By Amanda Seitz and Maia Rosenfeld
April 21, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT / KFF Health News
Democratic lawmakers are pressing the Office of Personnel Management to withdraw a plan that would collect detailed medical records for millions of federal employees, retirees and their family members.
OPM has asked 65 insurers to submit monthly reports containing comprehensive medical and pharmaceutical claims data for more than 8 million people enrolled in federal health plans, according to KFF Health News. The request, first sent to insurers in December, does not instruct companies to remove identifying information and says insurers are legally permitted to disclose protected health information to OPM.
Two letters from congressional Democrats — one signed by 16 senators led by Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), and another led by Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee — ask OPM Director Scott Kupor to abandon the proposal. House Democrats warned that collecting broad, personally identifiable data about medical care ‘raises concerns that OPM could target certain federal employees seeking vital health care services that the Administration disagrees with on political grounds.’
Senate Democrats argue OPM lacks adequate safeguards and could share these records across agencies, citing past federal uses of personal data from other programs. They say insurers’ disclosure of such information to OPM could run counter to the core principles of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), undermine patient-clinician confidentiality and expose highly sensitive information, including mental health conditions and chronic diagnoses.
OPM has said it plans to use claims data for oversight and management of federal health plans, and health policy experts have noted the records could also be used to pursue cost-saving measures. Still, ethicists, privacy advocates and some insurance executives have raised alarm about the scale and level of detail requested, including individual names and diagnostic information.
The congressional letters face an uphill battle to halt the proposal because Republicans control Congress and have not publicly opposed the plan. OPM did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the letters or the broader concerns.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, called the plan alarming. AFGE National President Everett Kelley said the proposal comes amid coordinated attacks on federal employees and an expanded willingness to share sensitive personal data across agencies. ‘The question of what this administration intends to do with eight million Americans’ most private health information is not academic. It is urgent,’ Kelley said, praising lawmakers who have raised objections.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom producing in-depth journalism on health issues and is part of KFF, an independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.