Judge blocks HHS from sharing Medicaid data with immigration officials

A federal judge ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to stop providing access to Medicaid enrollees’ personal data, including their home addresses, to immigration officials.

District Judge Vince Chhabria, an Obama appointee, granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Homeland Security from using Medicaid data obtained from 20 states that filed a lawsuit to stop the data sharing.

The order, handed down Tuesday, blocks HHS from sharing data on Medicaid enrollees in these states with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of targeting migrants for deportation.

“Using CMS data for immigration enforcement threatens to significantly disrupt the operation of Medicaid—a program that Congress has deemed critical for the provision of health coverage to the nation’s most vulnerable residents,” Chhabria wrote.

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The judge wrote that while there is nothing “categorically unlawful” about DHS collecting data from other agencies for immigration enforcement purposes, ICE has had a policy against using Medicaid data for that reason for 12 years.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has also long maintained a policy of using patients’ personal information only to run its healthcare programs.

“Given these policies, and given that the various players in the Medicaid system have relied on them, it was incumbent upon the agencies to carry out a reasoned decision-making process before changing them,” Chhabria wrote, adding: “The record in this case strongly suggests that no such process occurred.” 

Chhabria said the preliminary injunction will remain in effect until HHS provides “reasoned decision-making” for its new policy of sharing data with immigration officials or until litigation concludes.

The disclosure of Medicaid data is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to give DHS more data to help locate migrants and carry out the president’s mass deportation plan. In May, a federal judge refused to block the Internal Revenue Service from sharing immigrants’ tax data with ICE officials.

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“The Trump Administration’s move to use Medicaid data for immigration enforcement upended longstanding policy protections without notice or consideration for the consequences,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “As the President continues to overstep his authority in his inhumane anti-immigrant crusade, this is a clear reminder that he remains bound by the law.”

HHS first provided the personal information of millions of Medicaid enrollees in June, prompting a lawsuit from the 20 states to block the new policy.

In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services entered into a new agreement that allowed DHS to have daily access to the personal data of the country’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including their Social Security numbers and home address.

Neither agreement was announced publicly. HHS has insisted that its agreement with DHS is legal.

Medicaid officials had attempted to block the data transfer, but they were overruled by top advisers to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Immigrants – both legal and illegal – are not authorized to enroll in the Medicaid program, which offers nearly free coverage for health services. However, under federal law, all states must offer emergency Medicaid, a temporary coverage that only covers lifesaving services in emergency rooms to anyone, including people who are not U.S. citizens.

“Protecting people’s private health information is vitally important,” Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “And everyone should be able to seek medical care without fear of what the federal government may do with that information.”

The sharing of Medicaid enrollees’ personal data could cause concern among people seeking emergency medical help for themselves or their children, immigration advocates have warned.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.