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Original Effective Date: April 14, 2003
Effective Date of Last Revision: April 22, 2008
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT
YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS
INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
A federal regulation, known as the Health Insurance
Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (the “HIPPA Privacy Rule”),
requires that we provide detailed notice in writing of our privacy
practices. We know that this notice is long. The HIPPA Privacy Rule
requires us to address many specific things in this Notice.
OUR COMMITMENT TO PROTECTING HEALTH INFORMATION
ABOUT YOU.
In this Notice, we describe ways that we may use and
disclose health information about our patients. The HIPPA Privacy Rule
requires that we protect the privacy of health information that identifies
a patient, or where there is a reasonable basis to believe the information
can be used to identify a patient. This information is called “protected
health information” or “PHI”. This Notice describes your rights as our
patient and our obligations regarding the use and disclosure of PHI. We
are required by law to:
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Maintain
the privacy of PHI about you;
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Give you
this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to
PHI; and
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Comply
with the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices that is currently in
effect.
We reserve the right to make changes to this Notice
and to make such changes effective for all PHI we may already have about
you. If and when this Notice is changed, we will post a copy in our
office in a prominent location. We will also provide you with a copy of
the revised Notice upon your request.
II. HOW
WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU.
USES AND DISCLOSURES FOR TREATMENT, PAYMENT, AND
HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS.
The following categories describe the different ways we
may use and disclose PHI for treatment, payment, or health care
operations. The examples included with each category do not list every
type of use or disclosure that may fall within that category.
Treatment: We may use and disclose PHI about
you to provide, coordinate or manage your health care and related
services. We may consult with other health care providers, regarding your
treatment and coordinate and manage your health with others. For example,
we may use and disclosure PHI when you need services provided under
Medicare and we arrange them on your behalf through a Medicare Certified
Home Health Agency.
We may also disclose PHI about you for the treatment
activities of another health care provider. For example, we may send a
report about your care from us to a physician that we refer to you so that
the physician may treat you. For example, we may also send a report about
your care directly to your own physician if you are taken to the
hospital.
Payment: We may use and disclose PHI so that we
can bill and collect payment for the services provided to you. Before
providing services, we may share details with your insurance provider
concerning the services you have requested and are scheduled to receive.
For example, if you own a long term care insurance policy we may call them
for a Verification of Benefits and disclose PHI to find out if your plan
will cover the costs of the services we provide. We may use and disclose
PHI for billing, claims management, and collection activities. We may
disclose PHI to insurance companies providing you with additional
coverage. We may disclose limited PHI to consumer reporting agencies
relation to collection of payments owed to use.
We may also disclose PHI to another health care
provider or company of health plan required to comply with the HIPPA
Privacy Rule for the payment activities of that health care provider,
company or health plan. For example we may allow a health insurance
company to review PHI for the insurance company’s activities to determine
the insurance benefits to be paid for your care.
Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose
PHI in performing business activities which are called health care
operations. Health care operations include doing things that all us to
improve the quality of care we provide and to reduce health care costs.
We may use and disclose PHI about you in the following healthcare
operations:
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Reviewing and improving the quality, efficiency and cost of care that we
provide to our clients. For example, we may use PHI about you to
develop ways to assist our staff in deciding how we can improve the
services we provide to others.
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Reviewing and evaluating the skills, qualifications and performance of
health care providers we refer to you to provide services to you and our
other clients.
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To
provide in-service education for students, trainees, health care
providers or non-health care providers (for example, billing personnel)
to help them practice or improve their skills.
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Cooperating with outside organizations that assess the quality of the
care that we provide.
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Cooperating with outside organizations that evaluate, certify, accredit,
certify or license Nurse Registries or Geriatric Care Management
companies. For example, we may use or disclose PHI so that our agency
can become accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care or
to become licensed by the Agency for Health Care Administration.
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Cooperating with various people we review our activities. For example,
PHI may be seen my doctors reviewing the services provided to you, and
by accountants, lawyers and others who assist us in complying with the
law and managing our business.
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Assisting us in making plans for our practice’s future operations.
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Resolving grievances without our practice.
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Reviewing our activities and using or disclosing PHI in the event that
we sell our practice to someone else or combine with another practice.
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Business
planning and development, such as cost-management analyses.
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Business
management and general administrative activities of our practice,
including managing our activities related to complying with the HIPPA
Privacy Rule and other legal requirements.
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Creating: ”de-identified” information that is not identifiable to any
individual.
If another health care provider, company of health plan
that is required to comply with the HIPPA Privacy Rule has or once had a
relationship with you, we may disclose PHI about you for certain health
care services of the health care provider or company. For example, such
health care operations include; reviewing and improving the quality,
efficiency and cost of care provided to you; reviewing and evaluating the
skills, qualifications, and performance of health care providers;
providing training programs for students; trainees, health care providers,
or non-health care professionals; cooperating with outside organizations
that evaluate, certify, or license health care providers or staff in a
particular field or specialty; and assisting with legal compliance
activities of that health care provider or company.
We may also disclose PHI for the health care operations
of an “organized health care arrangement” in which we participate. An
example of an “organized health care arrangement” is the joint care
provided by a hospital and the doctors who see patients in the hospital.
Communication From Our Office: We may contact
you to remind you of appointments and to provide you with information
regarding service or treatment alternatives or other health related
benefits and services that may be of interest to you.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES WE CAN MAKE WITHOUT YOUR
WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION
Uses and Disclosures For Which You Have The
Opportunity To Agree or Object
We may use and disclose PHI about you in some
situations where you have the opportunity to agree or object to certain
uses and disclosures of PHI about you. If you do not object, then we may
make these types of uses and disclosures of PHI.
We may disclose PHI about you to your family member,
close friend, or any other person identified by you if that information is
directly relevant to the person’s involvement in your care or payment for
your care. If you are present and able to consent or object (or if you
are available in advance), then we may only use or disclose PHI if you do
not object after you have been informed of your opportunity to object. If
you are not present or you are unable to consent or object; we may
exercise professional judgment in determining whether the use or
disclosure of PHI is in your best interests. For example, if we arrive at
your home and you are unable to communicate normally with us, we may find
it is in your best interest to call your family and/or your physician for
treatment. WE may also use and disclose PHI to notify such persons of
your location, general condition or death. WE may also coordinate with
disaster relief agencies to make this type of notification. We may also
use professional judgment and our experience with common practice to make
reasonable decisions about your best interests in allowing a person to act
on your behalf to pick up filled prescriptions, medical supplies or other
things that contain PHI about you.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES WE CAN MAKE WITHOUT YOUR
WRITTEN AUTHORIZATION OR OPPORTUNITY TO AGREE OR OBJECT
We may use and disclose PHI about you in the following
circumstances without your authorization or opportunity to agree or
object, provided that we comply with certain conditions that may apply.
Required by Law: We may use and disclose PHI as
required by federal, state or local law. Any disclosure complies with the
law and is limited to the requirements of the law.
Public Health Activities: WE may use or
disclosure PHI to public health authorities or other authorized persons to
carry out certain activities related to public health, including the
following activities:
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To
prevent or control disease, injury or disability;
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To
report disease, injury, birth or death;
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To
report child abuse or neglect;
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To
report elder abuse, neglect or exploitation;
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To
report reactions to medications or problems with products or devises
regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration or other
activities related to quality, safety or effectiveness or FDA-regulated
products or activities;
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To
locate and notify persons of recalls of products they may be using;
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To
report to your employer, under limited circumstances, information
related primarily to workplace injuries or illness or workplace medical
surveillance.
Abuse, Neglect or Domestic Violence: We may
disclose PHI in certain cases to proper government authorities if we
reasonable believe that a client has been a victim of domestic violence,
abuse or neglect.
Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose
PHI to a health oversight agency for oversight activities including, for
example, audits, investigations, inspections, licensure and disciplinary
activities and other activities conducted by health oversight agencies to
monitor the health care system, government health care programs and
compliance with certain laws.
Lawsuits and Other Legal Proceedings: We may
also use or disclose PHI when required by a court of administrative
tribunal order. We may also disclose PHI in response to subpoenas,
discovery requests or other required legal process when efforts have been
made to advise you of the request or to obtain an order protecting the
information requested.
Law Enforcement: Under certain conditions, we
may disclose PHI to law enforcement officials for the following purposes
where the disclosure is:
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About a
suspected crime victim if, under certain limited circumstances, we are
unable to obtain a person’s agreement because of incapacity or
emergency;
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To alert
law enforcement of a death that we suspect was the result of criminal
misconduct;
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In
response to a court order, warrant, subpoena, summons, administrative
agency request or other authorized process;
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To
identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing
person;
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About a
crime or suspected crime committed at our office; or
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In
response to a medical emergency not occurring at the office, if
necessary to report a crime, including the nature of the crime, the
location of the crime or the victim and the identity of the person who
committed the crime.
Coroners, Medical Examiners, Funeral Directors:
WE may disclose PHI to a coroner or medical examiner to identify a
deceased person and determine the cause of death. In addition, we may
disclose PHI to funeral directors, as authorized by law, so that they may
carry out their jobs.
Organ and Tissue Donations: If you are an organ
donor, we may use or disclose PHI to organizations that help procure,
locate, and transplant organs in order to facilitate an organ, eye or
tissue donation and transplantation.
To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety:
We may use or disclose PHI about you in limited circumstances when
necessary to prevent a threat to the health or safety of a person or to
the public. This disclosure can only be made to person who is able to
help prevent the threat.
Specialized Government Functions: Under certain
circumstances we may disclose PHI:
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For
certain military and veteran activities, including determination of
eligibility for veterans for veterans benefits and where deemed
necessary by military command authorities;
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For
national security and intelligence activities;
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To help
provide protective services for the president and others;
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For the
determination and planning of Medicaid eligibility.
Disclosures Required by HIPPA Privacy Rule: WE
are required to disclose PHI to the Secretary of the United States
Department of Health and Human Services when requested by the Secretary to
review our compliance with the HIPPA Privacy Rule. We are also required
in certain cases to disclose PHI to you upon your request to access PHI or
for an accounting of certain disclosures of PHI about you (those requests
are described in Section III of this Notice).
Worker’s Compensation: WE may disclose PHI as
authorized by workers’ compensation laws or other similar programs that
provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PROTECTED HEALTH
INFORMATION REQUIRE YOUR AUTHORIZATION
All other uses and disclosures of PHI about you will
only be made with your written authorization. If you have authorized us
to use or disclosure PHI about you, you may revoke your authorization at
any time, except to the extent we have taken action based on the
authorization.
III.
YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION
Under federal law, you have the following rights
regarding PHI about you:
Right to Request Restriction: You have the
right to request additional restrictions on the PHI that we may use for
treatment, payment and health care operations. You may also request
additional restrictions on our disclosure of PHI to certain individuals
involved in your care that otherwise are permitted by the Privacy Rule.
We are not required to agree to your request. If we do agree to your
request, we are required to comply with our agreement except in certain
cases, including where the information is needed to treat you in the case
of an emergency. To request restrictions you must make your request in
writing to our Executive Director. In your request, please include (1) the
information that you want to restrict; (2) how you want to restrict the
information (for example, restricting use to this office, only restricting
disclosure to persons outside this office, or restricting both); and (3)
to whom you want those restrictions to apply.
Right To Receive Confidential Communications:
You have the right to request that you receive communications regarding
PHI in a certain manner or at a certain location. For example, you may we
request that we contact you at home, rather than at work. You must make
your request in writing to our Executive Director. You must specify how
you would like to be contacted (for example, by regular mail to your post
office box and not your home). We are required to accommodate reasonable
requests.
Right to Inspect and Copy: You have the right
to request to request the opportunity to inspect and receive a copy of PHI
about you in certain records that we maintain. This includes your medical
and billing records but does not include psychotherapy notes or
information gathered or prepared for a civil, criminal or administrative
proceeding. We may deny your request to inspect and copy PHI only in
limited circumstances. To inspect and copy PHI contact our Executive
Director. If you request a copy of PHI about you, we may charge you a
reasonable fee for the copying, postage, labor and supplies used in
meeting your request.
Right to Amend. You have the right to request
that we amend PHI about you as long as such information is kept by or for
our office. To make this type of request you must submit your request in
writing to our Executive Director. You must also give us a reason for
your request. We may deny your request in certain cases, including if it
is not in writing or if you do not give us a reason for the request.
Right to Receive an Accounting of Disclosures:
You have the right to request an “accounting” of certain disclosures that
we have made of PHI about you. This is a list of disclosures made by us
during a specified period of up to six years other than disclosures made:
for treatment, payment and health care operations; for use in or related
to a facility directory; to family members or friends involved in your
care, to you directly; pursuant to an authorization of you or your
personal a representative, or for certain notification purposes (including
national security, intelligence, correctional, and law enforcement
purposes) and disclosures made before April 14, 2003. If you wish to make
sure a request, please contact our Executive Director identified on the
last page of this Notice. The first list that you request in a 12-month
period will be free, but we may charge you for our reasonable costs of
providing additional lists in the same 12-month period. We will tell you
about these costs, and you may choose to cancel your request at any time
before costs are incurred.
Right to a Paper Copy of this Notice: You have
a right to receive a paper copy of this Notice at any time. You are
entitled to a paper copy of this Notice even if you have previously agreed
to receive this Notice electronically. To obtain a paper copy of this
Notice, please contact our Executive Director listed on the last page of
this Notice.
IV.
COMPLAINTS:
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated,
you may file a complaint with us or the Secretary of the United States
Department of Health and Human Services. To file a complaint with our
office, please contact our Executive Director at the address and number
listed below. WE will not retaliate or take action against you for filing
a complaint.
V. QUESTIONS:
If you have any questions about this Notice, please
contact or Executive Director at the address and telephone number listed
below.
VI.
PRIVACY OFFICIAL CONTACT INFORMATION:
You may contact our Executive Director, serving as our
Privacy Officer, at the following address and phone number:
Elayne Forgie, President
ElderCare at Home, Inc.
ElderCare Resource Center, Inc.
ElderCare Financial Group, Inc.
2328 10th Ave N. #101
Lake Worth, Florida 33461
561-471-3122
This Notice was published and first became effective on
April 14, 2003.
Additional
Disclaimers
Medical Disclaimer
ElderCare at Home does not give, nor intend to give medical advice. All
content, including text and graphs are for lifestyle educational
purposes and behavioral recommendations only and are not sufficient for
any individual to make medical decisions. The content is not intended to
be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or
treatment. Any medically related issues should always be made in
consultation with your appropriate healthcare provider before adopting
or practicing any medically related information presented on this site
or elsewhere. It is understood that you need to consult with your
healthcare provider, in order to reach a diagnosis and any related
treatment.
After
reading the content from this website, you are encouraged to review the
information carefully in consultation with all necessary available
information resources. The proper course of treatment for any patient
can always vary from the medical treatment information obtained from
different sources, depending on philosophy and approach of the source
and the actual condition and/or complications of clients.
Having
said this, it is the belief of ElderCare at Home that all decisions
impacting health are the responsibility of each individual to make,
based on critical and rational analysis of all available information
resources. These information resources include, but are not limited to,
consultation with medical healthcare professionals and non-medical
health professionals and review of all other resources (scientific
journal articles, reputable medical/health books and websites, industry
standard references, etc). Ultimately, after factoring in all the
necessary information, the decisions regarding health are up to the
individual to make, in a logical, deliberate and conscientious manner.
By implementing suggestions from this website, without appropriate
health consultation, you are solely responsible for all outcomes. You
agree to hold harmless and shall not seek remedy from the owners of this
website.
Legal Disclaimer
Use of This Site
ElderCare at Home maintains this Site for your personal information,
education, and communication. Please feel free to browse the Site. You
may download material displayed on the Site for non-commercial; personal
use only provided you also retain all copyright and other proprietary
notices contained in the materials. You may not, however, distribute,
modify, transmit, re-use, re-post, or use the content of the Site for
public or commercial purposes, including the text, images, audio and
video without ElderCare at Home’s written permission. Changes
periodically are made to the information contained in this Site.
Disclaimer of Warranty.
THIS SITE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER
EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSES, OR
NON-INFRINGEMENT. ELDERCARE AT HOME also assumes no responsibility, and
shall not be liable for any such damages to or viruses that may infect,
your computer equipment, software, data or other property as a result of
your access to, use of, or browsing in the Site or your downloading of
any materials, data, text, images, video or audio from the Site or any
linked sites.
Limitation of Liability.
In no event shall ElderCare at Home or any other party, involved in
creating, producing, maintaining or delivering the Site, or any of their
affiliates, or the officers, directors, employees, shareholders, or
agents of each of them, be liable for any damages of any kind, including
without limitation any direct, special, incidental, indirect, exemplary,
punitive or consequential damages, whether or not advised of the
possibility of such damages, and on any theory of liability whatsoever,
arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of, or your
browsing in, or your links to other sites from, this Site.
Unaffiliated Products and Sites.
Descriptions of, or references to, products, publications or sites not
owned by ElderCare at Home or its affiliates do not imply endorsement of
that product, publication or site. ElderCare at Home has not reviewed
all material linked to the Site and is not responsible for the content
of any such material. Your linking to any other sites is at your own
risk.
Any communication or material you transmit to ElderCare at Home from
this Site by e-mail or otherwise, including any data, questions,
comments, suggestions, or the like is, and will be treated as, non
confidential and non-proprietary. ElderCare at Home cannot prevent the
"harvesting" of information from this Site, and you may be contacted by
ElderCare at Home. Anything you transmit may be edited by or on behalf
of ElderCare at Home, may or may not be posted to this Site at the sole
discretion of ElderCare at Home and may be used by ElderCare at Home
or its affiliates for any purpose, including, but not limited to,
reproduction, disclosure, transmission, publication, broadcast and
posting. Furthermore, ElderCare at Home is free to use any ideas,
concepts, know-how, or techniques contained in any communication you
send to the Site for any purpose whatsoever including, but not limited
to, developing, manufacturing and marketing products using such
information.
Trademark and Copyright Notice
Unless otherwise noted, product names, designs, logos, titles, text,
images, audio and video within this Site are the trademarks, service
marks, trade names, copyrights or other property (Intellectual Property)
of ElderCare at Home. All other unregistered and registered trademarks
are the property of their respective owners. Nothing contained on the
Site should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or
otherwise, any license or right to use any of ElderCare at Home’s
Intellectual Property displayed on the Site without the written
permission of ElderCare at Home.
United States Governing Law
This Site was developed in the United States of America in accordance
with and shall be governed by, and your browsing in and use of the Site
shall be deemed acceptance of, the laws of the State of Florida, United
States of America. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this Site may be
viewed internationally and may contain references to products or
services not available in all states of the United States, all areas in
Florida and countries. References to a particular product or service do
not imply that ElderCare at Home intends to make such products or
services available in other states or other portions of Florida other
than South Florida.
Privacy Statement
ElderCare
at Home is committed to protecting your privacy when visiting our
network of Web sites. This is ElderCare at Home Internet Privacy
Statement. Together with the Policy on Collection and Use of Personal
Information, this privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for
ElderCare at Home’s network of Web sites:
www.eldercareresourcecenter.com, www.eldercareathome.org,
www.alzheimerstraining.com
Registration
It is optional for a user to complete a registration form. If a user
chooses to complete one, a user is required to give certain information
(such as name and email address). This information is used to contact
users about the services on our site for which they have expressed
interest. It is optional for the user to provide additional demographic
information (such as income level and gender), but encouraged so we can
provide a more personalized experience on our site.
Cookies
A
cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's hard drive containing
information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any
personally identifiable information while on our site. Once the user
closes the browser, the cookie simply terminates. For instance, by
setting a cookie from our site, the user would not have to log in a
password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users
reject the cookie, they may still use our site. Cookies can also enable
us to track and target the interests of our users as they visit
different sections of our site.
Information Collection and Use
ElderCare
at Home is the sole owner of the information collected on this site. We
will not sell, share or rent this information to others in ways other
than those outlined in this statement. ElderCare at Home collects
information from our users at several different points on our Web site.
Personal information provided by users will be used by ElderCare at Home
to improve the site and provide a more personalized experience for the
user, but information which identifies a specific individual will not be
disclosed to others without the user's permission unless necessary to
provide services that the user has requested.
Log Files
We
use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the site, track users'
movement, and gather broad information for aggregate use. IP addresses
are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Links
This Web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that
ElderCare at Home is not responsible for the privacy practices of such
sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site to
read the privacy statements of every Web site that collects personally
identifiable information. ElderCare at Home privacy statement applies
solely to information collected by ElderCare at Home’s Web site.
Newsletter
If
a user wishes to subscribe to our email technology or newsletters, we
ask for contact information such as name and email address.
Correcting and Updating Personal Information
If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as a zip
code), or if a user no longer desires our service, we will make our best
effort to provide a way to correct, update or remove that user's
personal data from our records, but this may require additional effort
as ElderCare at Home works to synchronize all customer data sources.
This can usually be done on the member information page or by emailing
our Customer Support. Users can also reach us at 800-209-4342.
Choice/Opt-Out
Our users are given the opportunity to "opt-out" of having their
personal information used by third parties for purposes not directly
related to our site at the point where we ask for the information. For
example, our informational email messages have an "opt-out" mechanism so
users who register can change their mind and be removed from receiving
future informational messages. In some instances, ElderCare at Home
requires users to “opt-in” for their personal information to be used.
Users who
no longer wish to receive our newsletter or promotional materials from
our partners may opt-out of receiving these communications by following
the "unsubscribe" instructions in the email message. Users of our site
are always notified when their information is being collected by any
outside parties. We do this so our users can make an informed choice as
to whether or not they should proceed with services that require an
outside party.
Notification of Changes
If
we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post changes on our home
page so our users are always aware of the information we collect, the
ways we use it and any circumstances under which we disclose it. If at
any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a
manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will
notify users by way of email. Users will have a choice as to whether or
not we use their information in this different manner. We will use
information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the
information was collected.
Last updated April 22, 2008 |
