Medicare portal database exposed Social Security numbers: Reports

 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) unintentionally published Social Security data for at least 100 health providers, according to multiple outlets. 

The department took down its National Provider Directory after The Washington Post flagged the information to CMS officials. The webpage serves to connect seniors with healthcare professionals, and it includes data about more than 7 million providers. 

The Hill has reached out to CMS for comment. 

A CMS spokesperson told the Post that the issue stems from providers entering their Social Security data in the incorrect place on the form. 

“The agency has taken steps to address it promptly and reinforce safeguards around data submission and validation,” CMS said in a statement to the outlet. 

Since the directory’s launch last year, there have been several issues with the information included in this database, including misidentifying the healthcare plans covered under certain providers. 

The project is part of a broader effort led by the acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Amy Gleason, to connect the public with healthcare providers. 

Oregon’s Democratic senators, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, wrote to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz last November that they were “deeply concerned” about reports of “erroneous, conflicting, and duplicative information” included in this database.  

“While we appreciate CMS’s stated intent to help enrollees more easily navigate and choose a Medicare Advantage (MA) plan, we are concerned that this rushed rollout will mislead millions of seniors as they compare plans, and may cause seniors and people with disabilities to incur medical bills they reasonably believed would be covered,” the senators wrote. 

Merkley is the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, and Wyden is the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. 

The Trump administration previously came under fire from Democrats after DOGE reportedly stored Social Security data in an unsecured cloud server. A whistleblower with the Social Security Administration said this move put “over 300 million Americans” at a greater risk of identity theft. 

Wyden called the whistleblower report “a clear example of how the Trump administration is playing fast and loose with Americans’ most sensitive personal information.”  

“Trump and DOGE’s reckless treatment of Social Security data jeopardizes the financial security and personal safety of every single American,” Wyden wrote in a statement last summer.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5860959-cms-publishes-social-security-data/