On December 1, 2022, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a bulletin warning that commonly used website technologies, including cookies, pixels, and session replay, may result in the impermissible disclosure of Protected Health Information (“PHI”) to third parties in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). The bulletin advises that “[r]egulated entities are not permitted to use tracking technologies in a manner that would result in impermissible disclosures of Protected Health Information (“PHI”) to tracking technology vendors or any other violations of the HIPAA Rules.” The bulletin is issued amidst a wider national and international privacy landscape that is increasingly focused on regulating the collection and use of personal information through web-based technologies and software that may not be readily apparent to the user.
Blog Editors
Recent Updates
- CMS Attempts to Use Medicare and Medicaid Conditions of Participation to Ban Hospitals from Providing Gender-Affirming Care to Minors
- Eleventh Circuit Hears Arguments in Case Addressing Constitutionality of False Claims Act’s Qui Tam Provisions
- First Circuit Clarifies When Clinical Labs Can Rely on Physician Orders
- Understanding the False Claims Act Statute of Limitations—and the Debate Over the “Last Overt Act” Rule
- Podcast: The Down-Low on Data for Value-Based Enterprises and Their Participating Providers – Diagnosing Health Care