A tiny federal agency tasked with protecting the public from injuries caused by lawn mowers and coffeemakers is demanding that some of the nation’s biggest health systems turn over detailed, personally identifiable medical records of all patients who seek help at their emergency rooms.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, responsible for tracking and issuing recalls of dangerous products sold in the U.S., began discreetly pressuring hospital executives this year to share personally identifiable health data with a private contractor. But hospital lawyers and other industry experts have questioned the agency’s authority to collect, its ability to safeguard such a swath of sensitive information, and whether it has followed the legal process to overhaul its surveillance system.
After KFF Health News asked the CPSC about the new system, the agency announced the program on July 21. Left unmentioned, however, is the alarm it has raised among hospital executives, as well as the nature and extent of the agency’s data demands.
Didn’t realize this wasn’t previously reported - they’ve also been pressuring the state medical billing systems for the last couple months to turn over complete patient records. So far as I know only a couple republican states have caved, but the requirement to hand the info over to an unvetted 3rd party has kept even hardline fash states like Idaho and Utah from forking it over wholesale. The extra creepy bit is that even in the few cases where data has been shared they have lost their shit over being given anything less than complete patient profiles, which isn’t… great.