News Briefs: Blue Shield of California Shared PHI With Google Analytics
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Apr 25, 2025
Blue Shield of California inadvertently shared patients’ protected health information with Google Analytics for three years, the insurer revealed in a breach notification. Blue Shield used Google Analytics to track members’ website usage and discovered in February that it was configured in such a way that allowed some member data to be shared with Google Ads between April 2021 and January 2024. Affected information could include insurance plan name, type and group number; city; ZIP code; gender; family size; Blue Shield assigned identifiers; medical claim service date and service provider; patient name; patient financial responsibility; and Find a Doctor search criteria and results. No bad actors were involved in the breach, and the connection between Google Analytics and Google Ads has been severed, the company said.
A federal court ruled that Premera Blue Cross in Washington discriminated against transgender teenagers by denying coverage of gender-affirming chest surgery. U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly ruled on April 18 that denying coverage for chest surgery for female-to-male teens but approving it for cisgender minors violates the Affordable Care Act by “facially discriminating on the basis of sex.” The original lawsuit was filed by Lambda Legal and law firm Sirianni Youtz Spoonemore Hamburger on behalf of two transgender teens and their parents.
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