In a significant legal ruling on Thursday, a federal judge in Texas determined that the Biden administration’s directive prohibiting hospitals from using web tracking technologies was unlawful.
The case, brought forth by two hospital trade groups, including the American Hospital Association (AHA) and two local healthcare systems, challenged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidance. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, stating that HHS had overreached its authority.
This 2022 guidance had warned healthcare providers that employing third-party tracking technologies to monitor website or app visitors could infringe upon the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA, established in 1996, aims to protect individuals’ private health information from public disclosure, shielding them from potential discrimination and other negative impacts.
The guidance, issued by the HHS Office of Civil Rights, was intended to prevent healthcare websites from revealing sensitive information such as diagnoses and the frequency of medical visits through trackers. However, Judge Pittman, appointed by former President Donald Trump, found that HHS’s interpretation of “individually identifiable health information” was overly broad, including metadata from public website searches under HIPAA’s protections.
Judge Pittman expressed concern that allowing HHS to extend its reach in this manner would set a dangerous precedent for the expansion of executive authority. He vacated the guidance, which HHS had recently revised following the lawsuit filed by AHA and its co-plaintiffs in November.
Chad Golder, general counsel for the AHA, praised the ruling, stating that hospitals and health systems could once again utilize these technologies to provide accurate health information to their communities.
The ruling comes as hospitals face an increasing number of class-action lawsuits for allegedly mishandling patient information due to the use of analytics technologies from companies like Google and Meta Platforms.
HHS has yet to comment on the ruling. They had previously argued that the guidance was non-binding and had later clarified that it did not “have the force and effect of law.” Nonetheless, Judge Pittman highlighted that such agency guidance could still influence mandatory legal obligations, likening it to a “Trojan horse” for bureaucratic changes.
This decision was made in the federal court in Fort Worth, a venue known for cases challenging the Biden administration’s policies and where both active judges are Republican appointees.
