Sponsors (23)
The bill protects Medicaid beneficiaries' health privacy (particularly immigrants) by barring disclosure of Medicaid-identifying information to immigration enforcement and aligning protections with HIPAA, while reducing enforcement access and creating administrative burdens for agencies and providers.
Medicaid enrollees — especially immigrants — are protected from having their Medicaid enrollment and identifying health information disclosed to immigration authorities for enforcement purposes (and Privacy Act exceptions cannot be used to justify such disclosures).
The rule ties the protection to HIPAA's definition of individually identifiable health information, clarifying what specific data are covered and strengthening patient privacy safeguards in health care and social-service settings.
Immigrants eligible for Medicaid may be more willing to enroll and use covered services because of reduced fear that their health data will be shared with immigration enforcement, improving access to care and social services.
ICE and other immigration-enforcement agencies will have reduced access to Medicaid enrollment data and identifying health information that they might use in immigration investigations.
Limiting disclosures of Medicaid-identifying health information could complicate interagency criminal or public-safety investigations that legitimately require linking individuals to Medicaid records.
CMS/HHS, states, and covered providers may face increased administrative and operational burdens to segregate, withhold, or redact Medicaid-identifying data when responding to information requests.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bars HHS/CMS from sharing individually identifiable Medicaid enrollment data for the purpose of enforcing immigration laws.
Official title: To prohibit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Health and Human Services from disclosing Medicaid data for law enforcement purposes related to immigration, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 11, 2025 by Sydney Kamlager-Dove · Last progress September 11, 2025
Prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) from disclosing any individually identifiable health information obtained through Medicaid enrollment or waivers to any person for the purpose of enforcing immigration laws, including to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The restriction applies even if other federal statutes like the Privacy Act would otherwise allow disclosure. The bill protects individually identifiable Medicaid enrollment data from being used for immigration enforcement and limits federal agency data-sharing in that context.