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 (OPM) 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 re-identify the records.
