If you used Northwell Health’s FollowMyHealth patient portal or booked an appointment on their website between January 2020 and December 2023, you may be eligible for an estimated $15.00 cash payment plus 12 months of privacy monitoring as part of the Northwell Health Pixel Tracking Settlement. That $15 figure is not guaranteed, though. Because the payment is distributed on a pro rata basis, the actual amount could drop to around $10 or less if a high volume of claims come in, or it could climb to $20 or more if fewer class members file. Patients who did not use the portal but were still Northwell patients during the broader class period through July 2024 can claim 12 months of privacy monitoring, but no cash. The settlement stems from *Kaplan, Zurl, McClendon v.
Northwell Health, Inc.*, Case No. 520763/2025, filed in the Supreme Court of New York, Kings County. The plaintiffs allege that Northwell Health embedded tracking pixel technologies on its website and patient portal that quietly transmitted patients’ personally identifiable information to third parties without consent. The claims include breach of fiduciary duty, invasion of privacy, negligence, and violations of consumer protection laws.
Table of Contents
- How Much Will You Actually Receive From the Northwell Health Pixel Tracking Settlement?
- What Does Pro Rata Distribution Mean for Your Northwell Settlement Payout?
- What Were the Tracking Pixels and Why Does This Settlement Exist?
- How to File Your Claim Before the April 20, 2026 Deadline
- Objection and Opt-Out Deadlines You Cannot Afford to Miss
- What Is the Privacy Monitoring Subscription Worth?
- What This Settlement Signals for Future Healthcare Pixel Tracking Cases
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Will You Actually Receive From the Northwell Health Pixel Tracking Settlement?
The settlement divides class members into two subclasses with different compensation. Subclass 1 includes anyone who used northwell Health’s FollowMyHealth patient portal or booked an appointment through the Northwell website between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2023. These individuals are eligible for a $15.00 cash payment and a 12-month subscription to privacy monitoring services. Subclass 2 covers all other Northwell Health patients from January 1, 2020 through July 25, 2024 who are not in Subclass 1. Members of this group receive only the 12-month privacy monitoring subscription with no cash component. The distinction matters because it reflects the nature of the alleged exposure.
Portal and website users had their browsing behavior, appointment details, and other PII directly captured by tracking pixels embedded on those pages. The broader patient population may have been affected through other data-sharing practices, but the more direct digital tracking of Subclass 1 members justified the additional cash component. If you are unsure which subclass you fall into, the key question is whether you ever logged into FollowMyHealth or used Northwell’s website to schedule care during those dates. To put this in context, compare it to similar pixel tracking settlements in healthcare. Many recent cases involving Meta Pixel and similar technologies on hospital websites have offered per-claimant payments ranging from $50 to as low as $5 depending on class size and fund amount. The Northwell settlement’s $15 estimate lands in a common range, but the total settlement fund has not been publicly disclosed, which makes predicting the final number harder than usual.
What Does Pro Rata Distribution Mean for Your Northwell Settlement Payout?
Pro rata distribution is the mechanism that will determine whether your check is worth a coffee or a modest lunch. Unlike settlements with fixed per-claimant payments, a pro rata structure divides a set pool of money among all valid claims. The $15 estimate assumes a certain number of claims will be filed. If the actual number exceeds projections, each individual share shrinks. If fewer people file, the per-person amount grows. Settlement administrators have indicated the payout could realistically range from roughly $10 or less on the low end to $20 or more on the high end. This is a meaningful risk to understand before you set expectations.
Northwell Health is one of the largest healthcare providers in New York, operating 21 hospitals and over 900 outpatient facilities. The potential class size is enormous. However, claim filing rates in class action settlements typically run between 5 and 15 percent of eligible members. If Northwell’s patient volume during the class period reached into the millions, even a modest filing rate could push the pro rata amount downward. Conversely, if the settlement received limited publicity or many patients simply do not bother filing, your share could exceed the estimate. One important limitation: because the total settlement fund amount has not been publicly disclosed in available court documents, there is no way to independently calculate the break-even point or model specific payout scenarios with precision. You are essentially filing your claim based on an estimate and trusting the court-supervised distribution process to handle the math. That is standard for settlements of this type, but it means you should not count on any specific dollar figure until checks are actually issued.
What Were the Tracking Pixels and Why Does This Settlement Exist?
Tracking pixels are tiny, invisible snippets of code embedded on websites that send visitor data back to third-party platforms like Meta (Facebook), Google, and various advertising networks. In a healthcare context, this technology becomes especially problematic. When a patient logs into a portal, searches for a doctor, or books an appointment, the pixel can capture and transmit details about those interactions — potentially including the type of care being sought, the patient’s name, and other identifying information. The Northwell lawsuit alleges this happened without patients’ knowledge or permission. The legal claims in *Kaplan v.
Northwell Health* are broad: breach of fiduciary duty and confidentiality, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment, negligence, invasion of privacy, and violations of consumer protection and privacy laws. The fiduciary duty claim is particularly notable because it argues that a healthcare provider has a heightened obligation to protect patient data beyond what an ordinary business might owe. Hospitals are not just websites — they hold some of the most sensitive personal information that exists, and patients do not expect that booking a cardiology appointment online means that data gets shipped to an advertising platform. This case is part of a wave of healthcare pixel tracking lawsuits that accelerated after a 2022 investigation revealed widespread use of Meta Pixel on hospital websites, including on patient portal login pages and appointment scheduling systems. Dozens of health systems across the country have faced similar litigation. Northwell is among the larger systems to reach a settlement, which makes this case a significant data point for how these claims are being valued.
How to File Your Claim Before the April 20, 2026 Deadline
The claim submission deadline is April 20, 2026. You can file your claim through the official settlement website at [nwpixelsettlement.com](https://www.nwpixelsettlement.com/). The process typically requires you to provide identifying information that confirms you were a Northwell Health patient or portal user during the relevant class period. Make sure the name and contact information you provide matches what Northwell would have on file for you, as discrepancies can delay or disqualify claims. Before filing, you face a practical tradeoff.
Filing a claim is free and takes only a few minutes, so even a potential $10 payout represents a positive expected value for the time invested. However, by filing a claim and remaining in the settlement class, you give up the right to pursue your own individual lawsuit against Northwell over these same pixel tracking allegations. For the vast majority of class members, an individual lawsuit would not be economically viable anyway — the cost of litigation would far exceed any individual recovery. But if you believe you suffered specific, documented harm from the data disclosure (identity theft, targeted scams, or other concrete damages traceable to the pixel tracking), you may want to consult an attorney before the March 23, 2026 opt-out deadline to evaluate whether an individual claim makes sense. If you do nothing — no claim filed, no opt-out — you will be bound by the settlement terms and receive nothing. The privacy monitoring subscription and any cash payment only go to those who submit valid claims.
Objection and Opt-Out Deadlines You Cannot Afford to Miss
Two critical dates precede the final approval of this settlement, and missing either one locks you into the default outcome. The objection and opt-out deadline is March 23, 2026. If you want to exclude yourself from the settlement and preserve your right to sue independently, you must formally opt out by that date. If you believe the settlement terms are unfair — for example, that the compensation is too low given the sensitivity of healthcare data — you can file an objection with the court by the same deadline. Objecting and opting out are different actions with different consequences: an objection means you stay in the class but ask the court to modify or reject the deal, while opting out means you leave the class entirely. The Final Fairness Hearing is scheduled for April 21, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. ET at 360 Adams Street in Brooklyn, New York.
At this hearing, the judge will consider any objections, evaluate the settlement’s fairness, and decide whether to grant final approval. Until that happens, the settlement is not final. This is not a formality — judges do occasionally reject or modify settlements, particularly when objections raise legitimate concerns about adequacy of compensation or the scope of the release. That said, most settlements that reach this stage are approved. Class Counsel will also request service awards of up to $3,000 per class representative at this hearing, and attorney fees, costs, and expenses will be determined by the court. One warning: if you plan to object, be specific and substantive. Courts give little weight to generic complaints about settlement amounts. An effective objection might argue, for instance, that the pro rata mechanism combined with the undisclosed fund size creates too much uncertainty about actual compensation, or that the privacy monitoring subscription has limited practical value compared to cash.
What Is the Privacy Monitoring Subscription Worth?
Both subclasses receive a 12-month subscription to privacy monitoring services. For Subclass 2 members who receive no cash payment, this is the entirety of their compensation, so its actual value matters. Privacy monitoring services typically scan the dark web, data broker sites, and public records for misuse of your personal information, alerting you if your data appears in unauthorized contexts.
Retail pricing for similar services from companies like LifeLock or Aura ranges from $8 to $30 per month, so a 12-month subscription has a nominal retail value of roughly $100 to $360. The practical value is harder to pin down. If the pixel tracking exposure involved basic browsing data and appointment information rather than Social Security numbers or financial details, the risk of identity theft is relatively low, and privacy monitoring may provide more peace of mind than actual protection. Still, it costs you nothing beyond the time to file a claim, and given that your data was shared without your consent, having a monitoring service in place for a year is a reasonable precaution.
What This Settlement Signals for Future Healthcare Pixel Tracking Cases
The Northwell Health settlement adds to a growing body of precedent establishing that healthcare providers face real financial consequences for deploying tracking technologies on patient-facing websites. The Catholic Health system settled a similar pixel tracking case around the same time, and hospitals across the country continue to face new lawsuits. Regulatory pressure from the Department of Health and Human Services, which issued updated guidance on tracking technologies and HIPAA in 2022 and 2023, has reinforced the legal theory that pixel-based data sharing can violate federal health privacy rules.
For patients and consumers, the pattern is clear: if you interacted with a hospital website during the 2020–2024 period, there is a reasonable chance a pixel tracking settlement may apply to you. Checking official settlement sites and court records remains the most reliable way to find out. For Northwell patients specifically, the window to act is closing — file your claim at [nwpixelsettlement.com](https://www.nwpixelsettlement.com/) before April 20, 2026, and decide on any objection or opt-out by March 23, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is eligible for the Northwell Health Pixel Tracking Settlement?
There are two subclasses. Subclass 1 includes individuals who used Northwell’s FollowMyHealth patient portal or booked appointments on Northwell’s website between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2023. Subclass 2 includes all other Northwell Health patients from January 1, 2020 through July 25, 2024. Both groups can file claims, but only Subclass 1 receives a cash payment.
How much money will I actually get from this settlement?
The estimated cash payment for Subclass 1 members is $15, but because the distribution is pro rata, the actual amount may be higher or lower. If many people file claims, it could drop to around $10 or less. If fewer people file, it could rise to $20 or more. Subclass 2 members do not receive cash.
What is the deadline to file a claim?
The claim submission deadline is April 20, 2026. You can file online at [nwpixelsettlement.com](https://www.nwpixelsettlement.com/).
Can I opt out of the settlement and sue on my own?
Yes, but you must formally opt out by March 23, 2026. If you do not opt out and do not file a claim, you will be bound by the settlement terms and receive nothing. Consult an attorney if you believe you have individual damages worth pursuing.
Is the settlement final?
Not yet. The court must approve the settlement at the Final Fairness Hearing scheduled for April 21, 2026 at 9:30 a.m. ET in Brooklyn, New York. Until then, the terms could still be modified or rejected.
What tracking pixels were involved?
The lawsuit alleges Northwell Health embedded website tracking pixel technologies on its website and patient portal that transmitted patients’ personally identifiable information to third parties without consent. The specific third-party platforms receiving the data have not been detailed in the publicly available settlement documents.