Colorado is joining a multistate coalition in a lawsuit to block the mass transfer of individual personal data to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. <\/p>\n
Attorney General Phil Weiser and his counterparts in 19 states are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to a press release issued by his office. <\/p>\n
The attorneys general said the mass transfer of the data violates the law and asked the court to block any new transfer or use of this data for immigration enforcement purposes. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe personal health care data collected about Medicaid beneficiaries is confidential, to be shared only in narrow circumstances that benefit public health and the integrity of the Medicaid program,\u201d said Weiser, a Democrat. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason to share this sensitive data with immigration or law enforcement agencies. We\u2019re suing to protect Colorado\u2019s Medicaid program and the health and welfare of the people it serves.\u201d<\/p>\n
In early June, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, orCMS, the federal agency that administers the nation\u2019s health program for low-income Americans, made a \u201clengthy and detailed\u201d data request<\/a> to Colorado\u2019s agency that administers Medicaid, according to Marc Williams,\u00a0 public information officer with the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. The request was made to seven other states, he said, without providing details on which ones.<\/p>\n The Associated Press reported<\/a> CMS has shared personal information of Medicaid from people living in California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington D.C., with the Department of Homeland Security, the agency in charge of immigration enforcement and the administration\u2019s deportation push.<\/p>\n In response, advocacy groups in Colorado raised a variety of privacy, safety and health concerns.<\/p>\n An HHS spokesperson told CPR last month the request was within the agency’s authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHHS and CMS take the integrity of the Medicaid program and the protection of American taxpayer dollars extremely seriously,\u201d said U.S. Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon, in an email. \u201cWith respect to the recent data sharing between CMS and DHS, HHS acted entirely within its legal authority \u2013 and in full compliance with all applicable laws \u2013 to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cColorado\u2019s immigrant communities should never have to fear that accessing life-saving care could lead to detention or deportation,\u201d said Nicole Cervera Loy, Policy and Campaign Manager at the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, in an email to CPR. \u201cThis unprecedented request for sensitive health data is not about program integrity\u2014it\u2019s about surveillance and punishment. We call on state leaders to reject this directive and uphold Colorado\u2019s values of dignity, safety, and care for all.\u201d<\/p>\n The coalition highlighted in the suit that \u201cthe Trump administration\u2019s illegal actions are creating fear and confusion that will lead noncitizens and their family members to disenroll, or refuse to enroll, in emergency Medicaid for which they are otherwise eligible, leaving states and their safety net hospitals to foot the bill for federally mandated emergency healthcare services,\u201d according a press release from the Attorney General\u2019s Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n Colorado joined the following states in the legal challenge: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. <\/p>\n\n This story is part of a collection tracking the impacts of President Donald Trump\u2019s second administration on the lives of everyday Coloradans. Since taking office, Trump has overhauled nearly every aspect of the federal government; journalists from CPR News, KRCC and Denverite are staying on top of what that means for you. Read more here<\/a>. <\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colorado is joining a multistate coalition in a lawsuit to block the mass transfer of individual personal data…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":39940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[31832,69,2142,210,1141,1142,409,5735,3170,1807,277,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-39939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-department-of-homeland-security-dhs","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-federal-government","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-care","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-immigration","15":"tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-ice","16":"tag-medicaid","17":"tag-president-trump","18":"tag-trump","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114798904221734611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}