Northwestern Medicine MyChart Lawsuit: The Pixel Case Ended, and No Settlement Is Open
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Northwestern Medicine’s patient portal is called MyNM, and it runs on MyChart. In 2022 a patient sued Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Meta, alleging the Meta Pixel in the portal sent medical information to Facebook. That federal case was closed on October 8, 2024. As of October 6, 2026 we found no Northwestern Medicine MyChart settlement, no claim form and no deadline — and no newer tracking lawsuit.
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Reviewed by Leonard Goldberg, Editor · Last updated
What the Northwestern Medicine Lawsuit Alleged
The lawsuit alleged that Northwestern Memorial Hospital allowed the Meta Pixel, a piece of Facebook tracking code, to run inside its patient portal. According to the complaint, patients had to use the portal to schedule appointments, review medical records and request prescription refills, and the pixel allegedly captured that activity for Facebook and Instagram to use in advertising.
The plaintiff said he learned about the pixel from an article published by The Markup on June 16, 2022. The complaint relied on the federal Wiretap Act and the Illinois Patient Rights Act, among other laws, and proposed a class of all Northwestern Memorial Hospital patients who used the portal in the two years before filing. These were allegations. No court found that Northwestern did anything wrong.
Case Details
Krackenberger v. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, No. 1:22-cv-04203, was filed on August 10, 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and assigned to Judge Virginia M. Kendall. The defendants were Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Meta Platforms, Facebook Holdings, Facebook Operations and Instagram.
A separate docket under the same name, No. 3:22-cv-06020, opened in the Northern District of California on October 13, 2022 before Judge William H. Orrick, who also presides over the consolidated In re Meta Pixel Healthcare Litigation, No. 3:22-cv-03580. That California docket was closed on February 23, 2023. The Illinois docket was terminated on October 8, 2024.
Status: Closed, No Settlement Found
We also searched for newer tracking suits and recent breaches and found none. The Northwestern Medicine cases that paid money or were set to were about something else: a 2021 ransomware attack on a vendor, Elekta, and a biometric-scan case brought by employees. Both are covered below.
Are You Affected? What You Can Check
For the pixel case: there is nothing to join and no claim to file. The proposed class was never paid, as far as public records show.
The Elekta data breach. If you received a 2021 letter about the Elekta incident as a Northwestern Medicine cancer or radiation patient, you were in Tracy v. Elekta, Inc. (N.D. Ga., No. 1:21-cv-02851). That claim deadline passed on December 26, 2024, and payments to valid claims began on April 8, 2025.
The fingerprint case. Employees who scanned a finger on an automated dispensing cabinet at a Northwestern Medicine location in Illinois between June 6, 2013 and October 22, 2024 were covered by a separate biometric privacy settlement. A settlement-tracking site listed a final approval hearing for April 9, 2025; we could not confirm final approval or payment. No claim was required.
If you used nm.org or MyNM and want to know whether a future case could apply to you, our form asks three things: whether you used the website or the portal, what you did there (appointments, test results, messages, bill pay) and when you last used it. Note those down now.
What Northwestern Patients Have Actually Been Paid
From the Elekta data breach: an $8.9 million settlement, with defendants Elekta and Northwestern Memorial Healthcare denying wrongdoing. Class members could claim up to $5,000 for documented losses and a pro rata cash payment capped at $1,000, with a further payment of up to $1,000 for an Illinois genetic-privacy subclass. That window is closed.
For context on how portal cases at other hospitals ended — not a prediction here: The Christ Hospital in Ohio settled for $7,000,000 for more than 323,000 people (details); SSM Health class members received $31.50 (details); Wellstar agreed to $4.25 million with claims due November 10, 2026 (details). The full list is on our MyChart claim form page.
How cases like this one end
Our copy of the federal courts’ own case database covers 80,165 other statutory actions casesclosed in U.S. federal district courts between 2015 and 2025, 11.8% of them filed as class actions:
- 26% ended in a settlement recorded by the court. Another 22.4% were dismissed voluntarily, which often follows a private settlement — so the real settlement share sits between 26% and 48.4%.
- 7.4% were decided on a motion before any trial.
- 1 in 155 reached a trial (0.6%), after a median of 22 months.
- Median time from filing to the end of the case: 5 months.
- Only 1,717 of them (2.1%) record a money award at all; the median of those is $195,000.
These are base rates for this type of case (federal other statutory actions cases) — not a prediction about this lawsuit, and not legal advice. Source: Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (civil), analysed by Settlement Insight. Cases heard in state courts are not included.
Northwestern Medicine Lawsuit Timeline
- 1
April 2021 — Elekta Ransomware Attack
Between April 2 and April 20, 2021, attackers reach Elekta’s cloud systems. Northwestern Memorial Healthcare reports up to 201,197 oncology patients potentially affected.
- 2
August 10, 2022 — Pixel Lawsuit Filed
Krackenberger v. Northwestern Memorial Hospital (1:22-cv-04203) is filed in federal court in Chicago against the hospital and Meta.
- 3
October 13, 2022 — California Docket Opens
A docket under the same name (3:22-cv-06020) opens in the Northern District of California before Judge Orrick. It closes on February 23, 2023.
- 4
October 8, 2024 — Illinois Case Terminated
The Chicago docket is closed. We found no settlement or class notice; the reason is not confirmed in records we could access.
- 5
December 26, 2024 — Elekta Claim Deadline
Last day to file in the $8.9 million Tracy v. Elekta settlement. Final approval hearing set for January 6, 2025.
- 6
April 8, 2025 — Elekta Payments Begin
The administrator starts paying timely, valid Elekta claims. As of October 2026 no Northwestern case has an open claim window.
Three Things to Watch For
Wellstar’s open MyChart deadline is in the news, which makes a “Northwestern” version easy to fake:
“Northwestern Medicine MyChart settlement” claim pages
There is no Northwestern pixel settlement and no claims portal. A page asking for your MyNM login, date of birth or Social Security number to “claim your share” is collecting data, not filing anything.
Messages that copy the MyNM login
A real settlement administrator never needs your portal password. Log in only by typing nm.org/mynm yourself or through the official MyNM app — not through a link in a text or email about a lawsuit.
“Unclaimed Elekta payment” calls
The Elekta claim deadline was December 26, 2024 and payments began April 8, 2025. Anyone asking for a fee or bank login to release an “unclaimed” payment is not the administrator; contact the official settlement website directly.
Northwestern Medicine Lawsuit — Questions People Actually Ask
Is there a Northwestern Medicine MyChart lawsuit?
There was one. Krackenberger v. Northwestern Memorial Hospital (N.D. Ill., No. 1:22-cv-04203) alleged that the Meta Pixel in the patient portal shared medical information with Facebook. It was filed on August 10, 2022 and terminated on October 8, 2024. As of October 6, 2026 we found no open case.
Did the Northwestern pixel case settle?
We found no settlement, settlement website or class notice. The docket shows the case was terminated on October 8, 2024, but we could not confirm why from the records available to us, so we do not state a reason.
What is MyNM — is it MyChart?
Yes. MyNM is Northwestern Medicine’s patient portal, and Northwestern describes it as “powered by MyChart.” Epic, the company behind MyChart, was not a defendant; cases like this target the hospital that ran the portal and the tracking company.
Was there a Northwestern Medicine data breach settlement?
Yes, the Elekta one. A 2021 ransomware attack on vendor Elekta exposed data of Northwestern cancer patients, including names, Social Security numbers, treatment details and genetic information. The $8.9 million settlement closed to claims on December 26, 2024 and began paying on April 8, 2025.
Were there other Northwestern Medicine data breaches?
In late 2020 Northwestern Memorial Hospital reported that a former temporary worker viewed the records of 682 patients without a work reason between October 27 and December 2, 2020. Names, addresses and treatment information were involved, not Social Security numbers. We found no lawsuit tied to that incident.
What was the Northwestern fingerprint settlement?
Mazya v. Northwestern Memorial Healthcare (Cook County, No. 2018 CH 07161) was an employee case under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act about finger scans on dispensing cabinets. The reported fund was $3,883,000, about $250 per person, with a final approval hearing scheduled for April 9, 2025; we could not confirm final approval or payment. It did not cover patients.
I used nm.org or MyNM. Can I still do anything?
There is nothing to file today. If a new case is brought, class members are usually notified by a court-appointed administrator. Keep a note of how you used the site or portal and when, and check our MyChart claim form page for portal settlements that are open now.
Why do I see Northwestern Medicine in MyChart settlement searches?
Because several hospitals have paid MyChart pixel settlements, and one Northwestern case was filed in 2022. Those payouts came from the hospitals that were sued — not from Epic and not from Northwestern. Use our MyChart settlement calculator to see what other cases paid.
Separate from this case: were you injured in the last 2 years?
Class-action payouts are fixed amounts through an administrator. A personal injury claim is a different case — and often worth far more. Free estimate, no obligation.
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