Senators Urge Scrutiny of Health-Data Deals Including Google Project
November 12 2019 - 5:01PM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah E. Needleman and Rob Copeland
Several U.S. lawmakers called for sharper regulatory scrutiny of
patient health-data deals, including one between Google and the
nonprofit health system Ascension, on concern that such
arrangements run afoul of federal privacy rules regarding medical
records.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Google is engaged
with Ascension, one of the country's largest health systems, on a
project to collect and crunch the detailed personal-health
information of about 50 million Americans. The data involved in the
initiative, code-named "Project Nightingale," encompasses lab
results, doctor diagnoses and patient hospitalization records,
among other categories. Neither patients nor doctors had been
notified about the partnership.
Project Nightingale appears to be the biggest effort yet from a
U.S. technology company to enter the health-care industry through
the handling of patients' sensitive medical data. St. Louis-based
Ascension is a Catholic chain of 2,600 hospitals, doctors' offices
and other facilities across 21 states and Washington, D.C.
Sens. Mark Warner (D., Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), Bill
Cassidy (R., La.) and Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) are among
legislators who separately issued statements raising serious
concern over the arrangement. Mr. Warner urged Congress or the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services to halt Google's
arrangement pending an investigation.
"Allowing already-dominant technology platforms to leverage
their hold over consumer data to gain entrenched positions in the
health sector is a worrying prospect," Mr. Warner wrote.
Mr. Warner said a moratorium should also be applied to any other
similar deals involving a company already under a consent-decree
agreement for serious privacy and security violations, as is the
case with Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc.
Google's YouTube agreed in September to pay a $170 million fine
after the Federal Trade Commission and the New York state attorney
general investigated complains that the video-sharing platform
illegally collected data on children to sell ads for products.
Google declined to comment on the lawmakers' criticisms.
After the Journal report, Google and Ascension issued a news
release saying the initiative is compliant with federal health law
and includes robust protections for patient data. The Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 generally
allows hospitals to share data with business partners without
telling patients as long as the information is used "only to help
the covered entity carry out its health care functions."
Ms. Klobuchar, a Democratic presidential candidate, said
Google's trove of health data warrants more government oversight
because there are "very few rules of the road in place regulating
how it is collected and used."
She added: "As science continues to drive technological
innovation, we must not sacrifice privacy."
Google has taken other recent steps to gain a toehold in the
health-care industry through the handling of patients' medical
data. The company earlier this month agreed to purchase Fitbit
Inc., whose fitness-tracking bands collect a range of consumer
health data, for roughly $2.1 billion. In September, Google's cloud
division reached a 10-year deal with the Mayo Clinic to store the
hospital system's medical, genetic and financial data.
Other technology giants, including Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc.
and Microsoft Corp., are aggressively pushing into health care.
Analysts have said it is logical the companies will look for ways
to monetize any consumer health data they collect by teaming up
with health-care companies to develop new products or services.
Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com and Rob
Copeland at rob.copeland@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 12, 2019 17:46 ET (22:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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