Overview
- Reporting shows the Consumer Product Safety Commission has asked hospitals to provide personally identifiable emergency‑room records to Konza Health, a private contractor, and Konza told hospitals that participation was “mandatory” or “required.”
- The data the agency reportedly seeks covers a wide set of ER visits, including broken bones, vaccine reactions and suicide attempts, and would span thousands of diagnostic categories beyond product‑related injuries.
- An internal CPSC memo, as reported, set a goal of getting at least 100 hospitals to supply records by the end of 2026.
- Hospital attorneys and health law experts say the request raises immediate legal and HIPAA questions and warn the agency may lack statutory authority and sufficient safeguards to protect patient privacy.
- The push contradicts the CPSC’s past guidance that case reports should omit names and addresses and arrives after major agency changes that included the firing of three Democratic board members and high staff turnover in 2025, which critics say increases concern about oversight and capacity.