Judge dismisses Piedmont Healthcare Inc. data sharing class action lawsuit

Piedmont Healthcare data sharing class action lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Federal Judge Thomas W. Thrash threw out a class action lawsuit filed against Piedmont Healthcare Inc. 
• Why: The class action lawsuit argued Piedmont unlawfully disclosed confidential health information with Facebook parent Meta Platforms. The judge ruled the complaint failed to allege actual damages and that similar cases favored Piedmont’s argument.
• Where: The Piedmont Healthcare Inc. class action lawsuit was filed in Georgia federal court.

A Georgia federal judge dismissed a class action lawsuit filed against Piedmont Healthcare over claims the company unlawfully disclosed personally identifiable information and protected health information with Facebook. 

The class action lawsuit argued that Piedmont unlawfully shared the confidential health information of its patients with Facebook parent Meta Platforms, via the Meta Pixel tracking tool installed on the healthcare company’s website and patient portal. 

Judge Thomas W. Thrash, in granting Piedmont’s motion to dismiss, ruled the complaint failed to allege actual damages and that the “weight of authority” in similar pixel tracking cases is “now solidly in favor of Piedmont’s argument.” 

“There is no intrusion upon privacy when a patient voluntarily provides personally identifiable information and protected health information to his or her healthcare provider,” Thrash wrote. 

The judge cited several different recent rulings, including in recent decisions from district courts in North Carolina, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Washington; Thrash determined a company can’t be guilty of intrusion upon seclusion when information is obtained legitimately. 

Judge rules complaint failed to allege actionable damages, unjust enrichment by Piedmont

Thrash also found claims for breach of fiduciary duty, negligence, negligence per se, breach of implied contract, breach of express contract and unjust enrichment could not be sustained as the complaint did not allege actionable damages or unjust enrichment by Piedmont. 

The class action lawsuit, which was amended in January, argued the plaintiffs suffered harm in the form of increased spam and targeted advertising, as well as loss of confidentiality, emotional distress and embarrassment, among other things. 

The judge, however, ruled the complaint failed to include facts to support the plaintiffs “actually suffered” any of the damages alleged.

“This is not a case where the plaintiffs’ personal information was stolen by criminal hackers with malicious intent,” Thrash wrote. “The plaintiffs received targeted advertisements because they are Facebook users and have Facebook IDs. The court finds the plaintiffs’ damages theories untenable.” 

In prior healthcare news, Medical Healthcare Solutions agreed to a class action settlement early this year to end claims the company failed to prevent a 2021 data breach. 

Has Piedmont Healthcare shared your confidential health information with Facebook? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Andrew R. Tate and Brandon M. Wise of Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise LLP and David S. Almeida, Elena Belov and Britany Kabakov of Almeida Law Group LLC.

The Piedmont Healthcare data sharing class action lawsuit is T.D., et al. v. Piedmont Healthcare Inc., Case No. 1:23-cv-05416, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

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