Orange County residents are being warned their Medicaid and Medicare records are being handed over to the Department of Homeland Security as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
“I am deeply troubled by recent reports that President Trump handed over sensitive personal information, which is collected from enrollees through Medicaid and Medi-Cal systems, to deportation officials. That is not just wrong, it is dangerous,” said Assemblyman Avelino Valencia in a Thursday statement to Voice of OC.
“We have to draw a clear line, our Medicaid and Medi-Cal systems should be used to deliver care, not to fuel fear.”
OC Social Services Agency officials noted on Thursday that the move is part of the federal immigration sweeps.
“This data, provided for the purpose of administering healthcare, may now be used to locate individuals for immigration enforcement or to challenge their future immigration applications. This could include green card or naturalization denials due to past Medicaid use,” read a Thursday agency announcement also put out as an instagram post.
In the county news release from the OC’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, which operates as a subdivision of the Social Services Agency, officials say sensitive data are included in those records, based on reporting from the Associated Press.
“On June 10, CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) was directed to send DHS personal information — including names, addresses, Social Security numbers and claims history — of Medicaid enrollees, including non-U.S. citizens enrolled in state-funded programs in California, Illinois, Washington State and Washington, D.C,” read the release.
The End of Privacy?
“It’s the tip of the iceberg,” said Congressman Lou Correa, who represents heavily Latino communities throughout Santa Ana and Anaheim, in a Thursday afternoon interview.
“This means there is no privacy for any American. Legal or undocumented. People don’t comprehend that everything you thought was private is no longer private.”
The CMS, a federal agency, provides health coverage for more than 160 million people in the country.
The Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs provides eligible residents with access to healthcare, food stamps, refugee cash assistance and immigrant assistance, according to their website.
Officials with that office said in their news release it’s important that “community members know that emergency services remain available and that they should not delay seeking care if needed.”
After publication of this story, Social Services Agency spokeswoman Jamie Cargo said officials will continue their standard data privacy protections.
“Our usual data protections remain in place. SSA complies with all state and federal confidentiality requirements. CMS shared the information at the federal level,” Cargo said in a Thursday afternoon text message.
In a Thursday statement, OC Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said county officials are actively warning people.
“We are aware that the administration has directed the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to turn over sensitive personal information to the Department of Homeland Security. Our Social Services Agency has begun outreach efforts to Medi-Cal enrollees to make them aware of this situation and its potential impacts.” Sarmiento said in an email statement to Voice of OC.
“These actions discourage participation in healthcare and mean that some individuals may not seek health services, which hurts the overall community and can create serious public health concerns,” he said.
U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff are raising a host of concerns about the move.
“We are deeply troubled that this administration intends to use individuals’ private health information for the unrelated purpose of possible enforcement actions targeting lawful noncitizens and mixed status families,” reads a June 18 letter sent to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Department of Homeland Security.
“These actions not only raise ethical issues but are contrary to longstanding HHS policy and raise significant concerns about possible violations of federal law under the Privacy Act of 1974, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and the Social Security Act,” reads the letter signed by Padilla and Schiff.
For nearly two weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and various other federal agents have been conducting large immigration sweeps across Southern California – reportedly hitting Home Depots, car washes, restaurants and a host of other businesses.
[Read: Deportation Fears Persist in Orange County as ICE Protests Continue]
On Sunday, federal officials apparently shifted focus and showed up in a Latino neighborhood in Santa Ana – picking up a local man who was collecting bottles and cans to recycle.
[Read: Immigration Sweeps Hit a Santa Ana Neighborhood on Father’s Day]
In a Thursday email, Department of Homeland Security officials said the immigration sweeps are carefully planned.
“DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted. We do our due diligence. We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement officers are trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability,” reads the email.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security officials are now grabbing similar records from Washington, Illinois and Washington DC, according to the news release from the OC Social Services Agency.
“These states operate state-funded Medicaid programs for immigrants who are otherwise ineligible for federal Medicaid and had committed not to bill the federal government. Nevertheless, the federal government is now demanding their data as part of a sweeping review ordered under the recent executive order, Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders,” reads the news release.
In a June 13 news release, Gov. Gavin Newsom lambasted the move.
“Sharing Medicaid beneficiary information with the Department of Homeland Security – which is itself legally dubious – will jeopardize the safety, health, and security of those who will undoubtedly be targeted by this abuse, and Americans more broadly.”
Spencer Custodio is the civic editor. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio.