Trump Administration Demands Hospitals Share Emergency Room Records

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency responsible for tracking injuries from consumer products like lawn mowers and toasters, is demanding that hospitals hand over detailed medical records on millions of Americans—names, addresses, diagnoses, and all—according to KFF Health News. The CPSC, which traditionally collected anonymized injury data, is working with a private contractor called Konza Health to automatically pull and analyze all emergency room visit records from at least 100 hospitals by year's end. Hospital executives and legal experts have raised serious concerns about the agency's authority, its ability to safeguard such sensitive information, and whether it followed required legal procedures. The CPSC has not yet notified the public or opened a formal comment period, both required by law, and it previously suffered a data breach that exposed the medical information of roughly thirty thousand people. Privacy advocates warn that letting a private company access such a broad collection of identifiable health data introduces substantial risks to patients.

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