Personal information jeopardized by government's offshore outsourcing

Our government's desire to save a few dollars by outsourcing information has jeopardized personal information of thousands of Americans, according to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report issued today.

In responding to GAO’s survey, over 40 percent of the federal contractors and state Medicaid agencies reported that they experienced a recent privacy breach involving personal health information. (The frequency or severity of these breaches was not reported.) By survey group, 47 percent of Medicare Advantage contractors reported privacy breaches within the past 2 years, as did 44 percent of Medicaid agencies, 42 percent of Medicare FFS contractors, and 38 percent of TRICARE contractors. TMA and CMS differ in their requirements for notification of privacy breaches. TMA requires monthly reports on privacy breaches from its TRICARE contractors and follows up with contractors that report recurring lapses in privacy. While CMS requires Medicare FFS contractors to report privacy breaches within 30 days of discovery, such oversight is lacking for privacy breaches that may occur with personal health information held by state Medicaid agencies and Medicare Advantage contractors, as CMS does not require reports of privacy breaches from these entities.

Why in the world do we continue the outsourcing of our private information, management of our highways and ports and other vital services? If we truly want to protect Americans from offshore threats, stopping this outsourcing would be a far more valuable step than the wiretapping of innocent Americans.