Agency set to sweep up medical data says some identifying info will be removed

The Trump administration is forging ahead with a controversial plan to collect the medical records of millions of federal workers and retirees, as well as their family members.

The Office of Personnel Management said in a notice posted last month that it will begin routinely collecting identifiable, personal health information on more than 8 million people — despite concerns from privacy advocates and Democrats, who have demanded the agency drop the plan. The notice will go into effect July 24, allowing OPM to begin its collection at any point afterward.

In reaction to privacy concerns raised by insurers and others, OPM now says the identities of enrollees will be "pseudonymized" — meaning names, addresses, and Social Security numbers will be removed — before the agency's analysts review the massive new health datasets it will soon begin receiving.

Birth years of enrollees will be retained, and the agency's "technical staff" will receive member IDs that it will scramble into different, unique numbers before releasing them to other staffers, according to the notice.

But the notice also specifies that OPM retains the right to reidentify the records.

Sixty-five insurance companies will be required to routinely send OPM detailed data — including names, addresses, doctor information, diagnoses, prescriptions filled, and payment details — on health care services paid through the Federal Employees Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs.

In a change to its original proposal, first reported by KFF Health News, the agency says it also wants to peek at records kept by Medicare, the federally funded health insurance for older and disabled Americans, to examine claims from federal employees and retirees, and their families, who depend on both programs.

In its latest notice, OPM argues that the vast trove of data is necessary to ferret out fraud and overpayments in the FEHB and PSHB programs. Those programs cost roughly $80 billion a year, with about $50 billion covered by the federal government and $30 billion funded by enrollees. The Trump administration has ramped up efforts, led by Vice President JD Vance, to curtail what it says is rampant fraud and misuse of publicly funded health benefits.

The effort still faces criticism that it doesn't go far enough to protect the privacy of federal workers and their families.

"Clearly, this administration has not earned our trust with Americans' sensitive data," Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in an emailed statement to KFF Health News. "If OPM wants to work in good faith to reduce fraud, they sho