Valley hospitals say patient data is safe; Facebook faces class-action suit

Marcia Moore, The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
·2 min read

Jun. 28—Facebook is being sued for allegedly receiving private medical information when patients access some of the country's hospital websites but Geisinger Medical Center and Evangelical Community Hospital said their patient data has not been compromised.

The class-action suit filed June 18 in federal court accuses Facebook of using its Pixel tracking tool to redirect — without permission and in violation of HIPAA laws — sensitive patient information and communications when they used their medical providers' website.

Geisinger spokesman Mike McMullen said the health system's officials determined its patients' information has been protected and the tracking tool is not used on its patient portals, such as MyGeisinger.

"We are aware of recent reports that Facebook marketing tools frequently used on many websites can potentially collect and share sensitive health information. We take our patients' privacy very seriously and thoroughly investigated our use of this technology, which confirmed that this tool is not used on any areas of Geisinger's websites where protected health information passes through such as patient portals or direct scheduling pages," McMullen said. "Furthermore, our patients can feel confident knowing that when we do use this technology, we take several steps to minimize the possibility of this type of information being collected or shared."

Michael Redding, director of marketing and communications at Evangelical said Meta Pixels are not used on any of the Lewisburg hospital's websites or patient portals.

"We are committed — at every level and at every patient interaction — to protecting patient privacy and sensitive health information," he said. "Working with our third-party vendors, we have confirmed (Evangelical's) website and patient portal, called FollowMyHealth, do not employ any Meta Pixels.

The lawsuit against Facebook was filed on behalf of "millions of other Americans whose medical privacy has been violated by Facebook's Pixel" following a joint investigation by The Markup and Stat News that some of the largest medical providers in the U.S. had installed Meta Pixel on their websites allowing Facebook to access patient data without their consent.