Mercy Health Privacy Settlement

Plaintiff filed this lawsuit against Defendant on behalf of Settlement Class Members alleging the disclosure of nonpublic medical information, invasion of privacy – intrusion upon seclusion (legal terms meaning intentionally interfering with another person's privacy), and breach of contract, for the Defendant’s alleged disclosure of personally identifiable information and protected health information for patients who logged into the Mercy MyChart between March 27, 2018, and December 31, 2021.

Plaintiff alleges Defendant maintained a web property at www.mercy.com and an online patient portal through which it encouraged patients to exchange communications to search for a doctor, learn more about their conditions and treatments, access medical records and test results, and make appointments. Plaintiff alleges that through these web properties, Defendant caused the unprivileged, unauthorized transmissions of personally identifiable information and protected health information to third parties, including Facebook and Google. Mercy denies this allegation, including specifically denying that any medical information from either the patient portal or the website was shared with Facebook or Google. Nonetheless, the Parties collectively agreed to resolve their dispute on a class-wide basis.

Defendant denies the legal claims and denies any wrongdoing or liability. The Court has not determined any wrongdoing by Defendant, or that any law has been violated. Instead, Plaintiff and Defendant have agreed to a settlement to avoid the risk, cost, and time of continuing the lawsuit.

Plaintiff and Defendant do not agree about the legal claims made in this lawsuit. The lawsuit has not gone to trial, and the Court has not decided in favor of Plaintiff or Defendant. Instead, Plaintiff and Defendant have agreed to settle the lawsuit. The Class Representative, Defendant, and their lawyers believe the Settlement is best for Settlement Class Members because of the benefits available and the risks and uncertainty associated with continuing the lawsuit.

In a class action, one or more people (called class representatives) sue on behalf of all people who have similar legal claims. Together, all these people are called a class or class members. One court resolves the issues for all class members, except for those class members who timely exclude themselves (opt-out) from the class.

You are included in the Settlement Class if you are a natural person residing in the State of Ohio and you are, or were, a patient of Bon Secours Mercy Health and logged into the Mercy MyChart patient portal between March 27, 2018, and December 31, 2021. This means you were residing in the State of Ohio when you logged into the Mercy MyChart patient portal.

Yes. Excluded from the Settlement Class are: (1) all Persons who timely and validly request exclusion from the Settlement Class; (2) the Judge assigned to evaluate the fairness of this settlement.

If you are still not sure whether you are a Settlement Class Member, you may call toll-free 1-888-859-3670.

A $5 million Settlement Fund will be established to pay costs of notice and administration for the settlement, a service award to Named Plaintiff, payment of Class Counsel’s Attorneys’ Fees and Expenses, and the payment of claims. In addition, Defendant will pay an amount up to $2.5 million on a claims made basis for the additional number of claims to the extent that the initial Settlement Fund of $5 million is not sufficient to cover the claims that are made.

Cash Payment: If you are a Settlement Class Member, you can submit a Claim Form to receive a $35.00 cash payment.

Your cash payment may be subject to a pro rata (a legal term meaning equal share) increase from the Settlement Fund if the amount of timely and valid Claim Forms does not use the entire net Settlement Fund. Alternatively, if the amount of timely and valid Claim Forms exceeds $7.5 million, your cash payment may be subject to a pro rata reduction.

Injunctive Relief: As part of the Settlement Mercy has also agreed to refrain from using certain digital analytics technologies on Mercy's web properties for a period of two years

Unless you exclude yourself (opt-out), you are choosing to remain in the Settlement Class. If the Settlement is approved and becomes final, all Court orders and any judgments will apply to you and legally bind you. You will not be able to sue, continue to sue, or be part of any other lawsuit against the Released Persons about the legal issues in this lawsuit that are released by this Settlement. The specific rights you are giving up are called “Released Claims.”

Section VII of the Settlement Agreement describes the Released Claims and the Release, in necessary legal terminology, so please read this section carefully. The Settlement Agreement is available in the Documents page of this website. For questions regarding the Release or Released Claims and what the language in the Settlement Agreement means, you can also contact Class Counsel listed below for free, or you can talk to your own lawyer at your own expense.

The deadline to submit a claim was August 21, 2025.

If you change your mailing address or email address after you submit a Claim Form, it is your responsibility to inform the Settlement Administrator of your updated information. You may notify the Settlement Administrator of any changes by writing to:

Mercy Health Privacy Litigation
Settlement Administrator
PO Box 6909
Portland, OR 97228-6909

Cash payments were mailed out on December 17, 2025, to claimants that selected paper check as a form of payment, and to claimants where an email address was not provided or was invalid.

If you selected to receive your payment in digital form, you should have received an email (please check your junk mail folder) with instructions on how to collect your digital payment.

If you selected to receive your payment via check and you have not received it, you can contact us to request a check be reissued to you. Call us at 1-888-859-3670 or send us a letter to:

Mercy Health Privacy Litigation
Settlement Administrator
PO Box 6909
Portland, OR 97228-6909

The deadline to exclude yourself from the Settlement was July 22, 2025.

No. If you opt-out, you will not be entitled to receive a cash payment, and you will not be bound by the Settlement or any judgment in this lawsuit. You can only get a cash payment if you stay in the Settlement and submit a timely and valid Claim Form.

No. Unless you opt-out, you give up any right to sue any of the Released Persons for the legal claims this Settlement resolves and Releases relating to the lawsuit, and you will be bound by all the terms of the Settlement and by all proceedings, orders, and judgments in the lawsuit. You must opt-out of this lawsuit to start or continue with your own lawsuit or be part of any other lawsuit against the Released Persons. If you have a pending lawsuit, speak to your lawyer in that case immediately.

The deadline to object to the Settlement was July 22, 2025.

Objecting is simply telling the Court that you do not like something about the Settlement. You can object only if you stay in the Settlement Class. Opting out is telling the Court that you do not want to be part of the Settlement Class. If you opt-out, you cannot object because you are no longer part of the Settlement.

Yes. The Court has appointed Stuart E. Scott and Kevin S. Hulick of Spangenberg, Shibley & Liber, and Jason ‘Jay’ Barnes and Eric Johnson of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC as Class Counsel to represent you and the Settlement Class for the purposes of this Settlement. You may hire your own lawyer at your own cost and expense if you want someone other than Class Counsel to represent you in this lawsuit.

Class Counsel will ask the Court to award attorneys’ fees of up to $2.1 million of the Settlement Fund, plus reimbursement of costs. Class Counsel will also ask the Court to approve a service award for the Class Representative of up to $18,000 for their efforts in achieving the Settlement. If awarded by the Court, the Attorneys’ Fees and Expenses, and the service award will be paid from the Settlement Fund. The Court may award less than these amounts. Class Counsel’s application for the Attorneys’ Fees and Expenses, and service award will be made available on this website after it is filed with the Court.

The Court held a Final Approval Hearing on August 19, 2025, at 2:30 PM EST before the Honorable Christian A. Jenkins at the Hamilton County Courthouse, 1000 Main Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. At this hearing, the Court decided that the Settlement was fair, reasonable, and adequate and approved the Settlement, Class Counsel’s application for Attorneys’ Fees and Expenses, and service award.

If there were objections that were filed by the deadline, the Court considered them.

These FAQs summarize the Settlement. More details are in the Settlement Agreement. You can get a copy of the Settlement Agreement here. You may contact the Settlement Administrator at info@MercyHealthSettlement.com, or write with questions to:

Mercy Health Privacy Litigation
Settlement Administrator
PO Box 6909
Portland, OR 97228-6909

You can call the Settlement Administrator at 1-888-859-3670 if you have any questions. Before doing so, however, please read the full Notice and all of the website FAQs carefully.