Mount Sinai Health System, New York City’s biggest hospital system, decided to pay $5.3 million to settle its web tracking lawsuit. Allegedly, the health system violated government and state regulations by disclosing the personal health data of users of its website and patient portal with Facebook without their awareness or authorization.
Mount Sinai Health faced legal action for using Facebook Pixel and web tracking tools on its webpages and MyChart patient portal from October 2020 to October 2023. The website tool can gather details about website users and send that data to Facebook. Mount Sinai Health has rejected the allegation and particularly denies sharing any medical data from its web page and patient portal with Facebook.
Plaintiffs Ronda Cooper, Coral Fraser, David Gitlin, and Gilbert Manda filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs alleged that their personally identifiable information (PII) was being gathered and disclosed to Facebook without their awareness or permission because of the use of CAPI, which violates the New York Deceptive Trade Practices, and the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The Cooper, et al., v. Mount Sinai Health System, Inc. lawsuit likewise stated claims of negligence, violation of privacy, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment, breach of confidence, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and constructive bailment.
The lawsuit made it through the motion to dismiss and continued to discovery. In the discovery, the parties talked in a mediation, and agreed to settle, ending the lawsuit to steer clear of the expense and risk of a court trial, and giving appropriate class members benefits. The final terms of the settlement have been, and the court has given preliminary approval to the settlement.
The settlement class is composed of 1,314,147 individuals. Individuals who visited their MyChart account through the mountsinai.org website from October 27, 2020 to October 27, 2023 are eligible to file claims. The terms of the settlement require Mount Sinai Health to create a $5,256,588 settlement fund to pay for legal costs and class members’ claims. The plaintiffs’ attorneys will get approximately 35% of the settlement fund and compensation for court-approved attorneys’ expenditures. Settlement management costs are around $200,000, while service awards are $2,500 for each named plaintiff. The remaining settlement fund will be used to pay class members on a pro rata basis.
The last day to file an objection to the settlement, exemption, and a claim for benefits is October 14, 2025. The schedule of the final approval hearing is October 24, 2025.
HIPAA-covered entities should take note of cases such as this to be sure to include pertinent information in their company’s HIPAA-training program.
