( September 19, 2024, 11:03 AM EDT) -- NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed the government’s appeal of a Texas federal judge’s ruling that two hospitals and two hospital associations were correct that a standard established in two recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) subagency bulletins for determining when online tracking technology has unlawfully gathered internet users’ individually identifiable health information (IIHI) exceeded HHS’s authority, after the government moved to voluntarily dismiss its appeal....