Two health systems on opposite sides of the country have agreed to settle class actions over tracking tools that allegedly fed patient data to third parties.
Fairchild Medical Center in Yreka, California, settled Delgado v. Siskiyou Hospital over its use of Meta Pixel and similar code on its website. About 1,000 Californians are covered. Class members can claim a one-time $25 payment and a year of privacy monitoring, with claims due November 2 and final approval set for October 15.
Boone Health, which runs Boone Hospital Center in Columbia, Missouri, settled with patients who logged into its portal between April 2021 and December 2022. The deal adds parent company CH Allied Services and covers a $20 cash payment plus 12 months of privacy monitoring. Claims are due November 9, with a fairness hearing on December 1.
Both systems deny wrongdoing. The suits accused them of sharing health information through analytics and advertising code without consent, a pattern behind a wave of settlements against hospitals and pharmacies over the past two years.
For compliance teams, the takeaway is unchanged: tracking code on a public website is in scope for HIPAA, and vendor scripts need the same review as any business associate.
