This privacy notice was prepared for you by ER Card LLC (ERC) to meet the requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and to help you understand how we gather, use, disclose and protect your protected health information (PHI). 

Protected health information is any information that identifies an individual and is related to the past, present or future.  When all personal identifiers have been removed from the information, it is considered de-identified health information and may be used more freely than protected health information.

With your authorization, ER Card will provide healthcare professionals with the important information they need to diagnose and treat you in both emergency and routine care situations.  The quality of care you receive is determined by the information available to a physician, EMT or nurse. 

The following describes the privacy practices of ER Card, an electronic personal health record (ePHR) service that helps you control and manage all of your personal health information. 

How we gather your personal health information:  What we know about you comes from you.  Whether you enroll in the ER Card service on-line or speak directly with one of our Care Managers, the information in your ePHR is self-reported.  Once your information is safely stored in our database, you may authorize ERC Care Managers to contact your care providers or authorized family member for the most current information available.   Once you are enrolled in the ER Card program, you have full online access to any and all information that you provide to us for the purposes of viewing, editing, printing, deleting and saving in accordance with ER Card Terms of Use. 

Minor’s Privacy:  We are required by law to take reasonable security measures to protect personal health information about children.  When a parent enrolls their child in the ER Card service, the parent will be asked to provide his/her name, date of birth, e-mail address, mailing address, telephone number and credit card information.  We will not accept any personal information from a child under the age of 13 unless you agree that you are the legal parent/guardian of the child you wish to enroll. 

How we use your personal health information:  We use what we know to serve you better.

• ERC Care Managers provide support and education regarding community-based services and interventions, and we may recommend appropriate health-related products, services, providers or therapies if needed.       
• Staff pharmacists review medication profiles to identify potential or actual medication-related problems such as therapeutic duplication of generic and name brand drugs, high risk drug-drug interactions, inappropriate dosing and drug therapy omissions.  The pharmacist may recommend alternative therapies or the use of therapeutically equivalent lesser-cost products.
• In the event of medication or medical device recall, we identify at-risk ER Card members and notify them using our automated emergency notification system (ENS). 
• We review member’s personal health information profiles to keep information current and offer preventative care reminders. 

How we disclose your personal health information:  With your authorization, personal health information is disclosed to your physician, a medical professional covering for your physician, emergency medical personnel or any other authorized individual you designate, who may be responsible for your care.   Your ePHR is available by phone – medical operators are available 24 hours a day for you and any health professional treating you; by fax – medical operators will fax your ePHR if electronic transmission is not an option, or by web – hospitals, treatment centers and rescue vehicles have access to our private network with a user name and password we supply.   At any time, you can opt out of any service you have been using and revoke your authorization to release information and for our access to your information, by calling 888-873-2673 and requesting the appropriate ER Card Termination form.   Once you have opted out of all communication with the site, or deleted/de-activated your account, you will not be contacted.

How we protect your information:  We believe patient privacy and confidentiality is paramount.  We have taken precautionary measures to make all the information we receive, maintain and disclose as secure as possible against unauthorized use and access.  We have appropriate security measures in place both on and off site to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you personally, or from our online visitors. 

• Personal health information will not be used for purposes unrelated to health care such as employers or financial institutions, without explicit authorization from you.
• We do not sell or share your information with companies outside of the ER Card organization.
• Our internal Privacy Officer is responsible for developing, maintaining and enforcing a secure information infrastructure, and for training and compliance by ER Card employees.
• Technical security measures are in place to protect networks, computers and other electronic devices.  We safeguard member information in an encrypted database on a private network.
• We have a record of all data accessed from our network by visitor with a date/time stamp.
• Our site utilizes VeriSign Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to establish a private communication channel, enabling encryption of the data during transmission.  VeriSign certificates meet the highest standard in the internet security industry.
• We regularly performed integrity and security checks to ensure our system is functioning properly.

Revisions to our Privacy Policy:  We reserve the right to update our Privacy Policy at any time as we add additional products or services to benefit ER Card members.  We will post our revised Privacy Policy on our website:  www.ercardmember.com and the date the policy was last revised will always appear at the top of the policy pages.  Your continued use of ER Card after the date the revised policy is posted will constitute your acceptance of the revised policy. 

General Information:  ER Card sends electronic newsletters on a monthly basis to members and various organizations.  We may also send email communications related to web site updates, new product releases or general health topics.  To opt-out of our electronic communications, select the opt-out button associated with the specific communication. 

For additional information:  If you have additional questions, please contact us anytime.

Call 1-888-973-2673 (toll-free)

Mail:  ER Card LLC
P.O. Box 1088
West Warwick, RI  02893

E-mail: info@er-card.com
Website:  www.ercardmember.com

Legal Disclaimer:  Unfortunately, no data protection method can be guaranteed 100% secure.  We take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information as described throughout this policy but we cannot ensure or warrant our ability to do so.  As a result, you agree to use ER Card products and services at your own risk.  ER Card will not be liable for unintentional disclosure of your personal health information due to errors in transmission or unauthorized acts of third parties.