Warren, Blumenthal Seek Information on Military Electronic Health Record System Amid Concerns of Recruitment Delays and Privacy Violations
Press Release
"Amidst these growing concerns, we request further information about the program's implementation and urge you to evaluate the impact it is having on recruitment and beneficiaries' privacy."
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"These concerns have also been independently verified. The DoD Inspector General (IG) found that challenges associated with MHS Genesis led to "delays in medical waiver processing times ranging from 9 to 40 days' for the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps. U.S. Army Recruiting Command analysis found that "it could take up to 70 days or longer for the necessary consultations required to determine a waiver.' Although the services overcame these longer review times by prioritizing active duty waiver reviews and reassigning personnel, it is not clear if this is a sustainable solution for the total force. DoD IG also recommended that the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps track medically disqualified applicants to ensure they are notified of their options to pursue a medical waiver and to better understand reasons why they may choose not to request a waiver."
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"The Leidos Partnership for Defense Health consists of four core partners -- Leidos, Accenture, Oracle Health, and Henry Schein One -- in addition to about 30 supporting businesses. In June 2022, Oracle purchased the company Cerner. Today, the MHS Genesis system is based on a Cerner Millennium product, and the Oracle Cerner electronic health record system is "a key platform used by doctors to access the medical records of current and former military personnel.' Oracle's purchase of Cerner has led to privacy concerns that Cerner's database of patient data could "be combined with Oracle's trove of consumer data to create more complete consumer profiles that then could be used to, for example, help companies develop more targeted advertising.' Additionally, Oracle faced a class-action lawsuit in 2022 for "deliberate and purposeful surveillance of the general population via their digital and online existence" in its role as a data broker."
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