OPM’s Health Data Plan Leaves Reidentification Open

The Office of Personnel Management plans to collect detailed health claims data covering more than eight million federal workers, retirees, and family members.

OPM says it will remove direct identifiers before analysts review the data, but records could still be reidentified; senators have urged the agency to suspend or narrow the plan and strengthen safeguards. The dispute centers on whether detecting fraud and overpayments justifies the scale, sensitivity, and proposed retention of the information.