NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s health department starting Monday can resume sharing the personal data of certain Medicaid enrollees with deportation officials, according to a federal judge’s ruling, in a blow to states that had sued the administration over privacy concerns.
But the judge’s decision, issued last Monday, strictly limits the scope of data from the 22 plaintiff states that can be shared — for now only allowing the agency to hand over basic biographical information about immigrants residing in the United States illegally. The states’ lawsuit came after an Associated Press report identified the data sharing policy.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco comes after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it planned to share the data again as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Chhabria in August had initially blocked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from sharing the personal data, which includes home addresses, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. In December, he extended that temporary order.