DOGE-built Medicare portal leaks health care providers' Social Security numbers: report

A system implemented by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency program accidentally leaked the Social Security numbers of health care providers, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

"The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last year created a directory to help seniors look up which doctors and medical providers accept which insurance plans, framing it as an overdue improvement and part of the Trump administration’s initiative to modernize health care technology," said the report. However, "a publicly accessible database used to populate the directory contains some of the providers’ Social Security numbers, linked to their names and other identifying information."

This directory was available to the public for at least "several weeks," according to the report, before The Post got in touch with federal officials about the problem.

"CMS officials said they are working to fix the problem that led to the exposure," said the report. "A spokesperson said the problem 'stems from incorrect entries of provider or provider-representative-supplied information in the wrong places' — essentially, that providers entered information in the wrong place and left their own Social Security numbers exposed."

DOGE was created in part with the guidance of tech billionaire Elon Musk before a public feud that saw him exit the administration.

The initiative was meant to identify areas where the government is wasting money or could be made leaner; however, analysts have observed DOGE didn't actually save any money for taxpayers.