TL;DR

New York City’s public hospital system has decided not to renew its contract with Palantir when it expires in October. The contract, worth nearly $4m (approximately £3.2m) since November 2023, gave Palantir access to patient health notes for insurance claim recovery. The decision adds momentum to campaigns opposing the NHS’s own £330m Palantir contract in the UK.

What the NYC contract allowed

The arrangement between NYC Health + Hospitals and Palantir focused on recovering revenue from insurance claims. But the contract terms went further than billing: Palantir staff could review patient health notes, and the agreement included provisions allowing the company to “de-identify” patient data for purposes beyond research.

That breadth of access — covering clinical records rather than just administrative data — appears to have been a factor in the non-renewal. When a data analytics firm can access and reprocess health records for unspecified purposes, the line between operational support and surveillance becomes difficult to maintain.

The UK parallel

The NHS’s relationship with Palantir is both larger in scale and further advanced. The £330m Federated Data Platform contract, awarded in 2023, gives Palantir a central role in managing NHS patient data across England. The “No Palantir in our NHS” campaign has drawn support from healthcare workers, civil liberties organisations, and patient advocacy groups.

Medact, the health charity, has warned of potential “data-driven state abuses of power” arising from Palantir’s access to NHS records. Amnesty International UK has called on the NHS to follow New York’s example and reconsider the arrangement. Palantir has also secured a separate contract with the Financial Conduct Authority, extending its presence across UK public institutions.

Looking forward

New York’s decision provides a concrete precedent for NHS critics to point to. The question for UK health officials is whether the operational benefits of Palantir’s data platform justify the privacy risks and political costs. With contract review periods approaching and public opposition growing, the pressure on NHS England to explain — or reconsider — its Palantir relationship has just increased.