Cone Health Filed a Response to the $613,333.33 Fee Request on October 12 — Class Counsel’s Reply Is Due October 26, Ten Days Before the November 5 Approval Hearing on the $1.765 Million Pixel Settlement

The short answer for anyone who filed: nobody has been paid, and nobody can be paid until Judge Lindsey A. Freeman grants final approval. The claim, opt-out and objection deadlines all fell on October 5, 2026, and they have passed. What changed since then is on the court docket, not the settlement website. Class counsel filed their motion for attorneys’ fees on September 21, 2026 (Dkt. 34). On October 12, 2026, Cone Health’s lawyers filed a “RESPONSE filed by Defendants” to that motion (Dkt. 37), followed on October 13 by a certificate of word count (Dkt. 38). The docket entry sets the next step: “Replies due by October 26, 2026.” The Final Approval Hearing is November 5, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time in Greensboro, ten days after that reply is due.

As of October 14, 2026, we have not been able to read Cone Health’s response itself. It sits behind PACER, and nobody has reported on it. So we cannot tell you whether Cone Health agrees with the fee request, wants it cut, or is opposing only part of it, and you should be wary of anyone who claims to know. Two things in the settlement agreement are worth knowing, though. First, in the copy we read, Section IX caps the request but contains no promise by Cone Health to stay out of the fee question. Second, the fee ruling cannot sink the deal: the court’s “approval, denial or reduction” of fees is “not” a condition of the settlement, and “in the event of a reduction in fees, any remaining funds will be distributed pro rata” to class members or go to the cy pres recipient. So if the judge cuts the fees, the freed-up money is to be distributed pro rata to class members, or goes to the cy pres recipient.

The case is Singh v. The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital Operating Corp., et al., No. 1:24-cv-00558 in the Middle District of North Carolina. Cone Health agreed to a fund of $1,765,000.00 to settle claims that it “improperly tracked the information of users on their website, including the MyChart patient portal.” Cone Health denies every claim and any wrongdoing. The agreement lets class counsel ask for fees of “not to exceed one third (1/3) of the Settlement Fund” plus costs “not to exceed $25,000.00, for a total request not to exceed” $613,333.33. By our arithmetic that is $588,333.33 in fees plus up to $25,000.00 in costs. Add the $5,000.00 service award for the class representative, and $618,333.33, or about 35 percent of the fund, would come off the top. That would leave $1,146,666.67 before the administrator’s costs, which have not been published.

The agreement says the parties “did not discuss or agree upon payment of attorney’s fees, costs or expenses until after they agreed on all materials terms of relief to the Settlement Class.” The fee motion came in on schedule: the agreement required it no later than 14 days before the objection deadline, and September 21 is exactly 14 days before October 5. At the November 5 hearing, the FAQ says, the court will decide whether to approve the settlement and “how much attorneys’ fees and costs to award.”

There are no tiers. Per the FAQ, after fees, the service award and administration, “the net amount of the Settlement Fund will be equally distributed to all Settlement Class Members who submit a valid and timely claim.” The agreement gives the formula: each payment equals “the post-expenses Settlement Fund amount” divided “by the number of valid claims.” As of October 14, 2026, the administrator has not published how many claims were filed, so nobody can give a real per-person figure. A site that quotes one is guessing.

The timing is set out in the agreement. The Effective Date is “thirty (30) days after the Court grants final approval, assuming no appeals are filed.” Payments begin “thirty (30) Days after the Effective Date, or, if Claim Form verification is ongoing, sixty (60) Days after.” By our count, if the judge approves on November 5, 2026 and nobody appeals, the Effective Date is December 5, 2026, and the earliest payments would come around January 4, 2027, or around February 3, 2027 if claims are still being verified. An appeal would push all of that back. The FAQ says benefits are paid only “after any appeals are resolved, or after the period to seek an appeal has expired.”

Payment is a “digital payment or mail check,” sent to “the digital or physical address provided by the Claimant on his or her Claim Form.” Act fast when it arrives. Payments are “void if not negotiated within ninety (90) calendar days” and “shall not be reissued.” None of the money goes back to Cone Health. If leftover money would pay $5.00 or more, there is a second distribution to people who cashed the first one. Otherwise it goes to a cy pres charity.

If you filed a claim by October 5, 2026: there is nothing to file now. If your email address or mailing address changes, tell the administrator, because payment goes to the address on your claim form. You can attend the November 5 hearing, but you don’t have to. The FAQ warns that “the date and time of this hearing may change without further notice” and points to the settlement site for updates.

If you did not file: the site is plain that “the only way to receive benefits from this Settlement is by submitting a valid and timely Claim Form,” and the claim deadline was October 5, 2026. Doing nothing also has a cost. Unless you opted out, you “will give up the right to sue, continue to sue, or be part of another lawsuit against the Defendants” over these claims. The opt-out and objection deadlines were the same day, October 5, 2026.

Who is in the class: living people who, between September 1, 2016 and November 3, 2022, accessed the MyChart patient portal on Cone Health’s website or completed a submission form on it. For the background and the original deadlines, see our August report on the Cone Health MyChart settlement.

The settlement agreement required notice “by email to the greatest extent possible,” with regular mail for people without an email address on file, so a genuine email was normal. The court-approved administrator is Simpluris, Inc. The official site is ConePixelSettlement.com. The official contacts are Cone Health Pixel Settlement, c/o Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 25226, Santa Ana, CA 92799; info@ConePixelSettlement.com; and toll-free (833) 421-7350, the same number printed on the court-approved notice. If a message about this settlement points you to a different website, a different phone number, or anywhere other than the address on your own claim form for payment, check it against those contacts before you click anything.

The site also asks people not to go elsewhere: “Do not contact Cone Health, Cone Health’s Counsel, or the Court regarding this Settlement. All questions should be referred to the Settlement Administrator or Class Counsel.” Class counsel are David S. Almeida of Almeida Law Group LLC and Brandon M. Wise of Peiffer Wolf Carr Kane Conway & Wise, LLP.

Not in this case. The defendants are The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital Operating Corporation and The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, both doing business as Cone Health. MyChart appears in the case only as the patient portal on Cone Health’s website. The claim is also not about selling data. The lawsuit alleges that Cone Health “improperly tracked” users’ information on its website, and Cone Health denies it. This settlement pays only Cone Health class members. Other cases people search for alongside it, such as Google privacy payouts and suits against Massage Envy or hernia mesh makers, are separate matters with their own courts and administrators. This settlement neither covers nor affects them, so check each case’s own official settlement website.

For a sense of scale: this case was filed on July 8, 2024. The preliminary approval motion was filed on February 14, 2025, the case was reassigned to Judge Freeman on December 29, 2025, a hearing was held on June 18, 2026, and approval was granted on July 7, 2026. That is nearly 17 months from motion to order. If the court rules quickly after November 5, the money could still reach claimants about two and a half years after the suit was filed.