Navy Expands 67-Year Veteran Health Study Records
Published Date: 4/30/2026
Notice
Summary
The Navy is updating its records system that tracks service members and veterans for a long-term health study lasting 67 years. They’re changing the system’s name, expanding its purpose, and allowing more info sharing outside the Department of Defense. These updates take effect now, but the public can comment on the new info-sharing rules until June 1, 2026.
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Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 4 costs, 0 mixed.
System collects highly sensitive personal data
The system includes sensitive identifiers and health data such as names, Social Security numbers, DoD ID numbers, genetic and lab test results, medical diagnoses and treatments, mental health information, law enforcement and benefits records, and contact/mortality data for service members, spouses, and children.
Wider sharing of cohort records outside DoD
The Navy is adding and expressly incorporating DoD standard routine uses (A through I) and other disclosures so records from the Millennium Cohort Program may be shared outside the Department of Defense — for example with contractors, law enforcement, the Department of Justice, other federal/state/local agencies, and with the Department of Veterans Affairs, HHS, and CDC for research. Comments on the Routine Uses are open until June 1, 2026, and routine uses become effective at the close of the comment period.
Study includes adolescents and family members
The Millennium Cohort Program explicitly includes Family Cohort Study participants (spouses) and the SOAR adolescent study that enrolls military-connected adolescents (age 11–17) and their parents; roughly 5,000 adolescents and 9,000 parents are expected in SOAR, and spouses panels of about 9,872 (2011) and 18,223 (2021) are tracked. If you are a parent or guardian of a military-connected child, their survey and linked medical and other records may be collected and maintained as part of this program.
Long-term archival retention of records
Electronic records and signed original paper consent forms are permanent records: they are transferred to a Federal Records Center when 5 years old and then to the National Archives and Records Administration when 20 years old. Temporary supporting records go to a Federal Records Center at 5 years and are destroyed when 10 years old.
HIPAA and IRB safeguards for research disclosures
Disclosures to the Department of Veterans Affairs, HHS, and CDC for research require prior Naval Health Research Center IRB approval and a Memorandum of Understanding; access must follow minimization rules and HIPAA privacy and security requirements (45 CFR parts 160 and 164). The system also implements access controls, logging, Common Access Card/PIN, encrypted transmission, and locked storage.
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