A judge ruled in favor of the American Hospital Association (AHA) and other plaintiffs
A judge ruled in favor of the American Hospital Association (AHA) and other plaintiffs in their lawsuit that challenged recent Department of Health and Human Services bulletins regarding third-party tracking technologies.
You can read the AHA’s statement at https://www.aha.org/news/news/2024-06-20-judge-rules-favor-aha-vacating-hhs-online-tracking-bulletin-unlawful-and-beyond-agency-authority
The HHS has updated its webpage about this topic and noted that it is evaluating next steps: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/hipaa-online-tracking/index.html
What’s next
We don’t know yet how the HHS will respond or whether they will appeal the ruling. This case is also just one piece of the broader topic of patient privacy.
The bottom line
While this ruling is good news for healthcare organizations, privacy is still an important and ongoing issue. It’s important to work with your compliance and legal teams to ensure that any tracking done on your website protects user data and is HIPAA-compliant. Coffey is here to support you in that effort.
Overview of the issue
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have warned healthcare providers about privacy and security risks related to the use of online tracking technologies that could be disclosing sensitive, personal health data to third parties.
This warning has raised concerns about Google Analytics, which is the standard method of tracking the performance of websites.
Coffey is addressing this concern through development of a server-side tracking option for clients who want greater control over what data is sent to Google Analytics.