Effective Date:  March 1, 2014

At Vascare, we take safeguarding your privacy and protecting your personal information very seriously.  We have taken steps to secure your personal information and have developed this Internet Privacy Policy to explain how we will protect and use the personal information collected through this website and any mobile versions of this website (collectively referred to as the “Website”).  If you have any questions about this Internet Privacy Policy, please feel free to email us and we will answer your questions promptly.

I.               Consent to Internet Privacy Policy

This Internet Privacy Policy is intended to inform you of Vascare’s Internet Privacy Policy.  Your use of this Website constitutes your acceptance of this Internet Privacy Policy and your consent to the practices described below for the use and protection of your information collected by Vascare through your use of this Website.  We reserve the right to modify or amend this Internet Privacy Policy at any time.  All such changes will be effective immediately upon being posted to this Website along with its effective date.  Your use of the Website after the effective date of an amended policy constitutes your consent to the amended policy.

II.             This Policy does NOT cover Protected Health Information protected under HIPAA

This Internet Privacy Policy does not cover Vascare’s protection of your protected health information (“PHI”) covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH Act”).  Any information that you provide Vascare or that results from any care you receive from Vascare that is considered PHI is protected by Vascare’s Notice of Privacy Practices.  This Notice of Privacy Practices is available upon request and by clicking on the following link: VasCare Privacy Practices.

III.           Personally Identifiable Information

This Website will not collect any personally identifiable information about you unless you specifically provide it to us.  If you do not wish for Vascare to collect personally identifiable information through this Website, please do not provide it to us.  You are more than welcome to use this Website to learn about Vascare without providing personally identifiable information.

A.  What is Personally Identifiable Information?

If you use this Website, you may also choose to submit information about yourself by sending us an email or by completing forms on the Website.  Vascare considers the following information to be personally identifiable information:  1) your name, 2) your physical address, 3) your email address, 4) your phone number, 5) your date of birth and/or age, 6) your gender, 7) your insurance information, 8) financial and payment information, 9) and other information you voluntarily include that identifies you personally.

B.  How will Vascare use Personally Identifiable Information?

Vascare may use the personally identifiable information you voluntarily provided through this Website primarily for such purposes as: helping to establish and verify the identity of the user submitting the information; maintaining, administering and servicing users’ accounts; processing and servicing transactions and exchanging related communications; providing services and support to users; improving the Website in accordance with user provided preferences; providing users with product or service updates, promotional notices and offers; and responding to user questions, inquiries, comments and instructions.

Vascare will not provide your personally identifiable information to unaffiliated third parties for their use in marketing to you.  Vascare may use third party companies to help it maintain and operate this Website or for other operational reasons and those companies may have access to your personally identifiable information when necessary to perform their services; however, Vascare requires such third party companies or service providers to maintain the confidentiality of such information.  Vascare may also be required to disclose the personally identifiable information submitted by you in connection with legal requirements, such as in response to an authorized subpoena, governmental request or investigation, or as otherwise required by law.

Additionally, any personally identifiable information that is considered PHI will be protected by Vascare in accordance with HIPAA as explained in our Notice of Privacy Practices explained above.

C.  Security and Access

No data transmission over the internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed as completely secure.  As a result, Vascare can only strive to safeguard your personally identifiable information once we receive it.

In general, we will retain all such information, at a minimum, for the length of time required by law.  However, we will delete any personally identifiable information in our database upon your request or as otherwise required by law.  Vascare may back up personally identifiable information on servers as a protection against natural disasters, equipment failures or other disruptions.  Backup files protect you and us because they lower the risk of losing valuable information.  Removing a record or specific information from our active files will not immediately remove such record or information from our back up files. Such information will eventually be passively deleted as back up records are erased through the normal recycling of back up files.

Upon receiving a written request from you and after verifying your identity, we will provide you with a copy of your personally identifiable information in our possession.

IV.           Non-Personally Identifiable Information

When you visit this Website, like when you visit most websites, we may gather certain anonymous information about your visit to determine internet traffic patterns, Website usage, to improve our content, to customize the Website’s layout and presentation, and other generalized uses.  Such information is gathered anonymously together to view trends and gather data.  The information may include which type of internet browser (i.e. Microsoft Internet Explorer or Google Chrome) most visitors use, if you accessed the Website directly or through a search engine, the time of day most usage occurs, which pages on the Website are visited and in which pattern, any differences in the usage of the main website versus the mobile website, if any, etc.  We may use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server.  This information does not identify you personally.

A.  “Cookies”, “Web Beacons” and other internet tools

The term “cookies” refers to small pieces of electronic data that can be sent by a web server and stored by your computer browser to personalize and improve your use of the website.  Like other websites, the cookies enable this Website to facilitate your access to different aspects of this Website.  For example, by showing when and how you visit our Website, cookies help us identify if important information needs to be displayed more prominently or if users experience access problems or compatibility errors.  Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can disable this function so that your browser will not accept cookies.  Please be aware that if you disable this function, it may slow or interfere with your use of the Website.

The term “web beacons” refer to internet tools, such as transparent images on the website or in emails that we may send to you that help us determine if a website has been viewed or an email has been opened.  For example, if you ask us to send you information or a newsletter, web beacons will help us determine how many of our users opened these emails or newsletters.  In general, any electronic image viewed as part of a web page, including a banner ad, can contain a web beacon.  These internet technology tools allow us to improve the performance of our Website by determining, for example, the most common internet browser and what type of technological compatibility issues are most likely to occur with each type of browser.  This information is useful for improving the Website and making it more user-friendly and accessible.

If you are on a mobile device, you may be asked if you want to grant us access to geographic location of your mobile device.  If you select yes and save that setting, we may use that information to direct you to the closest Vascare location.

If the Vascare Website includes any links to external internet sites, these external links are provided solely for our users’ convenience and are not sponsored, endorsed or affiliated with Vascare.  Vascare has not reviewed the content of these external sites and is not responsible for their content.  Vascare encourages you to review the privacy policies of any website before you provide any personally identifiable information to those websites.

V.             Breach

If we determine that your personally identifiable information has or may reasonably be determined to have been disclosed due to a security breach of our systems, we will notify you using the contact information you provided to us, in accordance with and to the extent required by applicable state and federal law.

VI.           Children Under the Age of 13

No part of this Website, or any services made available through this Website, are designed to be of interest to or intended to attract children under the age of 13.  No personal information is knowingly collected from any person under the age of 13.

VII.         Opt Out

We may send you information from time to time related to your transactions, the security or administration of this Website, or services or promotions offered by Vascare.  If you do not wish to receive such communications from Vascare, please send an email to us.

VIII.       Contact Information:

If you have any questions, or would like additional information, please contact:

VasCare Beaumont/Baytown Clinics

350 Pine St.,  Ste. 1415
Beaumont, Texas 77701
Telephone (409) 924-8600
Fax (409) 924-8607

Robbie Barnes, RN, Privacy Officer
Robbie.Barnes@VasCareManagement.com

Website:   www.vascareclinics.com

VasCare Corpus Christi Clinic

1521 S. Staples, Suite 510
Corpus Christi, Texas 78404
Telephone (361) 882-4000
Fax (361) 882-4002

Robbie Barnes, RN, Privacy Officer (Beaumont Clinic)
Robbie.Barnes@VasCareManagement.com

Website:   www.vascareclinics.com