In December 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released its online tracking bulletin which was revised in March of this year. This bulletin restricted healthcare providers from using standard third-party web technologies that capture IP addresses on portions of their public-facing webpages. In response to the bulletin, many health centers removed website analytics like Google Analytics from their websites causing them to lose the ability to track the traffic and engagement on their own websites. Last week, a United States District Court Judge in Texas ruled in favor of the American Hospital Association (AHA), Texas Hospital Association, and hospital plaintiffs, who began their lawsuit in early 2024. The judge agreed that the HHS bulletin was unlawful and vacated the March 2024 revised online tracking bulletin. Read the full press release about the ruling on the AHA’s website.
