Lawsuit Challenges HHS Guidance on the Use of Web Tracking Technologies
Lexology November 29, 2023
On November 2, 2023, parties including the American Hospital Association (“AHA”) sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) in a federal court in Texas. In their complaint they challenge the enforcement of an OCR guidance bulletin (the, “Bulletin”), dated December 1, 2022, which addresses the applicability of HIPAA to the use of website tracking technologies. The AHA asks the court to bar enforcement of the Bulletin, among other things. The litigation is important to healthcare providers because the use of website tracking technologies provides useful data about how individuals interact with provider websites.
OCR has made web trackers used by healthcare providers an enforcement priority. As recently as this past July, OCR...