2 Louisiana hospital systems accused of sharing patient data with Meta (Facebook, Insta.)

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LCMC Health in New Orleans and Willis Knighton Medical Centers in northwest Louisiana have been named in class-action lawsuits targeting a growing group of hospital systems accused of sharing confidential patient information with social media companies.

At the heart of the lawsuits is a tracking tool embedded into hospitals’ website codes called Meta Pixel, a product of Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram.

The lawsuits say the tracker shared sensitive medical data without the knowledge or consent of hundreds of thousands of patients, a violation of Louisiana laws.

The code works by capturing medical information like health conditions, prescriptions, doctors’ names and appointment history when patients opt to schedule an appointment online. That information could then be used to send patients targeted advertisements.

The lawsuits argue that this is a violation of Louisiana laws governing the protection of personal information, patient rights and privacy.

Attorney Steven Herman, who is representing the plaintiffs, called it a “gross invasion of privacy” that could use patient search inquiries related to sensitive matters like pregnancy or erectile dysfunction for marketing.

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