The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) today released a report requested by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) showing that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) does no national security risk assessment when engaging the services of genetic testing and analysis firms that may have connections or partnerships with foreign governments, including the Chinese government.
“When taxpayer dollars and data are flying out the door to entities with connections to the CCP or other foreign adversaries, our government ought to be taking every step available to protect national security. This is especially true after the apparent governmental failures to properly oversee how American taxpayers funded entities like the Wuhan Institute of Virology. CMS needs to quickly adopt the inspector general’s recommendations before sending any more taxpayer dollars and data to entities that are a potential threat to our security, including Chinese government-affiliated programs,” Grassley said.
“It is ridiculous that our current policies enable the Chinese Communist Party to access Americans’ genomic data,” Rubio said. “There is absolutely no reason that Beijing, which routinely seeks to undermine U.S. national security, should be handed the genomic data of American citizens. We must take action to address these vulnerabilities, and I am ready to work with my colleagues in the Senate on a solution.”
Grassley and Rubio first wrote to the OIG in June 2019 seeking a broad review of payments made in relation to genetic data testing and analysis, and the national security risk assessment practices of CMS when making those payments. The senators directly raised concerns with HHS and CMS in October 2019. In January, the senators asked the OIG to expand its review of payments made to entities like the Beijing Genomic Institute (BGI) to include those made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full text of the HHS OIG report can be found HERE.
Original source can be found here.
