OPM Wants Your Medical Records: What the Health Claims Data Warehouse Means for Federal Employees
OPM wants claims-level health data on up to 8 million federal employees, retirees, and family members, and six senators want it to stop and explain itself first. The Office of Personnel Management's June 2026 Privacy Act notice would gather medical and pharmacy claims from FEHB and PSHB plans into a "Health Claims Data Warehouse," keep the records for 30 years, and reserve the right to re-identify individuals. For federal employees with a medical condition or disability, the questions this raises are not abstract.
What OPM Says It Will Collect
The notice covers claims-level data: not just what your plan paid, but who treated you, what you were diagnosed with, and what you were prescribed. OPM says the records will be "pseudonymized," meaning your name and Social Security number are stripped out. What stays in is your birth year, sex, ZIP code, provider, every diagnosis, and every prescription. OPM also retains the ability to re-identify a record whenever it decides that is "reasonably necessary." The stated purpose is "oversight activities." The retention period is 30 years.
The Law Enforcement Sharing Provision
Six senators read the routine uses in the notice and flagged one in particular: OPM could share the data with law enforcement at the federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, or foreign level. The trigger is not a charge or a conviction. It is OPM's belief that a record indicates a potential violation of criminal, civil, or regulatory law. Compare that to how your own agency has to operate. It generally needs your signed release before it can speak with your doctor.
Why the 2015 Breach Still Matters
In 2015, OPM disclosed that hackers had taken background-investigation records on roughly 21.5 million people, including about 5.6 million sets of fingerprints. That history is the reason many federal employees hear "trust us with your medical records" and hesitate. A compromised password can be reset. A stolen fingerprint, or a stolen diagnosis, cannot.
Medical Confidentiality Rules Already on the Books
Federal disability law treats employee medical information as confidential. Under the regulations implementing the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA, 29 C.F.R. § 1630.14, medical information an employer obtains must be kept on separate forms in separate medical files and treated as a confidential record, apart from the regular personnel file. That is why a doctor's note supporting a reasonable accommodation request does not sit next to your SF-50. A centralized warehouse of every employee's claims history, held by the agency that also sets government-wide personnel policy, is a very different arrangement, and the notice does not explain how the two fit together.
The Question OPM Has Not Answered
In April, senators asked OPM directly whether this data could be used for hiring, suitability, reductions in force, or reasonable accommodation decisions. As of this week, five months later, OPM had not answered. The senators have now given OPM until September 25, 2026 to respond. The concern is not hypothetical. This year the federal government eliminated accessibility offices under the DEIA rollback, publicly blamed a fatal aviation accident on FAA hiring of people with disabilities, and, as reported this month, searched military medical records by diagnosis code. A government-wide list of who has which diagnosis, with no written limit on its use in employment decisions, deserves a clear answer.
What Federal Employees Can Do Now
The notice is in effect, but the policy conversation is not over. The senators' September 25 deadline is a pressure point, and constituent contact matters. You can text RESIST to 50409 to reach your senators, or call their offices directly, and ask them to press OPM on the employment-use question. Separately, if you have a medical condition and are worried about how your information is handled at work, keep your own copies of any accommodation requests, medical documentation you have submitted, and the agency's responses. If you believe medical information has been used against you in a personnel decision, the timelines for raising that are short, and it is worth talking to a federal employment attorney early rather than late.
Federal employees have a right to medical privacy at work, and that right does not disappear because the data is held by OPM rather than your agency. If you have questions about how your medical information is being handled, or you believe it has already affected your job, Southworth PC represents federal employees nationwide and offers confidential consultations.
Legal Disclaimer: This content is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Federal employment situations are fact-specific and time-sensitive. Please consult a qualified federal employment attorney about your specific situation.