Donald Trump's administration has issued a request for the medical details of millions of federal workers.
A notice from the Office of Personnel Management could be changed drastically, with both current and retired federal workers' details requested. The proposal has shaken some insurers and health policy experts, who questioned why the Trump admin would want the details of current and previous employees. The OPM could simply be analyzing costs and improving its internal system, according to health law expert Sharona Hoffman, who spoke to CBS about the change.
The change does have a worrying caveat, though, with Hoffman saying, "They are going to get very, very detailed and granular data about everything that happens. The concern here is the more information they have, they could use it to discipline or target people who are not cooperating politically."
The OPM notice asked insurers that offer Federal Employees Health Benefits or Postal Service Health Benefits plans to furnish "service use and cost data," including "medical claims, pharmacy claims, encounter data, and provider data."
This notice landed with insurers in December, and public comment has since been lodged against the decision by Michael Martinez, senior counsel at Democracy Forward, an advocacy organization.
Martinez, who previously worked at OPM, said, "You can anticipate a scenario where this information on 8 million Americans is now in the hands of OPM and there's a real concern of how they use it.
"They've given no information about how they would treat that information once they have it." Hoffman added that a major concern would be over the ability of the Trump admin and the agency to look at "anything and everything".
OPM argues in its notice that it is entitled to the information from insurers "for oversight activities." Jodi Daniel, a digital health strategist, suggested the notice from OPM would be sufficient and in-line with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
The HIPAA requires certain organizations that maintain identifiable health information, including hospitals and insurers, to protect it from being disclosed without patient consent.
"The language in it seems quite broad and encompasses potentially a lot of information and data and is sort of light on justification," he said.