Judge allows HHS to share Medicaid data with ICE

A federal judge in California ruled Monday that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can share Medicaid data with immigration enforcement authorities, but he kept in place limits on what data the agencies can share and what can be used.

A group of 20 Democratic attorneys general sued the Trump administration in July, seeking to block it from sharing Medicaid data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), arguing it violated privacy protections.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, appointed by former President Obama, ruled that in light of the “abrupt departure from their past policies of not sharing or using Medicaid data for immigration enforcement purposes,” both the HHS and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have “adequately explained their decisions.”

“The motion is denied as to the data that is the primary focus of the new policies—basic biographical, location, and contact information—because the sharing of such information is clearly authorized by law and the agencies have adequately explained their decisions,” Chhabria wrote.

In August, Chhabria granted a preliminary injunction to stop Medicaid from sharing data with ICE.

The judge found Monday that ICE has always had the authority to request data from other agencies to “pursue legitimate law enforcement objectives.”

He further found, however, that the policies being enforced by ICE are “totally unclear and do not appear to be the product of a coherent decisionmaking process,” noting it’s uncertain the scope of what data ICE can request from the HHS.

While the lawsuit is ongoing, Chhabria ruled that the HHS and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cannot share data from the plaintiff states unless it is data from a Medicaid program; pertains only to immigrants residing in the U.S. unlawfully; and the data only divulges the immigrant’s citizenship and immigration status, address, phone number, date of birth, and Medicaid ID.”

“DHS and ICE are also preliminarily enjoined from using any data obtained from HHS or CMS (including any data already acquired from HHS or CMS) for immigration enforcement purposes, unless the data satisfies the aforementioned requirements,” Chhabria wrote.

This injunction will stay in place until the end of the lawsuit or until 14 days after a new policy is issued that clarifies what additional information the DHS needs from the HHS along with a legal, policy-based explanation.