A group of 16 Democratic senators on Monday called on the Office of Personnel Management to withdraw its plan to collect claims-level health data from federal workers and retirees, expressing “grave concern” that the measure would violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and basic tenets of doctor-patient confidentiality.
Last December, OPM published an information collection request in the Federal Register that would require insurers who participate in the Federal Employee Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs to provide monthly reports with identifiable health data on their enrollees, prompting unease from both health ethicists and health care providers alike. The notice would require the collection of medical visits, prescriptions and treatment data, and fails to task insurance carriers with redacting personally identifiable information.
In a letter to OPM Director Scott Kupor on Monday, more than dozen senators, led by Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Mark Warner, D-Va., demanded the agency rescind its request, arguing that the agency’s general “oversight” rationale is insufficient, given the extraordinary nature of OPM’s request.
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