The Obama administration adamantly denies it, but rumors are circulating inWashington that his Department of Health and Human Services is already collecting Americans’ private health information, or at least preparing itself to do so. Are we looking at another big push for ObamaCare?
Rep. Denny Rehberg, the chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services and Education formalized the rumors by asking about them in a letter last week to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
“Specifically, I have been told that HHS has already procured a contractor to build a database and that this contractor has already taken steps to acquire personal health care data from a large claims database,” Rehberg wrote. “I would like to know if these reports are, in fact, true. If so, it would represent an egregious violation of the privacy rights that the American public rightfully demands.”
When have the socialist in the Democratic Party ever concerned themselves with the privacy rights of Americans when they’re scheming to “change” American society?
Rehberg’s question relates to an Obamacare implementation rule which HHS officials proposed recently but haven’t yet formally implemented. HHS spokeswoman Erin Shields told reporters that these rules aren’t final, and added that the Obama administration has “outlined proposals that will help keep premiums down for the American people.”
“In all cases, patients’ privacy will be protected and any suggestions otherwise are false,” Shields said. “These proposals have not been implemented and we look forward to hearing comments from the American people about these proposals and our work to help make insurance affordable for the American people.”
HHS Centerfor Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight director Steve Larsen says the rumors aren’t true.
“In a recently released proposed rule, CMS [the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] laid out several general options for collecting information to support risk adjustment, including an intermediate model in which States would collect information such as claims that are currently used for payment purposes,” Larsen said in a Thursday blog post. “Work has not begun on this project.”
Rehberg, however, isn’t stepping back from asking tough questions. “Is HHS working with a contractor to develop a database?” his letter asked Sebelius. “If so, who is that contractor, and what is the cost? Has HHS or any contractor already moved forward with purchasing claims data to establish a database? If so, from whom did they purchase the data and for what purpose?”
The rumors and Rehberg’s questions relate to a controversial Obamacare rule that freshman Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp ofKansasfirst discovered in September, one that would require health insurance companies to provide the government with private patient health information.
That information, Larsen says, will be used to develop a “risk adjustment program” so the new federal health care exchanges can make effective cost analyses
Big Brother is once again rearing his ugly head.
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