{"id":482371,"date":"2026-06-17T19:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/482371\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T19:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:53:12","slug":"opm-responds-to-concerns-over-plan-to-access-to-fehb-pshb-medical-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/482371\/","title":{"rendered":"OPM Responds to Concerns Over Plan to Access to FEHB\/PSHB Medical Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\tIn a blog\u00a0posting, OPM director Scott Kupor has now said that the information will be treated in a way so that it \u201ccannot be mapped back to any plan participant\u201d by OPM or personnel offices.\t\t\t\t\t Image: O. Kalacheva\/Shutterstock.com
\n\t\t\t\tBy: FEDweek Staff<\/a><\/p>\n

OPM has sought to allay privacy concerns about its plan to access detailed medical information on FEHB\/PSHB enrollees, with one of the organizations that raised such concerns\u2014the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association\u2014cautiously optimistic that OPM is addressing them.<\/p>\n

In a Federal Register notice posted in December, but which only drew attention months later in April, OPM\u00a0proposed<\/a>\u00a0to gain access to carriers\u2019 records including office visits, treatment, prescriptions and other medical information, without a requirement that they withhold personally identifying information.<\/p>\n

NARFE said in April that the notice \u201cfails to\u00a0explain adequately why OPM needs the data, how it will use it, how it will secure it, and what safeguards will be in place to protect the privacy of federal employees and retirees.\u201d The AFGE union meanwhile said the data \u201ccould be used to identify employees who have sought care that this administration has made a specific target of its policy agenda, including reproductive health care and gender-affirming treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separate\u00a0letters<\/a>\u00a0to OPM from about a dozen House and Senate Democratic members raised similar concerns, with the Senate letter saying that the risk of such information being misused \u201ccannot be overstated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a blog\u00a0posting<\/a>, OPM director Scott Kupor has now said that the information will be treated in a way so that it \u201ccannot be mapped back to any plan participant\u201d by OPM or personnel offices.<\/p>\n

He said that OPM\u2019s inspector general\u2019s office\u2014which has access to such information for its audits of health plans and carriers\u2014\u201cwill provide an encrypted copy of that data to OPM \u2013 but only after stripping out names, social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses (except for ZIP codes), and other personally identifiable data. The only member-level PII fields that will remain in the data that OPM receives will be our member\u2019s ZIP codes, year of birth, and their member ID.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that OPM further will replace the member ID with random numbers and characters and that the data \u201cwill remain in a secure, separate environment, encrypted at rest and protected with our IT security best practices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kupor said that while IG audits have been valuable in uncovering fraudulent activity in the health-care program such as kickbacks and overbilling, those audits happen after the fact. \u201cOPM ought to be able to identify mis-billings and inappropriate delivery of services by providers\u00a0when those actions happen. That way, we can recoup any lost dollars immediately and, if necessary, terminate providers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a statement to FEDweek, NARFE said that OPM\u2019s \u201cbackground explanation in its official notice was about 100 words, and clearly inadequate. In contrast, OPM Director Kupor\u2019s blog post provides about a 1,500 word explanation of OPM\u2019s request for data, and it provides some helpful clarifying information regarding how OPM intends to use the data to help identify fraud and reduce costs for plan participants. But it remains a blog post.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to learning more about OPM\u2019s plans to utilize, secure and protect the privacy of the data if efforts move forward,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Separately, OPM recently issued a\u00a0notice<\/a>\u00a0to carriers reminding them of fraud prevention and detection programs required of them, and\u00a0finalized<\/a>\u00a0rules seeking to address the long-running issue of ineligible persons being covered, by imposing new requirements for proof of eligibility, and reinforcing policies on removing persons found to be ineligible.<\/p>\n

Bill Offered to Expand Federal Employee Paid Leave Benefits<\/a><\/p>\n

OPM Responds to Concerns Over Plan to Access to FEHB\/PSHB Medical Records<\/a><\/p>\n

2027 COLA Count Jumps Again, Hits 3.6 Percent<\/a><\/p>\n

Schedule P\/C Guidance Addresses Disciplinary Actions, RIFs<\/a><\/p>\n

House Passes Bills on Employee Bonuses, Financial Management Controls<\/a><\/p>\n

Kupor Paints Critical Pay Authority up to $400K as a Talent Exchange Program<\/a><\/p>\n

See also,<\/p>\n

Why You Don\u2019t Want the Six Month Lump Sum Social Security Payment<\/a><\/p>\n

OPM\u2019s Proposed RIF Rules: What Federal Employees Should Do Now<\/a><\/p>\n

$1.46M in You TSP? Don\u2019t Worry FERS and Social Security Will Close the Gap!<\/a><\/p>\n

How Your FERS, Social Security and TSP Payments Get Taxed<\/a><\/p>\n

Federal Retirement Income Calculator<\/a><\/p>\n

2026 FERS Retirement & Thrift Savings Plan Handbook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a blog\u00a0posting, OPM director Scott Kupor has now said that the information will be treated in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":["post-482371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}