Trump Administration Seeks Medical Records of Millions of Federal Workers

The Trump administration is seeking unprecedented access to detailed, personally identifiable medical records for millions of federal workers, retirees, and their families. The proposal, managed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), would create a sweeping database of sensitive health information, raising significant privacy and cybersecurity concerns among legal and health policy experts.

According to reporting by KFF Health News, the plan was revealed in a brief notice issued by OPM in December. The regulation would require 65 insurance companies that provide Federal Employees Health Benefits or Postal Service Health Benefits plans to submit monthly reports to the agency containing identifiable health data on their members.

The scope of the data collection is vast, affecting more than 8 million Americans. This group includes current federal employees, mail carriers, and retired members of Congress, as well as their immediate family members.

Scope of Data Collection

OPM has requested that insurers furnish service use and cost data. The specific categories of information the agency is seeking include:

• Medical claims
• Pharmacy claims
• Encounter data
• Provider data

This level of access would allow the federal government to identify specific prescriptions employees have filled and the treatments they have sought from doctors. The harvested data could include diagnoses, provider information, visit summaries, and doctors’ notes.

The notice sent to insurers does not instruct them to redact identifying information, a process that insurers have noted would be burdensome and would require specific federal guidance to complete.

Justification and Privacy Concerns

OPM stated that the acquisition of this data is intended to ensure they provide competitive, quality, and affordable plans. Experts have noted that the agency could use the information to analyze costs and improve the overall health system.

However, the granularity of the data has prompted unease from insurers and legal experts. Critics are questioning the legality of OPM acquiring such a comprehensive database of sensitive health records and expressing doubt regarding the agency’s ability to safeguard the information from breaches or misuse.

Sharona Hoffman, a health law ethicist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, warned that the detailed nature of the records could be weaponized.

The concern here is the more information they have, they could use it to discipline or target people who are not cooperating politically.

Sharona Hoffman

OPM spokespeople have not responded to repeated requests for comment regarding the proposal or the safeguards intended to protect the identifiable medical data.