October 08, 2010
Feds Get Ready to Grad and Store YOUR Health Information
On October 5, 2010 the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) published in the Federal Register their intentions to build a national database of health care claims data that will cover tens of millions of individuals covered, or soon to be covered, under three government health plans – the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (includes postal employees) and two programs created under the Obama health reform law: The National Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Program and the Multi-State Option Plan that will provide a range of coverage nationwide.
OPM states “this action will be effective without further notice on November 15, 2010, unless comments are received that would result in a contrary determination. The purpose of this system of records is to provide a central and comprehensive database from which OPM may analyze Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP), National Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Program (program commencing August 2010), and Multi-State Option Plan (program commencing January 2014). OPM will collect, manage and analyze health services data on an ongoing basis by establishing regular data feeds for each of three programs. In many instances, the data will be de-identified for specific analyses that provide flexible queries of the data set for general demographic queries, risk-adjusted profiles, and comparison of chronically ill patients and other useful analytics; and engage in econometric modeling of, among other things, health trends, risk adjustment methodologies, pharmacy pricing, and negotiation.”
Your data collected by OPM will be shared with other entities for law enforcement purposes, congressional inquiries when individuals request assistance from their congressional office, judicial and administrative proceedings, national archives and records administration, within the Office of Personnel Management for statistical/analytical studies, and for litigation in which the office is authorized to appear.
CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
The records in the system may contain the following types of information on a participating enrollees:
a. Personal Identifying Information (Name, Social Security Number, Date of Birth, Gender, Phone number etc)
b. Address (Current, Mailing)
c. Dependent Information (Spouse, Dependents and their addresses)
d. Employment information
e. Health Care Provider information including debarred provider information
f. Health care coverage information.
g. Health care procedure information.
h. Health care diagnosis information.
i. Provider charges and reimbursement information on the above coverage, procedures and diagnoses.
AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
Authority is provided by 5 U.S.C. 8910 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
It’s the change we can believe in!