Henry Ford Health MyChart Privacy Settlement: $15 Payments, Claims Closed

Plaintiff Nina McClain sued Henry Ford Health, the Detroit-based health system, in Wayne County Circuit Court. The suit claimed that Henry Ford disclosed patients' personally identifiable information and protected health information to third-party technologies without consent.

According to reporting by The HIPAA Journal on the complaint, the tracking tools named included the Meta Pixel, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google DoubleClick, and they were allegedly present even on pages that required a login, such as the MyChart patient portal. Class counsel describes the case as involving tracking technologies that sent sensitive data to platforms such as Meta and Google.

Why would that matter to patients? The HIPAA Journal's summary of the complaint says the data could reveal that a person was being treated for a specific condition, such as cancer, pregnancy, or addiction, and could be tied to an individual through an IP address or a logged-in Facebook or Google account. The settlement does not say any particular patient's information was actually matched to them this way; it resolves the claim that the tracking happened without consent.

Henry Ford Health firmly denies all of the plaintiff's claims and maintains it did nothing wrong; it settled to avoid the cost and uncertainty of litigation. This case is one of many brought against hospitals over website and portal tracking code. See our page on health app and website data sharing lawsuits for how these claims work.

The settlement class was all patients of Henry Ford Health living in the United States who had a MyChart patient portal account with Henry Ford at any time from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2023. The HIPAA Journal reported that the class included more than 819,000 people with MyChart accounts during that period.

• You did not need to prove your data was actually shared; membership depended on having a MyChart account in the period.
• Excluded were the judge and staff, Henry Ford's officers and directors and related entities, class counsel, and anyone who opted out by August 11, 2025.
• Patients who only used Henry Ford's public website without a MyChart account were not in the class.

To file, class members used the Class Member ID from the email notice sent on June 26, 2025. People without the ID could call the administrator to verify their identity. Our guide on how to know if you qualify for a settlement explains how notice lists are built.

Benefit	Amount	How
Cash payment	$15 flat	Valid claim by August 25, 2025
Privacy Shield Pro	Enrollment code	Automatic, in the email notice

Unlike most settlements, this one did not have a fixed fund that gets divided. Every valid claim was worth exactly $15, and Henry Ford agreed to pay all approved claims plus notice, administration, attorneys' fees, and the service award separately. That means the payment was not reduced when more people filed.

Class counsel could seek up to $1.9 million in fees and costs, and the class representative up to $1,500 as an incentive award, all paid by Henry Ford on top of claimant payments. The HIPAA Journal calculated that if every class member claimed, Henry Ford would pay more than $12.28 million in cash payments. In practice, far fewer people file, so actual cash paid out is much lower.

Because the payment was flat, someone who used MyChart every week got the same $15 as someone who logged in once. Settlements like this trade precision for simplicity: proving how much data each patient's visits exposed would be expensive and slow.

A flat $15 is small, but it is typical for pixel tracking settlements where no individual financial loss is alleged. For context on why payouts land where they do, see why class action payouts are smaller than expected.

Claims were filed online or by mail using the Class Member ID from the email notice, and the claim form asked only for that ID and contact and payment details, not medical records. Payment came by check by default, or by PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle if the claimant chose one.

1. The court held the final approval hearing on October 7, 2025.
2. Class counsel reported that Judge Kathleen M. McCarthy granted final approval and entered final judgment, in an update posted October 8, 2025.
3. Under the settlement, approved claimants are paid 45 days after the settlement is finally approved and any appeal process is complete.
4. Settlement checks expire and become void 180 days after they are issued.

As of September 2026, the official website still shows its 2025 dates and has not posted a distribution date, so we cannot confirm when payments went out. If you filed and have not received $15, email info@HenryFordHealthDataSettlement.com or call (833) 360-6832, and ask whether your payment was issued and whether a voided check can be reissued. Our guide on what to do if you have not received a settlement check covers the steps. We do not track or file claims for anyone.

Event	Date
Class period	January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2023
Email notice sent	June 26, 2025
Opt-out and objection deadline	August 11, 2025
Claim deadline	August 25, 2025
Final approval hearing	October 7, 2025
Final approval reported	October 8, 2025
Payment due	45 days after the settlement is final

As of September 2026, every deadline in this settlement has passed, and the only remaining step is confirming that approved claimants were paid. Our guide on checking a settlement's status explains how to follow up.

If you did not file by August 25, 2025, you cannot get the $15 now. Because the settlement is final, class members who did not opt out by August 11, 2025 have released their claims against Henry Ford over the conduct in this case, whether or not they filed.

If you opted out, you kept any right to sue on your own, but the Privacy Shield Pro code and $15 payment went only to class members who stayed in. Individual pixel tracking claims are hard to bring alone because damages per person are usually small. For how these choices work, see can you be bound by a class action settlement.

You can also reduce future tracking on your own: log out of social media accounts before using a patient portal, use a browser that blocks third-party trackers, and review the privacy notices your health system posts. Those steps do not create a legal claim, but they limit what can be shared.

If you still have the notice email, the Privacy Shield Pro enrollment code may be in it. Contact the administrator if you are unsure whether it can still be activated.

Hospitals across the country have faced near-identical pixel claims. Atrium Health, in the Carolinas, agreed to pay up to $1.8 million to settle claims over pixel use in its patient portal, with a claim deadline of September 28, 2026. See the Atrium Health pixel settlement and the Flo Health data sharing settlement.

For this settlement, the official settlement website linked above and Simpluris are the only sources for claim status. If a health provider or app exposed sensitive health details and it led to concrete harm, a free case review can connect you with independent attorneys who handle health privacy claims.