Joe Biden speaks at a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House on July 3, 2024. (Henry Villarama/U.S. Army)
A junior sailor attempted to look up President Joe Biden’s health records in a military database in February, the Navy announced Tuesday.
The unidentified sailor, who was assigned to Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., searched the name “Joseph Biden” in Military Health System Genesis, an electronic government health record database, according to Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for the Navy Chief of Information.
The sailor searched for Biden’s medical records “out of curiosity,” Hawkins said.
A co-worker reported the breach of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known commonly as HIPAA, on Feb. 26 to the Fort Belvoir command. Naval Criminal Investigative Services investigated the breach, which was concluded April 24.
“The record the sailor accessed was not the electronic record of the president of the United States. The MHS Genesis system is a secure health system and at no time was the president’s personal information compromised,” Hawkins said.
The sailor was administratively punished and continues to serve in the Navy, ABC News reported, citing an official.
Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said Tuesday that the Navy notified the defense secretary and White House officials in February of the incident. Ryder directed further questions to the Navy.
“The bottom line is that [the Navy] confirmed that at no time was the president’s personal information compromised, and that the record that the sailor inappropriately accessed was not the electronic health record of the president of the United States,” Ryder said.
