Rob Bonta, the Attorney General of California, revealed on Tuesday that 20 states have filed a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s release of private Medicaid data to deportation personnel in June. The shared data affects millions of people enrolled in Medicaid.
Advisers to the HHS Secretary ordered CMS officials to release private data, including names, immigration status, social security numbers, addresses, as well as claims data by those enrollees in several jurisdictions, such as Washington State, Illinois, Washington, D.C., and California to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The states included in the data sharing request were selected because those states allow immigrants who haven’t regularized their stay to access Medicaid funded by revenue generated locally within the state.
While announcing the filing of the lawsuit, Bonta said the federal administration had violated longstanding privacy laws protecting health information, such as HIPAA. The private health data shared can enable deportation officials to identify and locate individuals that are in the country illegally, and then deport them.
Available information suggests that a plan was set in motion back in May to give federal authorities access to private Medicaid data from states that allow undocumented immigrants to access state government-funded Medicaid. At the time, CMS revealed that it would be conducting a review to ascertain that those states weren’t using federal funds to provide Medicaid to illegal immigrants.
Consequently, CMS asked those states to share their Medicaid data for the review. Hardly a month later, HHS asked CMS to share that data with DHS. Despite back and forth email communication in which CMS officials explained why it would be illegal to share such information, HHS wrote to CMS ordering them to release the data by 5:30 ET on the very day (June 10) that directive was sent.
HHS insists that its actions are within the law and that it is executing its mandate to ensure Medicaid benefits go to citizens and not non-citizens. The agency doesn’t explain how giving that information to DHS helps HHS to perform its role.
It is against this backdrop that 20 states are suing over the matter. There is concern that the federal administration is willing to flout existing laws in order to attain its objectives, such as conducting mass deportations.
The possibility that the private health data of their policyholders could one day be shared in violation of all laws protecting the privacy of this data must be causing firms like Astiva Health plenty of concern because such violations are unprecedented.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Astiva Health are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/Astiva
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