As part of its “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, the Trump administration announced last month that it was partnering with tech companies to build digital tools designed to make access to health care data easier for patients and providers.
President Donald Trump praised the developing digital ecosystem as a “major step” to bring “health care into the digital age.”
“[We’re] moving from clipboards and fax machines into a new era of convenience, profitability, and speed, and frankly, better health for people,” said Trump at the White House while announcing the new initiative at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The federal government will adopt digital platforms and technologies built by companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and OpenAI to deliver what the administration calls a “next-generation” digital health ecosystem that will “improve patient outcomes, reduce provider burden, and drive value.”
Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries will be able to upload their health records digitally; the data will be used for various purposes, such as timely provider access, identifying plans and provider networks, and processing claims.
“For too long, patients in this country have been burdened with a healthcare system that has not kept pace with the disruptive innovations that have transformed nearly every other sector of our economy,” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, the CMS administrator. “With the commitments made by these entrepreneurial companies…we stand ready for a paradigm shift in the U.S. healthcare system for the benefit of patients and providers.”
However, as the Trump administration touts its digital health care revolution, there is some skepticism about the safety of patients’ private data and whether a push for the digital future could further leave older Black Americans behind. Older Black Americans who rely on Medicare and Medicaid could find themselves in the crosshairs of President Trump’s agenda, including eliminating DEI and major cuts to the federal bureaucracy under the guise of “waste” and “fraud.”
“If equity isn’t built in from the beginning, then exclusion is baked in by design,” said Raymond Jetson, co-founder of Aging While Black, an advocacy group that described its mission as amplifying the voices and experiences of Black elders and “reimagining aging at the intersection of race.”
Jetson said of the health care digital ecosystem currently being developed and shepherded by the Trump administration, “I doubt very seriously that, based on the track record to date, that anything that is rolled out by this administration will have equity built into it from the start.” He told theGrio, “As a result, the expansion of exclusion will be baked into whatever construct happens.”
The former Louisiana state representative and deputy secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said that while the Trump administration’s plan is “grand,” he is concerned about the existing and potentially expanded gaps for aging Black Americans.
Jetson pointed to the administration dismantling the Administration for Community Living, which provides support services for older adults and people with disabilities. While the Department of Health and Human Services described it as a “reorganization” that won’t impact Medicare and Medicaid services, Jetson told theGrio that he is less confident.
While he admits the ACL was “inadequate,” Jetson said it helped to “translate” federal policy for patients’ “lived experience.” Now, he worries there will not be efficiency in “engaging and modeling programs around the country” to help aging Black Americans understand how to navigate new systems.
Jetson explained that a “sanitized” federal government that does not recognize the need for equitable government services for Black Americans only “exacerbates the gap in access to opportunities.” For example, the author of “Aging While Black: A Radical Reimagining of Aging and Race in America” said the Trump administration’s new health care digital tools “totally ignore the existing digital deficit” in the country.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration overhauled the $42 billion grant known as the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program. The program, launched by the Biden administration, was intended to help close the digital gap impacting Black, Brown, and rural communities by providing affordable high-speed internet in areas deemed left behind.
However, the Trump administration repurposed the BEAD program for uses that are not intended to benefit the target populations. Instead, it emphasizes “tech neutral” by including satellite internet service—despite experts “insisting that fiber is the fastest, more affordable way to connect underserved communities,” reported NPR.
There are also remaining concerns about what these new digital tools will mean for the privacy and safety of Americans’ health care data.
When announcing the health care digital tools, HHS claimed, “All proposed plans would protect privacy, secure personal health information, and comply with HIPAA requirements.”
Democratic National Committee official Kendall Witmer blasted the news as the Trump administration taking a “wrecking ball to Americans’ privacy.”
“Whether it’s our Social Security information, tax records, and now, our personal medical data, the Trump administration knows no limit when it comes to scheming with Big Tech,” said Witmer. “Donald Trump doesn’t care about keeping data safe, secure, and private — instead, he’s working to line the pockets of Big Tech by granting them unregulated access to Americans’ personal data.”
