Hospital associations and hospitals file lawsuit challenging federal rule that ties providers’ hands in efforts to reach communities
The AHA, joined by the Texas Hospital Association, Texas Health Resources, and United Regional Health Care System, Nov. 2 sued the federal government to bar enforcement of an unlawful, harmful and counterproductive rule that has upended hospitals’ and health systems’ ability to share health care information with the communities they serve, analyze their own websites to enhance accessibility, and improve public health.
“The Department of Health and Human Services’ new rule restricting the use of critical third-party technologies has real-world impacts on the public, who are now unable to access vital health information,” said AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack. “In fact, these technologies are so essential that federal agencies themselves still use many of the same tools on their own webpages, including Medicare.gov, Tricare.mil, Health.mil, and various Veterans Health Administration sites. We cannot understand why HHS created this ‘rule for thee but not for me.’”
Today’s lawsuit challenges a “Bulletin” issued by HHS' Office for Civil Rights. The December 2022 “Bulletin” restricts hospitals from using standard third-party web technologies that capture IP addresses on portions of hospitals’ public-facing webpages that address health conditions or health care providers. For example, under HHS’ new rule, if someone visited a hospital website on behalf of her elderly neighbor to learn more about Alzheimer’s disease, a hospital’s use of any third-party technology that captures an IP address from that visit would expose that hospital to federal enforcement actions and significant civil penalties.
“Simply put, OCR’s new rule harms the very people it purports to protect,” Pollack said. “The federal government’s repeated threats to enforce this unlawful rule tie hospitals’ hands as trusted messengers of reliable health care information.”
Visit AHA’s webpage for additional information, including a brief explainer of the case.