...Healthcare Dive Readers will recall that in June 2022, STAT and The Markup published a study and follow-ups on Meta Pixel and ad tracker use by healthcare organizations. Ostensibly, the ad trackers were there to better track website performance and to tailor information for the patient [TTA 17 June, 21 June 2022], but they sent information to third parties that violated HIPAA and privacy guidelines. Ad trackers were also monetized. Meta blamed the health systems [TTA 16 May 2023] for misuse though they used the data for ad serving. Congressional hearings, FTC, and DOJ followed later in 2022 and 2023.... Continue Reading
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News roundup: ONC recommends ‘nutrition labeling’ for healthcare AI apps but Google moves forward; CVS’ health services rebranding as Healthspire (updated); Clover Health repots out of ACO REACH
...brand names. The parallels are with Evernorth (Cigna), Optum (UnitedHealth Group), and Carelon (Elevance, the former Anthem) in creating a vertically integrated healthcare company. At Investor Day, CVS Pharmacy announced a cost-plus arrangement for retail prescriptions built on the cost of the drug, a set markup, and a fee that reflects the care and value of pharmacy services–clearly in competition with Mark Cuban CostPlus. Forbes, FierceHealthcare, CVS release, Investor Day release Clover Health exits the advanced value-based primary care program, ACO REACH. Clover’s exit at the end of the 2023 performance year after two years disbands their practice arrangements for... Continue Reading
Ad tracker action heats up: Congress questions DTC telehealth companies on sensitive patient health data sent to advertisers
...shoes, but medical treatment. Kicking this off was The Markup/STAT study in December, examining 50 telehealth websites. 49 of 50 websites shared user/patient tracking data to advertising platforms. This captured data as routine as URLs and IPs, and as extensive as name, email, phone, questionnaire answers, when users created accounts, and cart behavior, such as a prescription medication or treatment plan. 35 were found by the study to have trackers sending individually identifying information to at least one media platform that included names, email addresses, and phone numbers 25 had at least one tracker that indicated when users added prescription... Continue Reading
News roundup: GoodRx pays $1.5M to FTC on Meta Pixel use, ATA concerns on Covid PHE end, defending Livongo sale to Teladoc, Philips lays off 18K, Amazon health layoffs–and big ’22 loss, Ireland HSE digital head quits, Matt Hancock assaulted on Tube
...and web page URL information. GoodRx maintains that this is a “novel application” of the Health Breach rule. But they settled with the FTC to avoid ‘the time and expense of protracted litigation’ on privacy issues they’ve already updated. HISTalk, The Markup, FierceHealthcare TTA’s Meta Pixel articles The good news for most of us is that the Public Health Emergency for Covid-19 will be ending 11 May. Not such good news, according to ATA and ATA Action, for mental health patients. While the omnibus budget passed at the end of the 117th Congress last year extended many telehealth provisions for... Continue Reading
Meta Pixel ad tracker collects another 3 million data breaches at Advocate Aurora Health; Zuckerberg getting Senate scrutiny
...Senate Homeland Security Committee (below) (Editor’s opinion: to be written by Meta’s lawyers, and don’t hold your breath for any rending of garments or mea culpas.) HealthcareITNews, The Markup Our previous articles on The Markup‘s research and Meta Pixel: Breaking: Hospitals sending sensitive patient information to Facebook through website ‘Meta Pixel’ ad tracker–study Facebook Meta Pixel update: Nemours Children’s Health using 25 ad trackers on appointment scheduling site Let the lawsuits begin: Meta sued by health system patient for Meta Pixel info gathering Novant Health notification Meta facing some Senate scrutiny on Meta Pixel’s health data collection–and how it’s used... Continue Reading
Meta facing some Senate scrutiny on Meta Pixel’s health data collection–and how it’s used
A member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) has requested that Facebook’s parent, Meta, account for healthcare information that it has collected as a result of the Meta Pixel being used on leading hospitals’ websites as an ad tracker. During a hearing, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox was questioned about Meta’s having and using the data and responded, “Not to my knowledge.” According to this latest report in The Markup, Cox will follow up with a written response to the committee. The June investigation by The Markup and STAT [TTA 17 June]... Continue Reading
Week-end news roundup: +Oscar data tech platform pauses, BD buys MedKeeper pharmatech for $93M, Novant’s Meta misconfiguration reveals PHI, Mt Sinai’s Sema4 genomics spinoff releases 250 + founder
...MedTechDive, BD release North Carolina provider Novant Health has notified patients of a code misconfiguration of their Meta Pixel tracker that may lead to unauthorized disclosure of their personal health information (PHI). The number of patients is not disclosed. In June, The Markup and STAT jointly published a several-part exposé of the Meta Pixel tracker being loaded into patient portals and the online appointment scheduler, capturing sensitive patient information and sending it to Facebook [TTA 17 June]. The letter explains the event as a campaign to connect more patients to their MyChart portal. The pixel was removed in June (after... Continue Reading
Let the lawsuits begin: Meta sued by health system patient for Meta Pixel info gathering
That was fast. Class action game on! Today’s reports of a class action lawsuit being filed against Meta Friday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco is going to be only the first. The ‘John Doe’ plaintiff, a patient of Baltimore-based Medstar Health System and a Facebook user, claims that he is filing on behalf of “millions of other Americans whose medical privacy has been violated by Facebook’s Pixel tracking tool.” Four law firms are involved in the lawsuit. It follows on last week’s investigative report by The Markup and STAT on the... Continue Reading
Facebook Meta Pixel update: Nemours Children’s Health using 25 ad trackers on appointment scheduling site
The Meta Pixel tracker study gets a little worse–this time, it’s information on appointments for children. The Markup’s investigation on healthcare use of ad trackers continues with an examination of Nemours Children’s Health, a Delaware-based multi-state health network with 97 locations in Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Florida that serve about 500,000 families. Once again, Meta Pixel and other ad trackers were found to capture personal information and patient/family details entered by an adult on the appointment scheduling site to Facebook that may constitute protected health information. Meta Pixel was recorded as tracking: IP addresses Scheduled doctor and his or... Continue Reading
Breaking: Hospitals sending sensitive patient information to Facebook through website ‘Meta Pixel’ ad tracker–study
Meta Pixel tracker sending appointment scheduling, patient portal information to Facebook–likely to become the Hot Story of next week. A study published jointly by The Markup and STAT examined the patient-facing areas of Newsweek’s 100 leading hospitals’ websites. It found that 33 of them permit the Meta Pixel ad tracker to send sensitive patient information back to Facebook. Ostensibly the reason is to better serve the patient with more tailored information, but what is not disclosed is what else Facebook is doing with the information. At a minimum, the information is the IP address–which HIPAA considers one of 18 identifiers... Continue Reading
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