February 15, 2026
Big Brother in the ER?
Palantir Gets Millions of Dollars from New York City's Public Hospitals
NYC hospitals hire Palantir to chase bills—Big Brother vibes
TLDR: NYC’s public hospitals paid Palantir about $4M to optimize billing by scanning patient notes, with access to protected health data. Commenters erupted: some fear surveillance and deportation pipelines, others say it’s just admin software; link-drops and calls for open-source options made privacy and trust the main battleground.
New York City’s public hospitals quietly cut Palantir a check for nearly $4 million to turbocharge billing—yes, the same Palantir known for Pentagon projects, NSA ties, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tools. The contract lets Palantir scan patient notes to catch “missed charges,” and work with protected health info (PHI). While Palantir says it won’t share data beyond the contract, activists scream privacy red alert, warning that “de-identified” data can be easily re-identified. The comments? Pure chaos. One user painted a dystopia: “So now everyone is just being warrantlessly surveiled???” Meanwhile, a practical crowd asked if there’s an open-source alternative (OSS = free, community-built software) and why any government would trust a spy-adjacent brand. Others clapped back: Palantir is just boring billing software, calm down. The thread devolved into archive link-drops and a mini flame war over what Palantir even does. Cue the memes: “Big Brother in scrubs,” “Press 1 to bill, press 2 to deport.” The real split: Is this smart admin work to keep hospitals afloat—or a slippery slope where your checkup becomes a data pipeline? NYC Health + Hospitals won’t talk. The internet definitely will.
Key Points
- •NYC Health + Hospitals has paid Palantir nearly $4 million since 2023 to improve billing and benefits recovery.
- •Palantir’s software includes automated scanning of patient notes to capture missed charges for Medicaid and other public benefits.
- •The contract permits Palantir to access PHI and, with permission, de-identify PHI and use de-identified data for non-research purposes.
- •Activists from AFSC and NYCLU criticized the deal, citing re-identification risks and potential chilling effects on care, especially for immigrants.
- •Palantir’s controversial government work includes support for ICE, involvement with NSA’s XKEYSCORE, and partnership with the Israeli military; Palantir says it doesn’t use/share hospital data beyond contract terms.