The Trump administration has come under fire for allegedly violating federal privacy laws by turning over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along with 19 other states’ attorneys general, filed a lawsuit against this action, claiming it is in violation of federal health privacy protection laws, including HIPAA.
The big picture: The released dataset contains private health information of individuals from California, Illinois, Washington State, and Washington D.C., including sensitive data such as addresses, names, social security numbers, immigration status and claims data.
- The data sharing was reportedly orchestrated to assist deportation officials in locating migrants as part of an accelerated enforcement effort across the United States.
- Experts suggest that the shared information could be used to aid the Department of Homeland Security in identifying individuals for its mass deportation campaign.
- The move to share this data was initiated following the announcement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that they would review some states’ Medicaid rolls to ensure federal funds were not used for individuals with unsatisfactory immigration status.
The other side: In response to a data sharing request from Homeland Security, CMS officials cited violations of the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 as reasons for objecting to the release of the information.
- Despite CMS officials’ reservations, the Health and Human Services (HHS) department directed the transfer of the data to DHS, citing its legal authority to do so to ensure Medicaid benefits are reserved for eligible individuals.
Go deeper: Numerous Democratic members of Congress from both the House and Senate have called for the cessation of data sharing and the destruction of information received by Homeland Security.
- The Trump administration has faced criticism over similar data-sharing efforts in the past, such as sharing immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to aid in locating and detaining undocumented individuals.
- California, Washington, and Illinois were specifically asked to provide details about non-US citizens enrolled in their Medicaid programs, leading to the controversial release of private health information.
- HHS maintains that the data sharing was legal and necessary to crack down on potential misuse of federal Medicaid funds by states.
