HHS reverses course, will no longer appeal federal court’s hospital web tracker decision
Fierce Healthcare August 29, 2024
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is dropping its appeal of a June U.S. District Court ruling that vacated the government’s restriction of third-party online tracking technologies on hospital webpages.
The white flag came 10 days after the administration had filed its appeal to the Fifth Circuit.
The case had been brought in late 2023 by the American Hospital Association (AHA) the Texas Hospital Association, Texas Health Resources and United Regional Health Care System, which had argued that HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) overstepped its authority with guidance it had issued in 2022.
That bulletin warned providers that online trackers to monitor user traffic and behavior, such as the Meta Pixel or Google Analytics, could be at...