Advocate Aurora Health has agreed to pay $12.2 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed after a data breach over a five-year period.
Advocate Aurora owned hospitals in Normal and Eureka from 2018 until early 2020, when Carle Health bought them.
The breach exposed the personal information of 2.5 million patients without their consent over five years, ending in October 2022. The company, which denies any wrongdoing, installed the tracking technology.
At the time, the health system said in a statement online that it used the technology “so that we can better understand patients needs and preferences to provide needed care to our patient population.”
Advocate said it disabled the technology and launched an internal investigation after learning some patient information was transmitted to third-party vendors.
The lawsuit applies to patients who visited Advocate Aurora Health’s websites, the LiveWell app or MyChart patient portal between Oct. 24, 2017 and Oct. 22, 2022.
Patients who file a claim could get up to $50.
Advocate Aurora Health operates hospitals in Illinois and Wisconsin.
