Trump Admin Demands Emergency Room Records in Alarming Move

The Trump administration is trying to get medical records from emergency room visits through the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

KFF Health News reports that the small federal agency responsible for protecting Americans from faulty household appliances is now demanding that hospitals turn over personally identifiable medical records. Earlier this year, the CPSC started pressuring hospital executives to share the data with a private contractor, ostensibly to overhaul its system for tracking consumer-product-related injuries at hospitals.

The CPSC is seeking records on everything from broken bones to vaccine reactions, and even suicide attempts. In its emails to hospital executives, a CPSC official asked that the hospitals provide personally identifiable information from patients, including names, addresses, and diagnoses, to contractor Konza Health. In turn, Konza Health told health executives that providing this information was “mandatory” or “required.”

The CPSC wants at least 100 hospitals to provide this information by the end of 2026, according to an agency memo. But hospital attorneys and health industry experts are concerned about the agency’s legal authority to collect medical records, its ability to keep such records safe, and whether it is following the laws in making such sweeping changes.

“The whole thing is troubling,” Sharona Hoffman, a professor of health law at Case Western Reserve University, told KFF Health News, saying that patient privacy will be at risk. “If this company really is collecting identifiable information, that is worrisome for patients.”

The requests could also violate federal privacy law, as well as laws preventing federal authorities from mandating the reporting of private health data. The CPSC’s operating manual previously instructed hospitals not to include patients’ private information such as “such as names, birthdates, or addresses” in case reports.

Last year, President Trump fired the CPSC’s three Democratic board members, and the Supreme Court let the firings stand after they were challenged in court. KFF Health News also found that 63 career staffers left the agency in 2025, the most of any year in a decade. The administration has sought private health information to help its mass deportation agenda, its anti-vaccination agenda, and its assault on federal workers. What dark plans does it have this time? ...