The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employees were given access to HHS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) important payment and contracting systems to find options for enhancing productivity and to determine fraud and unsuccessful use of assets. Privacy supporters have indicated concern regarding the privacy risks if DOGE gets access to CMS systems. CMS provides health insurance to over 160 million people in America through different programs such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicare, and Medicaid.
DOGE is focusing on CMS because of the size of its employees and budget, as well as the lengthy record of scams in medical insurance. The CMS has over 6,700 employees and invested $1.5 trillion in 2024, which is about $22% of the federal total. Elon Musk thinks the CMS is the origin of big money fraud, and DOGE employees will be having a close view on CMS systems to distinguish fraud and bad spending. The CMS has given an announcement that two senior agency experts are leading the venture with DOGE. One is focused on guidelines and the other on procedures. They are offering proper access to CMS systems. They are thinking of where there may be chances for more efficient and reliable use of resources consistent with achieving the objectives of President Trump.
President Trump issued an Executive Order to create DOGE on the first day of his presidency, giving this name to the United States Digital Service started by President Barack Obama to enhance the federal government’s electronic capabilities. The United States Digital Service is placed under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), yet Trump shifted it to the President’s Executive Office. The objective of DOGE is to distinguish fraud and waste in order to reduce the federal budget and improve technology and application throughout the federal government. Musk was responsible for DOGE and hired a number of young engineers who were given systems access to search for fraud, ineffectiveness, and parts where budgets could be reduced.
There is substantial concern concerning the privacy risks linked to the extensive access DOGE has been given to important government systems and the activities of DOGE to date. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called DOGE an unelected shadow government undertaking an aggressive control of the federal government. The legality of DOGE is being questioned in a filed lawsuit claiming that DOGE is a kind of advisory panel that must be governed by specific federal regulations and transparency demands.
DOGE already got access to the payment system of the Department of the Treasury, has efficiently de-activated USAID, the government’s primary relief and development support agency, and is focused now on the CMS. Without doubt there is fraudulence and waste in CMS programs. The Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) often performs inspections and audits and determines overpayments, fraud, and places where money is not being expended properly. The problem with DOGE is the insufficient transparency concerning the data being viewed, how that data is applied, the pace at which DOGE is going, and the possibilities for accidental privacy breaches considering the quantity of sensitive protected health information (PHI) kept in CMS systems.