid enrollee data sharing with the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Edward Markey, D-Mass., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., sent two letters, one to CMS and HHS and another to the Department of Homeland Security. The senators said HHS violated a December federal court injunction by “improperly” sharing Medicaid enrollee data with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.
“The Trump administration’s lawlessness and abuse of sensitive health information brazenly infringes on enrollee privacy,” the letters said.
The injunction, granted by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, blocked sharing data from Medicaid enrollees in 22 states, unless the data applied to individuals lacking legal status in the U.S. The preliminary injunction limited that data sharing to immigration and citizenship status, address, phone number, birth date and Medicaid identification number. HHS could not relay health records if protected information was not separable from shareable information.
The letters cited incidents of possibly inappropriate data sharing. In an April court filing, the departments reported two January data transfers that could have gone beyond the scope outlined in the injunction. A later filing said HHS “inadvertently included” the Medicaid data previously shared in January in a folder that ICE could access.
The senators requested additional information on the data transfers, the number of Medicaid records from lawfully residing individuals that ICE or DHS has gotten from HHS or CMS, and DHS’ next steps. The senators asked for answers by Sept. 4.
“When people enrolled in Medicaid, they did so under assurances that their personal information would be used to administer their health coverage and not to help deport them or their family members,” a letter said.
CMS told Becker’s it will review the letter and respond to the appropriate members of Congress.
Becker’s contacted HHS and DHS and will update this story if more information becomes available.
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