The Christ Hospital of Cincinnati recently settled a class-action lawsuit for $4.5-7.0 million due to alleged HIPAA violations on their website—reportedly passing unauthorized protected health information (PHI) to Google and Meta through tracking pixels.
This settlement signals a probable shift that will impact healthcare providers of all sizes. Law firms are discovering they don’t need to target healthcare giants like Mass General Brigham to generate millions in settlements. Mid-sized hospitals and even clinics are now, or will soon be, squarely in their crosshairs.
Learning from the Accessibility Lawsuit Playbook
Those who’ve been in web development long enough remember the accessibility lawsuit explosion. The pattern was predictable and profitable: law firms identified non-compliant websites, filed lawsuits citing clear violations, then offered settlements (in my experience, between $30,000-50,000) to avoid court. Most businesses paid rather than fight.
Large, well heeled websites quickly became compliant. Smaller companies turned to digital accessibility overlay solutions—software “bandages” that promised protection but delivered debatable accessibility improvements. The “overlay insurance” seems to have some holes in it, and those bandages appear to be peeling off, at least in some cases.
HIPAA Compliance Follows the Same Pattern
We’re seeing identical dynamics with HIPAA website violations. Law firms are recognizing the opportunity, and the targets are as easily spotted as a tie dye t-shirt at a funeral.
The scope of previous settlements easily demonstrates the financial incentive for law firms:
- Mass General Brigham: $18.4 million settlement for its use of cookies and pixels
- Aspen Dental Management: $18.5 million settlement for violating consumer privacy rights by using tracking pixels on its website
- Advocate Aurora Health: $12.225 million settlement for impermissible disclosure of patient data to third parties via tracking technologies
- Novant Health: $6.6 million settlement for impermissibly disclosing the health information of up to 1.36 million patients via pixels on its website
- MarinHealth: $3 million settlement for its use of the Meta Pixel tracking tool on its website between 2019 and 2025
- University of Rochester Medical Center: $2.85 million settlement for its use of tracking technology on its website and MyChart patient portal
You would imagine hospitals would have made their websites HIPAA-compliant by now. However, this week while preparing for a conference presentation, I needed screenshots of examples of hospital websites violating HIPAA. It took me about ten minutes to find four medium-sized hospitals across the country (I didn’t want to just pick on Florida) that appeared to be violating HIPAA with the technology on their websites.
But it’s not just hospitals these law firms’ are likely focused on. We at Pilot recently audited nearly 100 healthcare clinic websites around Chicago and found that about 80% had probable HIPAA violations related to tracking pixels alone. We didn’t even look for the other three most common technologies that often violate HIPAA: embedded Google Maps, embedded YouTube videos, and improper form installation and management.
Why This Lawsuit Avalanche Is Inevitable
Filing lawsuits against dozens of clinics for violating HIPAA and demanding tens of thousands each to settle appears to me to be a very enticing business model. It’s also easy for lawyers to feel good about doing so; they can tell themselves that filing these lawsuits is the right thing to do—after all, it’s in the name of protecting privacy for healthcare patients.
Unlike accessibility compliance, which can be subjective, HIPAA violations on websites are often binary and technically verifiable. Healthcare providers either have unauthorized tracking pixels or they don’t. They either transmit PHI to third parties without proper agreements or they don’t. Based on documented cases and settlements, these technical violations appear to be relatively straightforward for legal teams to identify and pursue.
With prominent settlements now establishing precedent and proving the financial viability of these cases, more law firms will inevitably enter this space. Targets are easy to find, and there really isn’t a defense against them if the site is not in compliance.
Take Action Now
Every day you wait increases your exposure. Healthcare providers can no longer assume they’re too small to be noticed or that their violations won’t be discovered. Pilot HIPAA-Compliant Analytics Solution allows healthcare organizations to protect the privacy of visitors to their websites AND gather much needed healthcare marketing data.
Ready to assess your potential risk? We can help identify your website’s possible HIPAA vulnerabilities in a brief consultation. In a matter of minutes, we can tell if your site has you possibly exposed. This analysis is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice—we recommend consulting with qualified legal counsel for specific compliance guidance.
Disclaimer: This post is based on publicly available information and industry analysis. The content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Healthcare providers should consult with qualified legal and compliance professionals regarding their specific HIPAA obligations.
