A federal judge has given the nation’s health department the green light to share some Medicaid data with immigration authorities, ruling the agency is within its authority to do so.
The decision limits the scope of what can be shared, but still delivered a blow to the Democrat-led states that sued the Trump administration to stop the data sharing over privacy concerns last year.
The ruling, effective Tuesday, Jan. 6, means the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can share “basic biographical, location, and contact information” of certain Medicaid enrollees with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to court documents.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco ruled that it is lawful to hand over basic information about who is getting public health benefits, which could be used to help locate people who are in the country illegally.
The judge refused to extend a preliminary injunction requested by multiple states to block the data sharing. The decision limits the data sharing to the following categories: citizenship, immigration status, address, phone number, date of birth, and Medicaid ID.
In his decision, the Obama-appointed Chhabria wrote that “the sharing of such information is clearly authorized by law and the agencies have adequately explained their decisions.”
Chhabria noted in his ruling that basic Medicaid information can be shared with ICE pertaining to illegal immigrants. The injunction still applies to other information, including data about immigrants legally in the country, USA Today reported.
The judge determined that ICE has always had the authority to request data from other agencies to “pursue legitimate law enforcement objectives,” but he blocked broader data sharing.
“Beyond the basic information discussed above, the policies are totally unclear and do not appear to be the product of a coherent decision-making process,” Chhabria wrote.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to USA Today that the ruling was “a victory for the rule of law and American taxpayers.”
Chhabria’s decision is a departure from earlier rulings, prompted by a lawsuit filed by a group of 20 Democratic attorneys general in July. The AGs sued the Trump administration to block HHS from sharing Medicaid data with ICE, arguing it violated privacy protections, The Hill reported.
In August, Chhabria granted a preliminary injunction to stop the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from sharing data with ICE. In December, he extended that temporary order, the Associated Press reported.
Then, in his decision issued last Monday, Dec. 29, Chhabria ruled that HHS and CMS could resume sharing some basic information after the temporary order expired on Jan. 5.
His ruling strictly limits the scope of data from the 22 plaintiff states that can be shared with ICE. The states filed a lawsuit after the Associated Press broke news of the data sharing policy, the AP reported.
“We are disappointed in the court’s decision allowing for the sharing of some Medicaid data with ICE,” said a statement from the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, one of the nearly two dozen Democratic officials who sued to block the information-sharing effort.
Many lawmakers and media outlets spun the data sharing as a way for ICE to gain information to find illegal immigrants. Trump officials maintain it was designed to protect Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries and investigate waste and fraud.
“HHS and CMS take the integrity of the Medicaid program and the protection of American taxpayer dollars extremely seriously,” Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, previously said in a statement provided to Newsweek.. “With respect to the recent data sharing between CMS and DHS, HHS acted entirely within its legal authority—and in full compliance with all applicable laws—to ensure that Medicaid benefits are reserved for individuals who are lawfully entitled to receive them.”
While the lawsuit plays out, Chhabria put restrictions on what HHS and CMS can share with deportation officials.
HHS cannot release detailed, sensitive medical information about enrollees to DHS or ICE, Chhabria wrote. The department is also barred from handing over Medicaid data about U.S. citizens or legal immigrants in the 22 plaintiff states, he wrote.
The Associated Press reported that HHS began sharing the personal data on millions of Medicaid enrollees in a handful of states in June. The story broke in July that CMS agreed to give ICE access to a database with personal data of all the nation’s 77 million Medicaid enrollees.
Neither agreement was announced publicly, according to the AP, which said the access included names, addresses, birth dates, ethnic and racial information, and Social Security numbers of enrollees.
In July, McLaughlin told the AP in an emailed statement that the two agencies “are exploring an initiative to ensure that illegal aliens are not receiving Medicaid benefits that are meant for law-abiding Americans.”
CMS in November said its intention to provide the data to ICE is “consistent with federal laws” and intended “to advance administration priorities related to immigration.”
Medicaid is a jointly funded program between states and the federal government to provide nearly-free coverage for health services to low-income citizens.
Federal law requires all states to offer emergency Medicaid, a temporary coverage that pays for emergency services to anyone, including non-U.S. citizens.
Emergency Medicaid is often used by illegal immigrants, particularly pregnant women who frequently sought care in border states after crossing illegally under the Biden administration.
Illegal immigrants are ineligible for the federal Medicaid benefits, but several sanctuary states permit non-U.S. citizens to enroll in their full Medicaid programs.
The states launched these programs during the Biden administration. All the states — California, New York, Washington, Oregon, Illinois, Minnesota and Colorado — have Democratic governors.
They said they would not bill the federal government to cover the health care costs of those immigrants.
However, in October, CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said that an internal review uncovered more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to illegal immigrants across several states, Fox News Digital reported.
This week, in light of a massive fraud scandal in Minnesota, Oz sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz informing him of plans to audit the state’s Medicaid billing and defer payments to 14 high-risk programs.
The federal audit specifically targets 14 Medicaid programs that the Minnesota Department of Human Services previously flagged as problematic. CMS plans to claw back any funds that were improperly billed for fraudulent programs.
“President Trump is very clear on this. He doesn’t want 6 million people or less living in Minnesota to have all the fraud that happened in that state paid for by all the other taxpayers in the country,” Oz told Laura Ingraham on Tuesday, per Fox News Digital. “We’re going to demand that they fix those problems, and we’re going claw back money to protect the federal taxpayer. Our job is to make sure the most vulnerable are protected.”
The state’s Medicaid program and other federally funded social service programs are being scrutinized after extensive fraud allegations and indictments have made national headlines.
Walz, who announced Monday that he would not seek re-election, issued a third-party audit of Medicaid billing through Minnesota’s DHS and paused payments for some services while an audit is underway, according to FOX 9 KMSP in St. Paul.
