Delta Dental Faces Class Action Lawsuit for Wrongfully Disclosing Patient Health Information

Delta Dental of New York installed tracking technologies on its website to gain insights into its members that would inform how it markets its plans. However, by installing the technologies, Delta Dental effectively planted a bug on its customers web browsers, compelling them to unknowingly disclose their private health data to third-party companies.  

Eric Dwoskin is leading a class action lawsuit against Delta Dental of New York for mishandling of protected health information.  

The complaint, filed in New York federal court, claims that Delta Dental marketed various digital tools to clients to help them find dentists near them within their insurance plan. According to the complaint, those tools were embedded with tracking technologies from several major companies that, unbeknownst to users, disclosed their personal health information to these companies and others without effective consent. 

The complaint states that the disclosed data included information revealing Delta Dental members’ personal identities, their health plan, sensitive personal health information, which doctors were near their ZIP code, and other identifiers like age, gender, and more.  

The suits seek to hold Delta Dental accountable for violating the federal laws, rules and regulations and related state laws that prohibit medical providers from using tracking tools in any way that may disclose patient health information to third-party companies without consent. 

“Patients place immense trust in their healthcare providers to safeguard their sensitive information, especially in an era where data privacy is paramount,” said Dwoskin. “It is particularly troubling for companies like Delta Dental to exploit this trust by allowing private health data to be shared without consent. Not only does this violate clear HIPAA regulations, but it also compromises the very foundation of patient-provider relationships.”