Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), the chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies, recently led the subcommittee’s examination hearing on the Affordable Care Act’s establishment of the federal data hub.
The federal data hub is a key aspect of the new law that is scheduled to be fully implemented in October. The subcommittee has extensively examined the way it can be accessed and how the federal government will manage the public’s personal and identifiable information.
“We have witnessed all too recently how sensitive information can be mismanaged by the federal government,” Meehan said. “We have seen how cyber attacks from adversarial nations who seek to infiltrate our country’s military and intelligence information have breeched our most secure networks. We have watched as thieves have stolen our top innovators’ intellectual property.”
At least 20 million Americans are estimated to enter into the new health care exchange throughout the next five years. Meehan said he was concerned that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services may not have the tools in place to secure such a high volume of information.
“I fear that our government is about to embark on an overwhelming task that will at best carry an unfathomable price tag, and at worst place targets on every American who enters the exchange,” Meehan said.