OPM expands health data collection for Federal Employees Health Benefits, sparking privacy debate

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) finalized a rule, effective June 23 2026, that expands the health‑claims data it gathers from the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) and Postal Service Health Benefits (PSHB) programs, covering roughly eight million participants. The rule adds detailed prescription, provider and billing codes to the monthly reports insurers must submit, which OPM says is needed to detect fraud, waste and billing abuse more quickly.

OPM states that direct identifiers such as name, Social Security number and address are stripped before data are received, and that member IDs are hashed, though it retains the technical ability to reverse the process for certain operational purposes. Critics—including the National Association of Retired Federal Employees (NARFE), the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and Democratic members of Congress—argue that pseudonymized data do not provide the privacy guarantees required under HIPAA and are calling for stronger, binding protections. The public comment period closed on July 23 2026, and it remains unclear whether OPM will tighten its privacy commitments or whether Congress will intervene.