Top technology companies will work with the Trump administration to create digital tools to make it easier for older Americans and people with disabilities to access their health care data through the government’s Medicare program.
Mr. Trump said the initiative “will allow patients to easily transmit information from one doctor to another, even if they’re different networks and using different record keeping systems, no matter what system they use, they’re all transferable. The new standards will also make it simple for patients to access their own personal health records.”
More than 60 companies, including Oracle and Microsoft, have agreed to sign on.
CBS News medical contributor Dr. Céline Gounder said Thursday on “CBS Mornings” that while this initiative makes it easier to share information, there are privacy concerns.
“Health care systems, doctors — we’re regulated very tightly in how we use your medical information,” Gounder said. “But if that information leaks and goes to an app that is not regulated in the same way — a lot of apps make money by selling data, your personal information.”
Gounder also noted that there are over 20 states suing the Trump administration for trying to use Medicaid data and giving it to ICE for immigration crackdown. The databases could potentially be shared with other federal agencies, such as the IRS, ATF or DEA.
“There are real concerns about the integrity and the transparency of the data,” Gounder said.
In May, the Trump administration sought public input on how to modernize the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services‘ digital health care services.
The announcement comes on the 60th anniversary of the Social Security Amendments, which were signed on July 30, 1965, and established Medicare and Medicaid.
Seema Verma, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the first Trump administration, was invited to attend the White House announcement. She now oversees Oracle’s Health and Life Sciences division.
White House spokespeople declined to comment.
