Accessibility Assistance
We are committed to providing an accessible and inclusive experience for patients and visitors. We are striving for the highest level of accessibility for people with disabilities and making every reasonable effort to ensure that all of our websites are accessible by persons who use assistive technologies such as automated tools, keyboard-only navigation, and screen readers.
Digital Accessibility Statement
Currently, we are in the process of updating our websites to implement relevant portions of the Section 508 Web Accessibility Standards developed by the United States Access Board, as well as the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, as our web accessibility standard. The accessibility of our websites will be programmatically evaluated, as well as tested with assistive technology, including but not limited to screen readers and screen magnifiers. We will also test our sites with users with disabilities who use these technologies. These processes will facilitate accessibility for everyone, regardless of disability or device used to access information on our websites.
On an ongoing and periodic basis, we will audit our websites to ensure conformance with our web accessibility standard and/or to identify where support and guidance is needed to facilitate website accessibility efforts.
Accessibility Assistance Requests
If you cannot access content or use features on our website due to a disability, please report your accessibility issue below. For all other inquiries, please visit our general Contact Us page.
*The terms "HCA," "we" and "our" as used in this policy refer collectively to HCA Healthcare, Inc. and its affiliates. All operational activities are performed by such affiliates and their employees.
Effective: June 13, 2016
Updated: March 25, 2024
Terms of Use
Updated as of October 18, 2022
Welcome. These Terms of Use (these “Terms”) apply to this website (“Website”), our portals, our SMS text notification services, and any other services provided by HCA Healthcare, Inc. and/or any of its affiliates (“we”, “us”, or “our”)(collectively, our “Services”). Please read these Terms carefully before using the Services. Additionally, you must read, agree, and accept the terms of our Privacy Policy.
Acknowledgment
You acknowledge (a) that you have read and understood these Terms and (b) that these Terms have the same force and effect as a signed agreement.
By using our Services, you are agreeing to these Terms. Please read them carefully.
These Terms may have changed since you last used our Services. Your use of our Services is subject to your compliance with these Terms. These Terms apply to all visits to our Website and all uses of our Services, including (but not limited to) all associated content, information, recommendations, and/or services provided to you by or through our Services.
By accessing and using our Services, you hereby agree to these Terms in their entirety. You may not use our Services (or any part thereof) if you do not agree to be bound by these Terms.
BY ACCESSING OR USING THE SERVICES IN ANY WAY, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, BROWSING THE WEBSITE, USING ANY INFORMATION, OR SUBMITTING ANY CONTENT OR PERSONAL INFORMATION VIA THE WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO AND ARE BOUND BY THE TERMS, CONDITIONS, POLICIES, AND NOTICES CONTAINED IN THESE TERMS, INCLUDING CONDUCTING THIS TRANSACTION ELECTRONICALLY, CERTAIN THIRD-PARTY TERMS AND CONDITIONS, DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTIES, DAMAGE AND REMEDY EXCLUSIONS AND LIMITATIONS, BINDING ARBITRATION, VENUE SELECTION, AND A CHOICE OF TENNESSEE LAW. YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT YOU POSSESS THE LEGAL RIGHT AND ABILITY TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS.
Use of Services; No Medical Advice
The information contained in or provided by our Services is offered solely for your consideration, and is subject to your verification. It is not to be taken as a warranty or representation by which we assume legal responsibility, nor do we grant permission to use or practice anything contained therein, nor recommend such use or practice. You expressly acknowledge and agree that we are not responsible for the results of any decisions made based on your use of the Website or receipt of our Services.
OUR SERVICES ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE FROM A QUALIFIED HEALTHCARE PROVIDER. DO NOT USE INFORMATION PROVIDED VIA OUR SERVICES TO DIAGNOSE OR TREAT A HEALTH CONDITION OR DISEASE WITHOUT CONSULTING A QUALIFIED HEALTHCARE PROVIDER. THERE IS NO PHYSICIAN-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP ARISING SOLELY BY VIRTUE OF USING THE SERVICES. NEVER DISREGARD PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY SEEKING IT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ VIA THE SERVICES. DO NOT USE OUR SERVICES FOR MEDICAL EMERGENCY SERVICES. IN AN EMERGENCY, CALL 911, YOUR PERSONAL PHYSICIAN, AND/OR YOUR LOCAL EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE NUMBER.
Changes to these Terms
We reserve the right to revise and update these Terms at any time without notifying you. As such, please periodically review these Terms, our Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, and any other policies that may be posted on this Website, each of which are accessible via the Website homepage. Continued usage of our Services will be considered acceptance of any changes. Certain provisions of these Terms may be superseded by expressly designated legal notices or terms on particular pages at this Website.
Minimum Age Requirement
Our Services are not intended for users under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect information from users under the age of 13. Users under the age of 13 are expressly prohibited from submitting their information to us via the Services or using portions of the Website or Services that require registration.
Ownership of Services
Our Services, including all associated information related to our Services, are the property of us and/or our affiliates and licensors. Our Services are protected from unauthorized copying and dissemination by United States copyright law, trademark law, international conventions and other intellectual property laws. All rights reserved.
The contents of our Services may be viewed and accessed only for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that all copyright and other proprietary notices are retained on any copies made of the materials. The materials and information available via our Services may not be modified in any way, and may not be reproduced, distributed or used for any public or commercial purpose unless expressly permitted by us in writing. Any use of the materials or information available via our Services for any other purpose is prohibited. Nothing herein shall be construed as conferring by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right under any copyright, patent, trademark or other proprietary interest of us or other third parties. If you breach any of these Terms, your authorization to use our Services is terminated and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed materials.
Trademarks
All of our or our affiliates’ trademarks, service marks and trade names (“Trademarks”) are trademarks or registered trademarks that belong to us or our affiliates, unless stated otherwise. You may not use or display the Trademarks for any purpose, including but not limited to, in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of materials via our Services, without our prior written consent. Any other trademarks appearing on third party websites linked to by our Services are the property of the respective owners or operators of those third party websites.
User Conduct
By using the Services, including any content and services available through it, you agree that you shall not:
- (a) delete, modify, hack, or attempt to change or alter any of the Services;
- (b) attempt to access accounts, computer systems, or networks connected to any of our servers or to the Services, through hacking, password mining, or any other means, or obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally or readily made available through the Services;
- (c) use any device, software, or routine intended to damage or otherwise interfere with the proper functioning of the Services or servers or networks connected to the Services, or take any other action that interferes with administration, security, and/or operation of the Services or other parties’ use of the Services;
- (d) use any robot, spider, or other automatic or manual device or process for the purpose of harvesting or compiling information on the Services for purposes other than for a generally available search engine;
- (e) use any of our names, service marks, logos, or trademarks without prior written consent, including without limitation as metatags, search engine keywords, or hidden text;
- (f) use any material or information, including images or photographs, which are made available through the Services in any manner that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary right of any party;
- (g) transmit or upload files that contain viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another’s computer or property of another;
- (h) create a false identity for the purpose of misleading others, breach any contractual or confidentiality obligations, or violate the privacy rights of others;
- (i) defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten, or otherwise violate the legal rights of any third party; or
- (j) provide false information, impersonate another person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any entity.
You are prohibited from using our Services to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, illegal, or any material that could constitute or encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, violate the rights of any party or which may otherwise give rise to civil liability or violate any law. You are also prohibited from using our Services to advertise or perform any commercial solicitation. We will have no obligations with respect to such communications. We reserve the right to remove any and all user submissions it deems in violation of these Terms.
Links to Other Websites
Links to third party websites by our Services may be provided solely as a convenience to you. If you use these third party links, you will leave our Services. We are not responsible for such third party websites, nor do we control such websites. We also do not claim to have reviewed these third party websites or any associated content. As such, we are not responsible for any of these websites or their content. We are not responsible for any charges or fees associated with financial transactions that may occur on or through a third party website. Moreover, we do not endorse or make any representations about any of the websites for which links are provided, or any information, software or other products or materials made available by such third party websites, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party websites linked to by our Services, you do so entirely at your own risk. We reserve the right to terminate such links at any time. The mention of specific products, processes, or services within our Services does not constitute or imply a recommendation or endorsement under any circumstances.
The storage or reproduction of our Services (or any part of our Services) in any external internet site or the creation of links, hypertext, or deeplinks between our Services and any other internet website, is prohibited.
Text Message Terms
By providing your telephone number to us or your physician and/or agreeing to participate in a text or communication program (collectively, the “Program”), you consent to receive text messages and/or push notifications from or on behalf of us and/or our partners and suppliers, including messages using automated dialing technology. Such messages may be service-related or contain information regarding products or services that may be of interest to you, service announcements, or programs or other topics of interest and may include confirmation or reminders for billing purposes, medical appointments at our facilities, etc. You do not need to provide this consent in order to purchase any products or services. However, you acknowledge that opting out of receiving text (SMS) messages may impact your experience with the service(s) that rely on communications via text (SMS) messaging.
- Unsecure
- Messages are unencrypted. You understand that text messages have inherent privacy risks, including that unencrypted text messages are not secure and could be accessed by an unauthorized party, intercepted, or altered without your knowledge or authorization.
- Opt Out
- To stop receiving text messages, if indicated reply STOP or contact us directly. You consent to receive one last message from us confirming your inactivation.
- Usage
- Frequency of text messages and notifications will vary depending upon the Services you receive or your transactions with us.
- You represent that you are the account holder for the mobile telephone number(s) that you provide to opt in to the Program. You are responsible for notifying us immediately if you change your mobile telephone number. You may notify us of a number change.
- As a user of this Program, you acknowledge that text messages are distributed via third-party mobile network providers, and therefore, we are unable to control all functions related to the delivery of text messages. You acknowledge that it may not be possible to transmit all text messages successfully. We will not be liable for any delays in the receipt of any SMS messages, nor will we be liable for any undelivered messages, as delivery is subject to effective transmission from your network operator.
- The Program may not be available on all U.S. mobile carriers. Note that your carrier is not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
- While we do not charge you for these services, message and data rates may apply to each text message sent or received in connection with the Program, as provided in your mobile telephone service rate plan (please contact your mobile telephone carrier for details about available plans). Applicable roaming charges may apply.
- Data obtained from you in connection with this Program may include your telephone number, your carrier’s name, and details of the message (date, time, and content). We may use this information to contact you in accordance with these Terms and to provide the services you request. For additional information on our data collection and use, please read our Privacy Policy.
- Indemnification
- You agree to indemnify us and any third parties texting on its behalf in full for all claims, expenses, and damages related to or caused, in whole or in part, by your failure to immediately notify us if you change your telephone number, including but not limited to all claims, expenses, and damages related to or arising under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
- Suspension; Termination
- We may immediately suspend or terminate your participation in the Program if it believes you are in breach of these Terms. Your participation in this Program is also subject to termination in the event that your mobile telephone service terminates or lapses. We reserve the right to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, all or any part of the Program, with or without notice to you.
- Modification
- We may revise, modify, or amend these Terms at any time. Any such revision, modification, or amendment shall take effect when it is posted to the Website. You agree to review these Terms periodically to ensure that you are aware of any changes. Your continued participation in this Program, including receipt of text messages and/or push notifications without opting out will indicate your acceptance of those changes.
Physicians
The physicians displayed on our Services are credentialed to treat patients at our facilities and, to the best of our knowledge, are in good standing. We may allow you to search physicians by alphabetical listing or other searches based on individual needs or preferences. Physicians employed by the parent company of the hospital may (but are not required to) appear before other physicians.
Disclaimer
YOU AGREE TO ASSUME THE RISK OF ACCESSING AND USING OUR SERVICES. OUR SERVICES, INCLUDING ALL CONTENT, ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”, WITH ALL FAULTS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, SECURITY, AND ACCURACY, AS WELL AS ALL WARRANTIES ARISING BY USAGE OF TRADE, COURSE OF DEALING, OR COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. THE INFORMATION VIA THE SERVICES IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE ADVICE.
WE MAKE NO WARRANTY, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY OBLIGATION, THAT: (A) THE SERVICES OR FEATURES AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR WILL BE AVAILABLE ON AN UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE BASIS; (B) THE CONTENT OR INFORMATION PROVIDED OR MADE AVAILABLE VIA OUR SERVICES IS ACCURATE, COMPLETE, COMPREHENSIVE OR CURRENT; (C) ANY PARTICULAR RESULTS MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICES; (D) THE QUALITY OF THE CONTENT, SERVICES, WEBSITE, OR OTHER MATERIALS OBTAINED THROUGH THE WEBSITE OR SERVICES WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS; OR (E) OR THAT ANY DEFECTS IN OUR SERVICES WILL BE CORRECTED OR THAT OUR SERVICES OR THE SERVER THAT MAKES OUR SERVICES AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR ANY OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. WE DO NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTEES OR REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OF THE MATERIALS IN OUR SERVICES IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, ADEQUACY, USEFULNESS, TIMELINESS, RELIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, IN EACH CASE TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. INFORMATION PUBLISHED OR MADE AVAILABLE VIA OUR SERVICES MAY REFER TO PRODUCTS, PROGRAMS OR SERVICES THAT ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR REGION.
YOU UNDERSTAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY WITH RESPECT TO ANY DEFECT IN OR DISSATISFACTION WITH OUR SERVICES IS TO CEASE USE OF OUR SERVICES.
WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR WITHDRAW THE WHOLE OR ANY PART OF OUR SERVICES AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE AND WITHOUT INCURRING ANY LIABILITY.
Limitation of Liability
IN NO EVENT WILL WE, OR OUR SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS, OR ANY PARTY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DELIVERING OUR SERVICES (OR ANY PART THEREOF), OR ANY OTHER THIRD PARTIES MENTIONED VIA OUR SERVICES (OR ANY PART THEREOF) BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THOSE RESULTING FROM LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING OUT OF THE USE, INABILITY TO USE, OR THE RESULTS OF USE OF OUR SERVICES (OR ANY PART THEREOF), ANY WEBSITES LINKED TO OUR SERVICES, OR THE MATERIALS OR INFORMATION CONTAINED AT ANY OR ALL SUCH WEBSITES, INCLUDING DAMAGES CAUSED BY VIRUSES OR ANY INCORRECTNESS OR INCOMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED OR MADE AVAILABLE VIA OUR SERVICES (OR ANY PART THEREOF), OR THE PERFORMANCE OF THE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY AND WHETHER OR NOT ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. NOTWITHSTANDING THE FOREGOING, IN NO EVENT SHALL OUR LIABILITY TO YOU RELATING TO OUR SERVICES (OR ANY PART THEREOF) EXCEED ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100).
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS OF LIABILITY IN SOME CIRCUMSTANCES. CONSEQUENTLY, SOME OF THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. FOR EXAMPLE, CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS MUST, AS A CONDITION OF THESE TERMS, WAIVE THE APPLICABILITY OF CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE SECTION 1542, WHICH STATES, “A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS OR HER FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM OR HER MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS OR HER SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR.” YOU HEREBY WAIVE THIS SECTION OF THE CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE. YOU HEREBY WAIVE ANY SIMILAR PROVISION IN LAW, REGULATION, OR CODE THAT HAS THE SAME INTENT OR EFFECT AS THE AFOREMENTIONED RELEASE. IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT OF NEW JERSEY, TO THE EXTENT NEW JERSEY LAW PROHIBITS THE LIMITATIONS AND/OR EXCLUSIONS OF LIABILITY SET FORTH IN THESE TERMS, SUCH LIMITATIONS AND/OR EXCLUSIONS SHALL NOT APPLY TO YOU.
Feedback
Any information, including but not limited to remarks, suggestions, ideas, graphics, or other submissions (collectively, “Feedback”), communicated to us through our Services is the exclusive property of us and/or our affiliates. You agree that we may, in our sole discretion, use the Feedback submitted for any purpose, without restriction (except as stated in our Privacy Policy), including in future modifications of the Website or in other Services, or compensation to the person sending the Feedback. You hereby grant us a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, fully-paid, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable license to use, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, display, and otherwise exploit the Feedback for any purpose.You acknowledge the originality of any Feedback and accept responsibility for its accuracy, appropriateness, and legality.
Indemnity
You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us, our affiliates, and our respective officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, and affiliates harmless from and against any and all claims, losses, liability, costs, and expenses (including attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation) arising out of or in any way related to your use of our Services, violation of these Terms, or violation of any third party rights.
Copyright Violations
If you believe that your copyrighted work has been copied and is accessible through our Services in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please notify our designated copyright agent. The notice must include all of the information required by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512 (“Copyright Act”). As of the date of the posting of this Agreement, the information that you must provide includes: identification of the copyrighted work that allegedly has been infringed; identification of the material on our Services that you believe infringes the copyright (with sufficient specificity to allow us to locate it); a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; a statement that the information you have provided is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner of the copyright involved or are otherwise authorized to act for the owner; your physical or electronic signature or the signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the allegedly infringed right; and your contact information. Please keep in mind that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be subject to liability. Email us to report any claims of copyright infringement concerning our Services. We will respond to each complaint quickly and diligently. Only copyright complaints should be sent to the above agent. No other communications will be accepted.
Forward-Looking Statements
Some statements made available by our Services are not historical facts and therefore are considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. These forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties as which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the content of our Services. Forward-looking statements made available by our Services are made as of the date of the initial publication and we undertake no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements as actual events unfold.
Third Party Payments
We are not responsible for any charges or fees associated with financial transactions that occur on or through third party websites. Any payments you may make for services you have found through use of our Services (such as enrolling in a class) are made exclusively through an affiliated third party website the separate privacy policy of which applies, and not through our Services. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information.
Termination/Modifications of Services
We reserve the right to modify or terminate your access to the Services or portions of the Services, at any time, temporarily or permanently, with or without notice to you, for any reason, and are not obligated to support or update the Services. The following Sections: Ownership of Services, Trademarks, Disclaimer, Limitation of Liability, Indemnity, Privacy, Limitation on Actions, Dispute Resolution, General, Entire Agreement, Contact Information, and Indemnity (Text Message Terms) of these Terms shall survive any termination. We also may impose limits on certain features and services, restrict your access to parts or the Services, or charge fees for access to portions of the Services without notice or liability. You acknowledge and agree that we will not be liable to you or any third party in the event that we exercise our right to modify or terminate access to the Services or portions of the Services.
Privacy
We will treat any information it collects or receives from you through the Website or our Services in accordance with its online Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. Please review the Privacy Policy before you use the Website or our Services. If you are unwilling to accept the terms and conditions of the Privacy Policy, please do not use the Website or our Services.
Limitation on Actions
You agree that any claim, dispute, or cause of action arising out of these Terms or your use of the Services must be filed within one (1) year after the claim or cause of action arose or it shall forever be barred, notwithstanding any statute of limitations or other law to the contrary. Within this period, any failure by us to enforce or exercise any provision of these Terms or related right shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.
Dispute Resolution
You agree that any dispute arising out of or relating in any way to your use of the Services requires that the claim be resolved exclusively by confidential binding arbitration except that, to the extent you have in any manner violated or threatened to violate Intellectual Property Rights, we may seek injunctive or other appropriate relief. The arbitration shall be conducted before three neutral arbitrators in Davidson County, Tennessee, U.S.A., in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), as then in effect. No claims of any other parties may be joined or otherwise combined in the arbitration proceeding. Unless otherwise expressly required by applicable law, each party shall bear its own attorneys’ fees without regard to which party is deemed the prevailing party in the arbitration proceeding. Except for punitive and consequential damages (which may not be awarded), and subject to these Terms, the arbitrators shall be authorized to award either party any provisional or equitable remedy permitted by applicable law. The parties shall equally share all AAA charges and fees associated with the arbitration.
BECAUSE THE USE OF THE SITE REQUIRES THE ARBITRATION OF ANY CLAIMS OR DISPUTES EXISTING BETWEEN THE PARTIES, NEITHER PARTY WILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO PURSUE THAT CLAIM IN COURT OR BEFORE A JUDGE OR JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION OR ANY OTHER COLLECTIVE OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. THE ARBITRATORS’ DECISION WILL BE FINAL AND BINDING. OTHER RIGHTS THAT EITHER PARTY WOULD HAVE IF SUCH PARTY WENT TO COURT, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE RIGHT TO CONDUCT DISCOVERY OR TO APPEAL, MAY BE LIMITED OR UNAVAILABLE IN ARBITRATION.
The award of the arbitrators may be enforced in any court having jurisdiction thereof. Each party consents (a) to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the State of Tennessee, or to any federal court located within the State of Tennessee for any action (i) to compel arbitration, (ii) to enforce any award of the arbitrators, or (iii) at any time prior to the qualification and appointment of the arbitrators, for temporary, interim, or provisional equitable remedies, and (b) to service of process in any action by registered mail or any other means provided by law. Should this Section be deemed invalid or otherwise unenforceable for any reason, it shall be severed and the parties agree that exclusive jurisdiction and venue for any claims will be in the state or federal courts located in Davidson County, Tennessee, U.S.A.
General
If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid by any court having competent jurisdiction, the invalidity of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions of these Terms, which shall remain in full force and effect. No waiver of any of these Terms will be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or condition or any other term or condition. These Terms will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Tennessee without regard to its choice-of-law provisions. In the event of any conflict between foreign laws, rules, and regulations and those of the United States, the laws, rules and regulations of the United States will govern. We may assign its rights and duties under these Terms without notice to you. You may not assign these Terms, in whole or in part, without our prior written consent, and any assignment in contravention of the foregoing shall be null and void.
Section Titles
The section titles of the Terms are merely for convenience and will not have any effect on the substantive meaning of these Terms.
Entire Agreement
Except as expressly provided in a particular “legal notice” on our Services, these Terms constitute the entire agreement between us and you, respectively, with respect to the use of our Services and content contained therein.
Contact Information
If you have any questions about these Terms, our practices or Services, or your use of the Website, please contact us through our website or call (615) 344-9551. You also may contact us at the address below:
HCA Healthcare
Attention: Terms of Use
One Park Plaza
Nashville, TN 37203
Privacy Policy
Updated as of April 3, 2024
We are committed to the care and improvement of human life. Part of that commitment includes protecting your Personal Information (defined below). We maintain information confidentiality and comply with applicable regulatory requirements.
This privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") covers our online privacy practices with respect to use and/or disclosure of information we may collect from you when you access or use our website ("Website"), Portals (as defined below), and any other websites or applications we may provide that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, our "Services").
Information not covered by this Privacy Policy
The Services are provided by the Website owner identified on the Website homepage ("we," "us," or "our"). This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected through other means, such as by telephone or in person or by other third parties that are not part of our Services. Please review our privacy practices, email our privacy team or write to us at the address below if you have any questions.
HCA Healthcare
Attention: Privacy Requests
One Park Plaza
Nashville, TN 37203
This Privacy Policy does not apply to information that would be considered “Protected Health Information” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). HCA HealthCare’s’ use and disclosure of Protected Health Information is set forth in the HCA Healthcare Notice of Privacy Practices, which can be accessed at the bottom of the facility website.
Information collected through the Website
Our Website may include pages that permit you the opportunity to provide us with Personal Information about yourself. As used in this Privacy Policy, "Personal Information" means any information that may be used, either alone or in combination with other information, to personally identify an individual as defined by applicable state laws as noted below. We collect certain information, including Personal Information, from and about our Website users in three ways:
- Directly from you;
- Directly from our web server logs; or
- Cookies and web beacons.
Information provided by you
We and our service providers collect Personal Information through online forms to provide certain features of the Services to you. For example, if applying for a job through the Website, we may request you to fill out a form with information such as your name, e-mail address, phone number, and work experience. If you do not provide the information required to submit the forms, we may not be able to provide you with related features and services. In some cases, you may have the opportunity to enter into our secure forms any content that you choose. You are responsible for such content and we reserve the right to use such content as part of our Services.
Web server logs
When you access or use our Services, we may track information to administer our Services and analyze its usage. Examples of information we may track include, without limitation:
- Your Internet protocol address;
- The kind of browser or computer you use;
- Number of links you click within our Services;
- State or country from which you accessed our Services;
- Date and time of your visit;
- Name of your Internet service provider;
- Third party websites you linked to from our Services; and
- Pages or information you viewed on our Services.
We use this information to analyze and improve our Services, monitor traffic and usage patterns for information security purposes, and to help make our Services more useful.
Cookies and web beacons
A "cookie" is a small text file that may be transferred to your computer's hard drive to personalize our services for you and collect information regarding usage of our Services. Each computer is assigned a different cookie that contains a random, unique identifier. Our Services may use two different types of cookies: a "session" cookie, which is required to track a user session, for example, and which expires shortly after the session ends, and a "persistent" cookie, used to track unique visits to the Portal (defined below), as well as how the user arrived at the Portal (for example, through an email link or from a referral link), and the type of user (patient, provider, consumer, etc.). So that users are not counted twice, this cookie can "persist" anywhere from six months to two years.
Your browser software can be set to warn you of cookies or reject all cookies. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the "Help" section of the toolbar. If you reject our cookies, this may disable some of the functionality of our Services and you may not be able to use certain services.
Cookies, to the best of our knowledge, cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. For example, if you personalize a web page, or navigate within a website, a cookie helps the website to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of delivering relevant content and eases website navigation by providing and saving your preferences and login information as well as providing personalized functionality.
We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, on some of our Sites to help us analyze the traffic and user activity on our Site. Please see Google's Privacy and Terms for more information on how Google Analytics processes Personal Information. By using a browser plugin provided by Google, you can opt out of Google Analytics for the web. You can opt out of Google Analytics through the Cookie Preferences link found in the footer of our websites.
We may display content from third-party platforms or services that allow you to view their hosted content directly from the pages of our Site and interact with them. For example, we use YouTube, a video sharing and social media platform provided by Google LLC, to embed video content on our Site. Google's Privacy Policy explains how YouTube/Google treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you provide your personal data in connection with your access and use of their services.
Some of features of our Services (such as social media widgets that allow you to share content) may use cookies or other methods to gather information regarding your use of the Services and may combine the information in these cookies with any of Personal Information about you that they may have. The use of such information by a third-party depends on the privacy policy of that third-party.
A "web beacon," "clear GIF," "web bug," or "pixel tag" is a tiny graphic file with a unique identifier that is similar in function to a cookie, but would allow us to count the number of users that have visited certain pages or screens of our websites, and to help determine the effectiveness of promotional or advertising campaigns. When used in HTML-formatted email messages, web beacons can tell the sender whether and when the email has been opened. In contrast to cookies, which may be stored on your computer's hard drive, web beacons are typically embedded invisibly on pages or screens. We may use web beacons in providing the Services.
We reserve the right to share aggregated site statistics monitored by cookies and web beacons with our affiliates and partner companies. We treat the information of everyone who comes to our Services in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We do not honor Do Not Track (DNT) requests.
To determine whether any of our third-party service providers honor DNT requests, please read their respective privacy policies.
Control of Cookies
You can manage your cookie preferences with us by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on our Site and customizing your cookie choices where applicable. The Cookie Preferences tool will record when you have consented to cookies and will ask for consent periodically to ensure users stay up to date with changes to our cookie and privacy practices. The Cookie Preferences tool controls the advertising, analytics, and performance cookies set by using the Site. Essential cookies cannot be disabled.
Most browsers are set to accept cookies by default. However, you can remove or reject cookies in your browser's settings. Please be aware that such action could affect the availability and functionality of the Site. For more information on how to control cookies, check your browser or device's settings for how you can control or reject cookies, or visit the following links:
- Apple Safari
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Edge
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Mozilla Firefox
- Android (Chrome)
- iPhone or iPad (Chrome)
- iPhone or iPad (Safari)
Geolocation data
We do not collect precise information (e.g., GPS data; latitude and longitude) concerning the location from which you access our Services, but we collect information on your region or postal code to help us gather information useful for improving the relevance of our content and securing our Services.
Third party advertising
We may allow third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you access or use our Services. These companies use non-personally identifiable information regarding your access and use of our Services and other websites, such as pages viewed, date and time of your visit, and number of times you have viewed an ad (but not your name, address, or other personal information), to serve ads to you on our Services and other websites that may be of interest to you. In the course of serving advertisements to our Services, our third-party advertiser may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. In addition, we or other third-party advertiser, may use web beacons to help manage our online advertising. This allows us or a third-party advertiser to learn which banner ads bring users to our Services.
We use Google Ads, the Google Marketing Platform and related marketing and advertising services provided by Google, LLC in connection with our Site and general corporate advertising and marketing operations for purposes of, among other things, online advertising, which includes remarketing, re-engagement, or similar audience and advertising and marketing features. You can control the information Google uses to show you ads by changing your Google Ad Personalization Settings. Additionally, you can learn more about Google ad personalization and additional controls available to you by visiting Google Ad Help.
We use X Ads, an advertising and analytics service provided by X Corp., in connection with our Site to run advertising and marketing campaigns on X (formerly known as Twitter). You can opt out of X's interest-based advertising through an applicable opt-out mechanism specified by X.
We use Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads and related services provided by Meta Platforms, Inc. ("Meta") in connection with our Site to run advertising and marketing campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, and related services provided by Meta. Meta's Cookie Policy explains how Meta uses data to show you ads and how you can control usage.
We use LinkedIn Ads and related services provided by LinkedIn Corporation to run advertising and marketing campaigns on LinkedIn. LinkedIn's Cookie Policy explains how LinkedIn uses LinkedIn Members data to show you ads and how you can control usage.
You can learn about additional steps that you may take to opt out of interest-based advertising when browsing the web by visiting National Advertising Initiative (NAI) Consumer Opt Out.
Information collected through the portal
As a Service to its customers, we may also provide Portals to offer some customers secure, private access to their own records at our facilities, as well as certain internet-based services which may include, among other things, assistance in finding a doctor, assistance in scheduling appointments, the ability to register for classes and pre-register for procedures, the ability to make payment for medical services rendered, and access to health and patient education materials and secure messaging ("Portal").
The Portal can provide you with access to some of your medical records. When you seek access to those records on the Portal, we need to confirm your identity, so we ask you for information such as your name and email or physical address and other information such as your date of birth (which we may also use to make sure you are eligible to use the Portal in accordance with the Terms) and the answers to "secret questions" to which only you know the answers. This information may be used to help administer your user account and in managing your account. We may need to ask you for the information again when you sign in from a new device.
We may ask for information about your location and medical needs to assist with finding a physician and may collect and pass on information (which may include, where relevant, health information such as your patient history) to assist you in scheduling appointments, pre-registering for procedures, and registering for classes.
The purposes for which we use personal information
If you submit or we collect Personal Information through our Services, then such Personal Information may be used in the following ways: (i) to provide, analyze, administer, and improve our Services; (ii) to contact you in connection with our Services and appointments, events or offerings that you may have registered for; (iii) to identify and authenticate your access to the parts of our Portal or other password-protected Services that you are authorized to access; (iv) to send you surveys; (v) for recruiting and human resources administration purposes; (vi) to protect our rights or our property and to ensure the technical functionality and security of our Services; and (vii) as required to meet our legal and regulatory obligations.
Please contact our appointed EU representative, if you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your information. If you are a resident of the European Economic Area, our legal basis for collecting and using the information described in this Privacy Policy will depend on the information concerned and the context in which we collect it. We collect information from you:
- Where we need it to perform our contract with you (i.e., our Terms);
- Where the processing is in our legitimate interests such as securing and improving our Services, for example (provided that these aren't overridden by your interests or rights);
- Where the processing is for the provision of healthcare or the management of healthcare services (e.g., health information collected from you or made accessible to you through the Portal in accordance with legal requirements governing the confidentiality of such information); or
- If we otherwise have your consent.
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area and you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your information, please contact our appointed EU representative, at the DPO Centre.
How we disclose personal information
We do not sell, lease, rent or otherwise disclose the Personal Information collected from our Site to third parties unless otherwise stated below or with your consent.
- Our Third-Party Providers. We transfer Personal Information to third-party service providers to perform tasks on our behalf and to assist us in providing our Services. For example, we may use third party service providers for security, website analytics, and payment processing. We use commercially reasonable efforts to only engage or interact with third-party service providers and partners that post a privacy policy governing their processing of Personal Information and require our service providers to maintain confidentiality and comply with applicable laws in the processing of Personal Information. Review our list of our current third party service providers.
- In the Event of Merger, Sale, Divestitures or Change of Control. We may transfer or assign Personal Information to a third party entity that acquires or is merged with us as part of a merger, acquisition, sale, or other change of control.
- Other Disclosures. We may disclose Personal Information about you if we have a good faith belief that disclosure of such information is helpful or reasonably necessary to: (i) comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request; (ii) enforce our terms of use, including investigations of potential violations thereof; (iii) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud or security issues; or (iv) protect against harm to our or third parties' rights, property or safety.
In addition to the uses and disclosures of information outlined above, if you use the Portal, your information may also be used and disclosed as follows:
- Authorized Representatives. If another individual is managing your account on your behalf (for example, a mother managing the account of her son), as authorized by you or as a personal representative under applicable law, that person can view all Personal Information about you in the Portal.
- Healthcare Providers. Your healthcare providers may have access to Personal Information for administrative and healthcare services. We may also use Personal Information to respond to and fulfill your orders and requests.
- Partners. We may share Personal Information with marketing, treatment or health care operations support partners, who are also required to protect the confidentiality of your information, that will enable them to send you targeted messages or serve you targeted advertising, which will occur with your authorization or otherwise in compliance with HIPAA (defined above) and other applicable laws.
Information security
No website can guarantee security, but we maintain industry accepted physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect your personal information collected via our Services in compliance with applicable law. Please see the Terms of Use available via the Website homepage (“Terms”) for more specific information about information security and your responsibilities.
What can I do to protect my privacy?
Where you use a Portal or other Service that is secured with a username and password, you are also responsible for taking steps to protect the privacy of Personal Information about you. In order to protect your privacy, you should:
- Never share your username or password;
- Always sign out when you are finished using the Portal;
- Use only secure web browsers;
- Employ common anti-virus and anti-malware tools on your system to keep it safe;
- Use a strong password with a combination of letters and numbers; and
- Change your password often.
If you share your Portal username and password with another person, this will allow that person to see your confidential medical record information. We have no responsibility concerning any breach of your confidential medical record information due to your sharing or losing your user name or password.
Retention of information
We will retain Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it has been collected as described in this Privacy Policy unless a longer retention period is required by law, for security, fraud & abuse prevention, to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, to ensure continuity of services or financial record-keeping purposes. Where practical, we dispose of certain categories of information, including Personal Information, on a regular schedule. For example, we dispose of web server logs after 90 days, information submitted through secure forms after 6 months, and information collected for analytics purposes on our Websites after 5 years.
Third party websites and payments
If you use the Portal to link to another third-party website, you may decide to disclose Personal Information at that website. In contacting that third-party website, or in providing information on that website, that third-party may obtain Personal Information about you. This Privacy Policy does not apply when you leave the Portal and go to a third-party website from the Portal. We encourage you to be aware when you leave the Portal and to read the privacy statements of each third-party website that collects personally identifiable information.
Any payments you may make for services you have found on the Portal (such as enrolling in a class) are not made through the Portal, but are made exclusively through a third-party website, and the separate privacy policy of which applies. We are not responsible for any fees, charges, or actions provided by such a third-party website.
User communications
- Email communications that you send to us via the email links on our Services may be shared with a customer service representative, employee, medical expert or agent that is most able to address your inquiry. We make reasonable efforts to respond in a timely fashion once communications are received. Once we have responded to your communication, it is discarded or archived, depending on the nature of the inquiry and all applicable laws, rules and regulations.
- The email functionality on our Services does not provide a completely secure and confidential means of communication. It is possible that your email communication may be accessed or viewed by another Internet user while in transit to us. If you wish to keep your communication private, do not use our email.
Your Rights - Personal Information
If you are a Portal user, you may access and amend personal demographic information when logged into the Portal. If you would like to access, amend, erase, export, object to, restrict the processing, or other Personal Information collected via our Services or any other request as described below by state law, you may email our privacy team or write to us at:
HCA Healthcare
Attention: Privacy Requests
One Park Plaza
Nashville, TN 37203
We will promptly review all such requests in accordance with applicable laws. Depending on where you live, you may have a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority or other regulatory agency if you believe that we have violated any of the rights concerning Personal Information about you. We encourage you to first contact us, so we have an opportunity to address your concerns directly before you do so.
Communications Opt-Out
We may send certain messages, including electronic newsletters, notification of account statuses, and marketing communications on a periodic basis. If you wish to be removed from such messages, you may request to discontinue future ones. All such material will have information as to how to opt-out of receiving it, although certain messages (such as a secure message sent by a doctor or an account status update via the Portal), may be required by law and will not have opt-out capabilities.
California Direct Marketing Privacy Rights
Under California's "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83), California residents have the right to request in writing from businesses with whom they have an established business relationship, (a) a list of the categories of personal information, such as name, e-mail and mailing address and the type of services provided to the customer, that a business has disclosed to third parties (including affiliates that are separate legal entities) during the immediately preceding calendar year for the third parties' direct marketing purposes; and (b) the names and addresses of all such third parties. To request the above information, please email our privacy team with a reference to California Disclosure Information.
We will endeavor to respond to such requests to information access within 30 days following receipt at the e-mail address stated above. If we receive your request at a different e-mail address, we will respond within a reasonable period of time, but not to exceed 150 days from the date received. Please note that we are only required to respond to each customer once per calendar year.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) of 2018 as Amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CPRA")
This section only applies to California residents ("Consumers") whose Personal Information is covered by the CCPA/CPRA. For the purposes of this section only, "Personal Information" means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular Consumer or household.
Under the CCPA/CPRA and subject to certain exceptions, California residents may have the following rights with respect to our processing of their Personal Information:
- Right to Know What Personal Information is Being Collected. Right to Access Personal Information. You may have the right to request that we disclose the following information to you:
- The categories of Personal Information that we collected about you;
- The categories of sources from which the Personal Information is collected;
- The business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling or sharing Personal Information;
- The categories of third parties to whom we disclosed Personal Information;
- The specific pieces of Personal Information that we have collected about you;
- The categories of Personal Information that we disclosed about you for a business purpose;
- The categories of Personal Information that we sold or shared about you; and
- For each category of Personal Information identified, the categories of third parties to whom the information was disclosed or sold.
- Right of Deletion. You may have the right to delete any Personal Information about you which we have collected from you.
- Right to Correct Inaccurate Personal Information. You may have the right to correct inaccurate Personal Information maintained by us.
- Right to Limit Use or Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information. You may have the right to limit the use and disclosure of your Sensitive Personal Information.
- Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing. You may have the right to opt-out of the sale of Personal Information or the sharing of Personal Information. You can exercise your opt-out rights by completing the Consumer Request Form, emailing us at Personal Information Request or by calling us at 844-422-3282.
- Right of No Retaliation Following Opt-Out or Exercise of Other Rights. We may not discriminate against you because you exercise any of your rights under the CPRA, including, but not limited to:
- Denying goods or services to you;
- Charging different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties;
- Providing a different level or quality of goods or services to you;
- Suggesting that you will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services; or
- Retaliating against an employee, applicant for employment, or independent contractor.
You may submit requests for information by completing the Consumer Request Form, emailing us at Personal Information Request or by calling us at (844) 422-3282. Please note, under California Law, that we are only required to respond to such requests from you twice in a twelve-month period.
Opt-Out Preference Signals
We do honor opt-out preference signals as a valid consumer request to opt-out of the sale or sharing of Personal Information and to limit the use of Sensitive Personal Information. This is based on your device and browser’s settings. One example of an opt-out preference signal is the use of a Global Privacy Control (GPC). GPC is a browser extension that makes it easy for consumers to set privacy preferences for their Personal Information as they browse the web. For more information on managing your privacy controls see the Cookies and Web Beacons section above.
Offline Collection of Personal Information
When we collect your Personal Information offline, for example at an onsite event, a Notice at Collection may be printed on a sign-in sheet, a paper version of the Notice could be available at the entrance of the event or prominent signage will be displayed directing you to where the Notice can be found online. All options will provide information to you so that you can exercise your privacy rights listed above.
Minors
We do not have actual knowledge that we sell or share the Personal Information of Consumers who are less than 16 years of age. However, if we have actual knowledge that the Consumer is less than 16 years of age, we will not sell or share the Consumer's Personal Information unless the Consumer in the case of Consumers who are at least 13 years of age and less than 16 years of age, or the Consumer's parent or guardian, in the case of Consumers who are less than 13 years of age, has affirmatively authorized the disclosure of the Consumer's Personal Information.
The categories of sources from which we collect Personal Information are:
- Directly from you;
- Directly from our web server logs; and
- With cookies and web beacons;
The categories of third parties with whom we share Personal Information are described in detail in the How We Disclose Personal Information section of this Privacy Policy.
The chart below describes:
- The categories of Personal Information that we may have collected about Consumers through our Website, Portal, Services and Offline beginning January 1, 2022.
- The categories of Personal Information that we have disclosed about Consumers for a business purpose beginning January 1, 2022.
- The categories of Personal Information that we have collected, sold or shared about Consumers beginning January 1, 2022.
Category | Examples | Disclosed for a Business Purpose | Sold or Shared |
---|---|---|---|
Identifiers | Real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, social security number, driver's license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers. | Yes | No |
Personal Information categories described in Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e) | Name, address, telephone number, insurance policy number, employment history, medical information, health insurance information. | Yes | No |
Characteristics of protected classifications under California or federal law | Age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, religion or creed, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, sex (including gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy or childbirth and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, veteran or military status, genetic information (including familial genetic information). | Yes | No |
Commercial information | Records of personal property, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies. | Yes | No |
Biometric information | Voice Recognition, Fingerprint and Palm Print Scanning, Facial Recognition, Iris Recognition, Keystroke, Gait, or other physical patterns, and Sleep, Health, or Exercise Data. | No | No |
Internet or Electronic Network Activity Information | Browsing history, search history, Internet protocol address, type of browser, number of links clicked within our Services, state or country from which you accessed our Services, date and time of visit, name of Internet service provider, third party websites you linked to from our Services, pages or information you viewed on our Services, number of times you have viewed an ad. | Yes | Yes |
Geolocation data | Region or postal code. | Yes | Yes |
Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information | Photographs, video recordings and voice/call recordings. | Yes | No |
Professional or employment-related information | Work experience, name, phone number, email address, performance evaluations. | Yes | Yes |
Education information, defined as information that is not publicly available personally identifiable information as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g; 34 C.F.R. Part 99) | Educational records such as transcripts, class lists, student course schedules, health records, student financial information, and student disciplinary records. | Yes | No |
Inferences drawn from any Personal Information identified to create a profile about a consumer | A profile created about a consumer reflecting the consumer’s preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes. | No | Yes |
Sensitive Personal Information | Examples | Disclosed for a Business Purpose | Sold or Shared |
---|---|---|---|
Personal information that reveals: | Social security, driver's license, state identification card, or passport number. | No | No |
Account log-in, financial account, debit card, or credit card number in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to an account. | No | No | |
A consumer's precise geolocation | No | No | |
A consumer's racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union membership. | No | No | |
The contents of a consumer's mail, email, and text messages unless the business is the intended recipient of the communication. | No | No | |
A consumer's Genetic Data. | No | No | |
The processing of biometric information for the purpose of uniquely identifying a consumer. | No | No | |
Personal information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer's health. | Yes | No | |
Personal information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer's sex life or sexual orientation. | No | No |
The purposes for which the categories of Personal Information shall be used, and the business or commercial purposes for collecting or disclosing Personal Information, are described in detail in the following sections of this Privacy Policy:
- (i) Web Server Logs
- (ii) Cookies and Web Beacons
- (iii) Geolocation Data
- (iv) Third Party Advertising
- (v) Information Collected through the Portal
- (vi) The Purposes for Which We Use Personal Information
- (vii) How We Disclose Personal Information
- (viii) User Communications
Retention of Categories of Personal Information
We will retain Personal Information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it has been collected. In accordance with internal record retention policies, we dispose of all categories of Personal Information no later than 5 years from the date of collection unless a longer retention period is required by law, for security, fraud & abuse prevention, to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, to ensure continuity of services or financial record-keeping purposes. Consumer accounts in MyHealthOne are only deleted at the request of the Consumer and may exceed the five-year retention period. Information collected from a “Contact Us” webform may exceed the five-year retention period as it is a general communication form that sits on most websites to give website visitors the opportunity to ask general questions about the facility, its services or to leave comments. Employees can find the relevant record series codes in the Retention Schedules under Human Resources (HUM), which can be found in the applicable Workforce Notices posted internally, or by making a privacy rights request by following the instructions in this Privacy Policy.
Colorado Privacy Act (CPA)
This section only applies to Colorado residents ("Consumers") whose Personal Data is covered by the CPA. For the purposes of this section only, "Personal Data" means information that is linked or reasonably linkable to an identified or identifiable individual and does not include de-identified data or publicly available information.
Under the CPA and subject to certain exceptions, Colorado residents may have the following rights with respect to our processing of their Personal Data:
- Right to Access: You may have the right to know and confirm whether or not we are processing your Personal Data and the right to access such Personal Data.
- Right to Correction: You may have the right to correct inaccuracies in your Personal Data, taking into account the nature of the Personal Data and the purposes of the processing of your Personal Data.
- Right to Deletion: You may have the right to delete the Personal Data provided to us by you.
- Right to Data Portability: You may have the right to obtain a copy of the Personal Data that you previously provided to us in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit your Personal Data to another controller without hindrance, where the processing is carried out by automated means.
- Right to Opt-Out of Sale, Targeted Advertising, and Profiling: You may have the right to opt out of (a) the sale of your Personal Data, (b) or our processing of it for purposes of targeted advertising, or (c) our use of it for profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effect concerning you. To exercise your opt out rights, complete the Consumer Request Form, email us at Personal Information Request or call us at (844) 422-3282. We do not use Personal Data for profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effect concerning you.
- Right to Appeal: If we decline to take action regarding your request, you may have the right to appeal. We will notify you providing our reasons and instructions for how you can appeal the decision. You have the right to contact the Colorado Attorney General if you have concerns about the result of the appeal.
You may exercise your rights listed above by completing the Consumer Request Form, emailing us at Personal Information Request or by calling us at (844) 422-3282.
Authorized Agent
An Authorized Agent may exercise a Consumer’s opt-out right on behalf of the Consumer, so long as we are able to, with commercially reasonable effort, authenticate the identity of the Consumer and the Authorized Agent’s authority to act on the Consumer’s behalf. In addition to the opt-out link above, an Authorized Agent may exercise a Consumer’s opt-out right through a technology indicating the Consumer's intent to opt out such as a web link indicating a preference or browser setting, browser extension, or global device setting.
Verification Process
This is a process to determine that the Consumer making the request is the Consumer about whom we have collected the Personal Data. In order to verify your identity we will, whenever feasible, match the identifying information you provide to the Personal Data we already maintain and/or use a third-party identity verification service.
Consent for Children
We do not have actual knowledge that we are collecting or maintaining the Personal Data of Consumers under 13 years of age. However, if we have actual knowledge that the Consumer is under 13 years of age, we will obtain Consent from the parent or lawful guardian of that Consumer before collecting or processing the Consumer’s Personal Data.
Categories of Personal Data
The following describes the categories of Personal Data collected or processed by us:
- Identifiers such as name, date of birth, address, email address or phone number;
- Internet or electronic network activity information such as browsing history, Internet protocol address, type of browser, number of links clicked within our Services, state or country from which you accessed our Services, date and time of visit, name of Internet service provider, third party websites you linked to from our Services, pages or information you viewed on our Services or number of times you have viewed an ad.
- We collect information on your region or postal code to help us gather information useful for improving the relevance of our content; and
- Securing our Services.
The purposes for which the categories of Personal Data shall be used, the business or commercial purposes for collecting or disclosing Personal Data and the categories of third parties with whom we share Personal Data are described in detail in the following sections of this Privacy Policy:
- (i) Web Server Logs
- (ii) Cookies and Web Beacons
- (iii) Geolocation Data
- (iv) Third Party Advertising
- (v) Information Collected through the Portal
- (vi) The Purposes for Which We Use Personal Information
- (vii) How We Disclose Personal Information
- (viii) User Communications
The following describes the Personal Data that we share with third parties:
- Internet or electronic network activity information such as browsing history, Internet protocol address, type of browser, number of links clicked within our Services, state or country from which you accessed our Services, date and time of visit, name of Internet service provider, third party websites you linked to from our Services, pages or information you viewed on our Services or number of times you have viewed an ad.
Offline Collection of Personal Data
When we collect your Personal Data offline, for example at an onsite event, a hard copy of our Privacy Policy will be provided.
Retention of Categories of Personal Data
We will retain Personal Data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it has been collected. In accordance with internal record retention policies, we dispose of all categories of Personal Data no later than 5 years from the date of collection unless a longer retention period is required by law, for security, fraud & abuse prevention, to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, to ensure continuity of services or financial record-keeping purposes. Consumer accounts in the MyHealthOne Portal are only deleted at the request of the Consumer and may exceed the five-year retention period.
Your Nevada Privacy Rights
We may collect the following categories of covered information about you through our Website, Portals, and Services when you visit the Website and Portals or use the Services such as:
- First and Last Name;
- Physical Address;
- Email Address;
- Telephone Number; and
- User Name.
We may share such covered information with categories of third parties such as marketing. Third parties may collect covered information about your online activities over time and across different Internet websites or online services when you use the Website, Portals, or Services. If you use or visit the Website and Portals or use the Services you may review and request changes to any of your covered information that is collected through the Website, Portals, or Services by calling (844) 422-3282. You may submit a verified request that we not sell any covered information that we have collected or will collect about you by calling (844) 422-3282. After we receive your request and determine that it is a verified request, we will not sell any covered information that we have collected or will collect about you.
What if I am accessing this portal from outside of the United States?
If you are visiting our Portal from outside the United States, your information may be transferred to, stored or processed in the United States, where our servers are located and our central database is operated. Although the data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country, we take steps to protect your privacy, including, for transfers of Personal Information from the European Economic Area, the use of contractual clauses (known as "Model Clauses" or "Standard Contractual Clauses") that have been approved by the European Commission. By using our Portal, you understand and agree that your information may be transferred to our facilities and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Policy.
Connecticut privacy policy notice
If collected, we will take reasonable measures to protect the confidentiality of Social Security numbers and limit access to those with a need for such information. We prohibit the unlawful disclosure of Social Security numbers.
Children's privacy
We will never ask for or knowingly collect Personal Information from children through the Services or Portal. If you are a child, you are not permitted to use the Portal and should immediately exit our Portal. Parents of un-emancipated minors may set up accounts for themselves to access their children's medical records only as permitted pursuant to the Terms governing the Portal. If you think that we have collected personal information from a child through this Portal, please contact us and we will dispose of the information as required by applicable law.
Policy changes
We reserve the right to change the terms of this Privacy Policy at any time by posting those changes in revisions to this Privacy Policy, so that you are always aware of our processes related to collection, use and disclosure of information. We urge you to check here for any updates to this Privacy Policy from time to time. Unless otherwise indicated, any changes to this Privacy Policy will apply immediately upon posting to the Website.
What if I have questions or concerns regarding this privacy policy?
Email our privacy team if you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or the information practices of our Services.
If you are a resident of the European Economic Area and have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or the information practices of our Services, please contact our appointed EU representative, at the DPO Centre.
You may also write to us at:
HCA Healthcare
Attention: Privacy Requests
One Park Plaza
Nashville, TN 37203
Updated November 1, 2024
Appendix to HCA Privacy Policy List of Service Providers
We engage service providers to perform tasks on our behalf and to assist us in providing the Website, Portal, and Services. For more information, please email us.
This Appendix to the Privacy Policy provides a list of our service providers and the purposes for which we engage them:
- AddToAny. We use AddToAny on some pages of our Website to provide you with the ability to share content with others. For information on AddToAny's privacy practices, see the AddToAny Privacy Policy.
- BizTalk. We use BizTalk as an integration to handle our secure forms. For information on BizTalk's privacy practices, please see the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
- Clearstep Symptom Checker. We use our Symptom Checker Chatbot to collect data from a de-identified user such as their symptoms, gender, age, and to provide answers to follow up questions regarding their symptoms. For information on Clearstep's privacy practices, please see the Clearstep Privacy Policy.
- COVID-19 Chatbot. We use our COVID-19 Chatbot to help users check their COVID-19 symptoms. Information on user interaction with bot is stored in Google Analytics as de-identified data. Please see Google's Privacy and Terms for more information on how Google Analytics processes Personal Information.
- dotCMS. We use dotCMS to build and display HCA Healthcare websites. For information on dotCMS' privacy practices, see the dotCMS Privacy Policy.
- Elsevier. We use services from Elsevier to provide interactive patient education features through our Portal. For information on Elsevier's privacy practices, see the Elsevier Privacy Policy.
- Experian Health. We use Experian Health (formerly MyHealthDirect) for online appointment scheduling. For information on Experian's privacy practices, see the Experian Privacy Policy.
- Formstack. We use Formstack to build web forms and to collect information. For information on Formstack's privacy practices, see the Formstack Privacy Policy.
- Google Analytics. We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, on our Site to help us analyze the traffic and user activity on our Site. Please see Google's Privacy and Terms for more information on how Google Analytics processes Personal Information.
- Google Maps API. We use Google Maps API to provide information on locations and directions to HCA Healthcare facilities. For information on Google Map's privacy practices, see the Google Maps APIs Terms of Service.
- Google Optimize. We use Google Optimize to test variants of web pages and see how they perform against a specified objective. For information on Google's privacy practices, see the Google Privacy and Terms of Service.
- Google Search Console. We use Google Search Console for SEO site health analysis and Google crawl simulation and testing. For information on Google's privacy practices, see the Google Privacy and Terms of Service.
- Jobvite. We use Talemetry, a service provided by Jobvite, to allow you to apply for HCA Healthcare job openings online. For information on Jobvite's privacy practices, see the Jobvite Privacy Policy.
- Jotform. We use Jotform to build web forms and to collect information. For information on Jotform's privacy practices, see the Jotform Privacy Policy.
- Oracle Corporation. We use Taleo, a service provided by Oracle, to allow you to apply for HCA Healthcare job openings online. Please see the Oracle Services Privacy Policy.
- Payflow Pro (a service of PayPal, Inc.) and ePay (a service of Bottomline Technologies (de), Inc.). We use Payflow Pro and ePay to process payments on our Services. Please see PayPal Privacy Policy and the Bottomline Technologies Privacy Policy.
- Podium Webchat. We use Podium to allow users to message our clinics and practices with non-clinical questions related to scheduling a visit and to provide feedback about their experience after a visit. For information on Podium's privacy practices, please see the Podium Privacy Policy.
- Salesforce.com, Inc. We use services from Salesforce to manage our email activity and track user engagement. For information on Salesforce's privacy practices, see Salesforce Privacy Statements.
- Securiti.AI. We use services from Securiti.AI to allow you to choose your preferences for tracking on our websites. For information on Salesforce's privacy practices, see Securiti.AI Privacy Policy.
- Sitecore. We use Sitecore to build and display HCA Healthcare websites. For information on Sitecore's privacy practices, see the Sitecore Privacy Policy.
- Surescripts, LLC. We use services from Surescripts to facilitate the integration of medical records in our Portal. For information on Surescripts' privacy practices, see the Surescripts Privacy Policy.
- YouTube API. We use the YouTube API for front-end functionality and to control analytics for YouTube videos. Google's Privacy Policy explains how YouTube/Google treat your personal data and protect your privacy when you provide your personal data in connection with your access and use of their services.
- Vital ERAdvisor. We use Vital ERAdisor to guide patients during an emergency room visit. It predicts wait times, explains test results, and increases follow-up & medication adherence.
- WebMD Ignite. We use WebMd Ignite to collect data from a user and to provide a health risk assessment tool available for evaluating their health risks and connecting with relevant services from us. For information on WebMD Ignite's privacy practices, see the WebMD Privacy Policy.
Acceptable Use Policy
for our Guest Wi-Fi Network
Updated as of June 13, 2016
Authorized Use
Please read the terms and conditions of this Acceptable Use Policy (“Policy”) carefully before using the wireless Internet service (“Service”) provided by the Website owner identified on the Website homepage (“we,” “us,” or “our”). We provide the Services as a free public service to our patients, their families and visitors, physicians, and in some cases, our employees (“you”). Your use of the Service must adhere to all policies, standards, and guidelines at all times, including, but not limited to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, which are posted or made available on this website homepage.
Acceptance
By indicating your acceptance of this Acceptable Usage Policy, either by clicking on the “I Agree” button below or by accessing the Service, you agree that you have read and accept the terms and conditions contained herein.
Limited Employee Use
Our employees and employees of our affiliates (“employees”) may use our Services if they access or use the Services using a personal device not provided by us or our affiliates and if such access is for personal use and not for work purposes. Employees may not use the Services from a device provided by us or our affiliates or for employment purposes, unless approved in advance by our management for a specific business requirement. If management approves the employee’s use of the Services, the employee has the responsibility to use the Service only for the approved business purposes, and in a professional, ethical, and lawful manner in accordance with our Code of Conduct. Violations of our Internet policies, standards, or guidelines could result in disciplinary action, including, without limitation, employee termination.
Your Responsibilities
As a condition of your use of the Service, you agree to all of the following:
- You are solely responsible for any actions taken from your device (whether intentional or unintentional) that cause damages or otherwise affect other devices or users of the Service.
- You are responsible for your own device and securing it prior to connecting to the Service.
- You are responsible for ensuring that your wireless device is running up-to-date antivirus software.
- You acknowledge and agree that, by using the Services, you may expose your device to worms, viruses, Trojan horses, denial-of-service attacks, intrusions, packet-sniffing and other abuses by third-parties.
- You agree not to run programs, services, systems, processes, or servers, whether by yourself or in connection with other users, in such a way that could degrade network performance or accessibility of the Services (including, without limitation, by saturating network or computer resources, overloading the network with data or conducting other malicious activities).
- You will respect the conventions of the Service and refrain from any actions construed to be negligent or malicious.
- You will not knowingly send email containing viruses or other malicious or damaging software.
- You may not send electronic chain letters, mail bombs or any similar communication.
- You may not connect to “Peer to Peer” file sharing networks or download large files, such as movies, television programming, or CD ISO images.
- You agree not to attempt to circumvent or subvert any system or network security measures.
- You agree not to create or run any programs that are designed to identify security loopholes, decrypt intentionally secured data, or gain unauthorized access to any system. You agree not to attempt to decode or otherwise obtain restricted passwords or access control information.
- You understand that wireless Internet access is inherently not secure, and you should adopt appropriate security measures when using the Service. Facility highly discourages the conducting of any confidential transactions (such as online banking or credit card usage) over any wireless network, including the Service.
- You will only use the Service for lawful purposes and in a manner consistent with the rights of other users.
- You will not use the Service in a manner that would violate any law or infringe any copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity, privacy right or any other right of any person or entity.
- You agree to respect all copyrights. The unauthorized downloading or sharing of copyrighted materials is strictly prohibited.
- You will use the Service only as permitted by applicable local, state, and federal laws.
- If you violate these obligations, you may be prosecuted by local, state, or federal authorities.
- You agree not to use the Service to access another person’s computer, computer account, files or data without permission.
- You acknowledge that forging the identity of a user or machine in an electronic communication is prohibited.
- You shall not use the Service to access, transmit or store material that is pornographic, obscene, libelous or defamatory, or which holds anyone in a false light, invades any right of privacy, or violates a right of publicity.
- You will not access web sites which contain material that is grossly offensive to Facility’s community, including clear expressions of bigotry, racism, or hatred.
- You will not access web sites that exploit the images of children under 18 years of age.
- You will not access web sites that contain material that defames, abuses, or threatens others.
Technical Support
We use reasonable efforts to provide technical support for the Service Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (CST), excluding holidays. You understand that you are not guaranteed the right to receive technical support.
Discretion
We have no control over the information obtained through the Internet and cannot be held responsible for the content or accuracy of any information obtained by you through the Internet as a result of your use of our Services. You may find materials on the Internet which are offensive or inappropriate. You understand that your use of the Services is at your own discretion. We reserve the right (but are not obligated) to remove, block, filter, or restrict by any other means any materials that we believe in our sole discretion may be illegal, subject us or our affiliates to liability, or which may violate this Acceptable Use Policy or any other policy or agreement, including, without limitation, the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy, accessible via the Website homepage. You understand that we may cooperate with legal authorities and/or third parties in the investigation of any suspected or alleged crime or civil wrong, without notice to you. Your violation of any of these terms and conditions may result in the suspension or termination of either access to the Service and/or our facility or other actions as detailed below immediately and without prior notice to you.
Disclaimer
WE PROVIDE THE SERVICES ON AN “AS IS” BASIS WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES RELATED TO THE SERVICE. WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THE ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY, COMPLETENESS OR TIMELINESS OF ANY INFORMATION RECEIVED THROUGH USE OF THE SERVICE OR WITH RESPECT TO THE AVAILABILITY OF THE SERVICE OR SPECIFIC RATES OF SPEED. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE OPERATIONAL, SECURE, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS FREE OR TAMPER-PROOF. YOU USE THE SERVICE AND ALL INFORMATION AND MATERIALS OBTAINED THROUGH THE SERVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Indemnification
You shall indemnify, defend and hold us and our affiliates and our respective officers, directors, employees, shareholders, members or agents harmless from all damages, liabilities and expenses (including but not limited to all costs, including attorneys’ fees, court costs, expenses and settlements resulting from any action or claim) arising out of, connected with or resulting from any violation of this Agreement by you and/or your use of the Service.
Limitations
YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT IN NO EVENT SHALL WE OR OUR AFFILIATES OR OUR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, SHAREHOLDERS, MEMBERS OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR PENALTIES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, INCIDENTAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST DATA OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, RESULTING FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE, WHETHER SUCH LIABILITY IS BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STATUTE, REGULATION, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT SUCH PARTY IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR PENALTIES. IN THE EVENT THAT ANY PORTION OF THE FOREGOING PROVISION IS FOUND FOR ANY REASON TO BE UNENFORCEABLE, THEN YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT IN NO EVENT SHALL THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF US, OUR AFFILIATES, AND OUR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, SHAREHOLDERS, MEMBERS AND AGENTS, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF CLAIM OR ACTION, EXCEED, IN THE AGGREGATE, ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100.00).
You understand that neither we nor our affiliates will be held liable for any damage, undesired resource usage, or detrimental effects that may occur to your device and software while you use the Service. You hereby release us and our affiliates from liability for any loss, damage, security infringement, or injury which you may sustain as a result using the Service. You agree to be solely responsible for any such loss, infringement, damage, or injury. If the Service is or becomes unacceptable to you, your sole remedy shall be to stop using the Service.
Changes to Service
The Services may change from time to time. You understand that we reserve the right to change the Services or any feature of the Services offered without notice. We also may revise, amend, or modify these terms and conditions and any other policies and agreements at any time and in any manner. Your continued use of the Services shall be your acceptance of such revised, amended or modified terms and conditions, which will be effective immediately upon posting such revised, amended, or modified terms and conditions to the Website. You are responsible for reviewing these terms and conditions from time to time to ensure that you are aware of any changes.
Termination and Suspension
You understand and agree that we may terminate the Service or your access to the Service at any time, with or without reason or notification.
Dispute Resolution
You agree that all disputes arising from your use of the Services shall be construed, governed and enforced under the laws of the United States and the State of Tennessee (without regard to rules governing conflict of laws). You agree to negotiate any disputes in good faith. If no resolution is achieved within thirty (6) days after such negotiation, then either you, us, or our affiliates may submit the dispute to non-binding mediation. You will bear your own costs and expenses of participating in the mediation (including without limitation, attorneys’ fees), which shall take place in Davidson County, Tennessee and you shall bear one-half (1/2) of the costs and expenses of the mediator. The matters discussed or revealed in the mediation session shall not be revealed in any subsequent litigation. In the event the matter is not resolved in the mediation, suit may be brought. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to limit a party’s access to the court system to pursue a remedy that is limited to injunctive relief.
Severability
If any term herein is declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such provision shall be ineffective only to the extent of such invalidity, so that the remainder of that provision and all remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
Waiver
No waiver of any breach of a provision of these terms shall constitute a waiver of any prior, concurrent or subsequent breach of the same or any other provision hereof and no waiver shall be effective unless made in writing.
Electronic Agreement and Counterparts
You agree that all agreements and transactions between you and Facility and HCA can be conducted electronically. You may print a paper copy of this Agreement to retain for your records.
Copyright Violations
If you are a copyright owner or such owner’s agent and believe that Facility’s Service have been used to infringe your copyrights, you may submit a notification to copyright@hcahealthcare.com containing: an identification of the copyright claimed to have been infringed and the material that is claimed to be infringing; information reasonably sufficient to permit Facility and HCA to locate the material; your contact information; a statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner.
HCA Nondiscrimination Notice
Updated as of October 13th, 2016
We comply with applicable Federal civil rights laws and do not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, disability, race, color, ancestry, citizenship, religion, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, payment source or ability, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state, or local law.
We provide:
- Free aids and services to people with disabilities to communicate effectively with us, such as:
- Qualified sign language interpreters; or
- Written information in other formats (large print, audio, accessible electronic formats, other formats).
- Free language services to people whose primary language is not English, such as:
- Qualified interpreters; or
- Information written in other languages.
If you need access to services or to report a concern regarding discrimination in access to services, please contact the Equity Compliance Coordinator (ECC).
West Houston OBGYN ECC Phone Number: (713) 230-8677
You can file a grievance in person or by mail, fax, or email. If you need help filing a grievance, the ECC is available to help you.
You can also file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, electronically through their Office of Civil Rights Complaint Portal, or by mail or phone at:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Room 509F, HHH Building
Washington, D.C. 20201
1-800-368-1019, 800-537-7697 (TDD)
Office for Civil Rights complaint forms.
ATTENTION: Language assistance services are available to you at no charge. Call .
AMHARIC
ማስታወሻ: የሚናገሩት ቋንቋ ኣማርኛ ከሆነ የትርጉም እርዳታ ድርጅቶች፣ በነጻ ሊያግዝዎት ተዘጋጀተዋል፡ ወደ ሚከተለው ቁጥር ይደውሉ
ARABIC
مقرب لصتا .ناجملاب كل رفاوتت ةیوغللا ةدعاسملا تامدخ نإف ،ةغللا ركذا ثدحتت تنك اذإ :ةظوحلم
( ) مقرARMENIAN
ՈՒՇԱԴՐՈՒԹՅՈՒՆ՝ Եթե խոսում եք հայերեն, ապա ձեզ անվճար կարող են տրամադրվել լեզվական աջակցության ծառայություններ: Զանգահարեք
BANTU-KIRUNDI
ICITONDERWA: Nimba uvuga Ikirundi, uzohabwa serivisi zo gufasha mu ndimi, ku buntu.
BASSA
Dè ɖɛ nìà kɛ dyéɖé gbo: Ɔ jǔ ké m̀ [Ɓàsɔ́ɔ̀-wùɖù-po-nyɔ̀] jǔ ní, nìí, à wuɖu kà kò ɖò po-poɔ̀ ɓɛ́ìn m̀ gbo kpáa.
BENGALI
লক্ষ্য করুনঃ যদি আপনি বাংলা, কথা বলতে পারেন, তাহলে নিঃখরচায় ভাষা সহায়তা পরিষেবা উপলব্ধ আছে। ফোন করুন
BURMESE
သတိျပဳရန္ - အကယ္၍ သင္သည္ ျမန္မာစကား ကို ေျပာပါက၊ ဘာသာစကား အကူအညီ၊ အခမဲ့၊ သင့္အတြက္ စီစဥ္ေဆာင္ရြက္ေပးပါမည္။ ဖုန္းနံပါတ္
CAMBODIAN
ប្រយ័ត្ន៖ បើសិនជាអ្នកនិយាយ ភាសាខ្មែរ, សេវាជំនួយផ្នែកភាសា ដោយមិនគិតឈ្នួល គឺអាចមានសំរាប់បំរើអ្នក។ ចូរ ទូរស័ព្ទ
CHEROKEE
Hagsesda: iyuhno hyiwoniha tsalagi gawonihisdi.
CHINESE
注意:如果您使用繁體中文,您可以免費獲得語言援助服務。 請致電 。
DUTCH
Wann du [Deitsch (Pennsylvania German / Dutch)] schwetzscht, kannscht du mitaus Koschte ebber gricke, ass dihr helft mit die englisch Schprooch.
CHOCTAW
ANOMPA PA PISAH: [Chahta] makilla ish anompoli hokma, kvna hosh Nahollo Anompa ya pipilla hosh chi tosholahinla. Atoko, hattak yvmma im anompoli chi bvnnakmvt, holhtina pa payah
FARSI
تروصب ینابز تالیھست ،دینک یم وگتفگ یسراف نابز ھب رگا :ھجوت سامت دیریگب. امش یارب ناگیار
رف یم دشاب .ابFRENCH
ATTENTION : Si vous parlez français, des services d’aide linguistique vous sont proposés gratuitement. Appelez le .
FRENCH-CREOLE
ATANSYON: Si w pale Kreyòl Ayisyen, gen sèvis èd pou lang ki disponib gratis pou ou. Rele .
GERMAN
ACHTUNG: Wenn Sie Deutsch sprechen, stehen Ihnen kostenlos sprachliche Hilfsdienstleistungen zur Verfügung. Rufnummer: .
GREEK
ΠΡΟΣΟΧΗ: Αν μιλάτε ελληνικά, στη διάθεσή σας βρίσκονται υπηρεσίες γλωσσικής υποστήριξης, οι οποίες παρέχονται δωρεάν.
GUJARATI
સુચના: જો તમે ગુજરાતી બોલતા હો, તો નિ:શુલ્ક ભાષા સહાય સેવાઓ તમારા માટે ઉપલબ્ધ છે. ફોન કરો
HEBREW
בל תמושתל :תולע אלל ךרובע םינימז ,הפש לש עויס יתוריש םנשי ,תירבעב רבדמ ךנה םא
HINDI
ध्यान दें: यदि आप हिंदी बोलते हैं तो आपके लिए मुफ्त में भाषा सहायता सेवाएं उपलब्ध हैं।
HMONG
LUS CEEV: Yog tias koj hais lus Hmoob, cov kev pab txog lus, muaj kev pab dawb rau koj.
ILOCANO
PAKDAAR: Nu saritaem ti Ilocano, ti serbisyo para ti baddang ti lengguahe nga awanan bayadna, ket sidadaan para kenyam.
IGBO
Ntị: Ọ bụrụ na asụ Ibo, asụsụ aka ọasụ n’efu, defu, aka.
INDONESIAN
PERHATIAN: Jika Anda berbicara dalam Bahasa Indonesia, layanan bantuan bahasa akan tersedia secara gratis.
ITALIAN
ATTENZIONE: In caso la lingua parlata sia l’italiano, sono disponibili servizi di assistenza linguisticagratuiti. Chiamare il numero .
KURDISH
ئاگاداری: ئەگەر بە زمانی کوردی قەسە دەکەیت، خزمەتگوزاریەکانی یارمەتی زمان، بەخۆڕایی، بۆ تۆ بەردەستە. پەیوەندی بە
JAPANESE
注意事項:日本語を話される場合、無料の言語支援をご利用いただけます。 まで、お電話にてご連絡ください。
KOREAN
주의: 한국어를 사용하시는 경우, 언어 지원 서비스를 무료로 이용하실 수 있습니다. 번으로 전화해 주십시오.
LAO
ໂປດຊາບ: ຖ້າວ່າ ທ່ານເວົ້າພາສາ ລາວ, ການບໍລິການຊ່ວຍເຫຼືອດ້ານພາສາ, ໂດຍບໍ່ເສັຽຄ່າ, ແມ່ນມີພ້ອມໃຫ້ທ່ານ.
NAVAJO
Díí baa akó nínízin: Díí saaad bee yáníłti’go Diné Bizaard, saad bee áká’ánída’áwo’dę́ę́’, t’áá jiik’eh, éí ná hólǫ́, kojį’ hódíílnih
NEPALI
ध्यान दिनुहोस्: तपार्इंले नेपाली बोल्नुहुन्छ भने तपार्इंको निम्ति भाषा सहायता सेवाहरू निःशुल्क रूपमा उपलब्ध छ । फोन गर्नुहोस्
PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH
Wann du [Deitsch (Pennsylvania German / Dutch)] schwetzscht, kannscht du mitaus Koschte ebber gricke, ass dihr helft mit die englisch Schprooch. Ruf selli Nummer uff:
PUNJABI
ਧਿਆਨ ਦਿਓ: ਜੇ ਤੁਸੀਂ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਬੋਲਦੇ ਹੋ, ਤਾਂ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਹਾਇਤਾ ਸੇਵਾ ਤੁਹਾਡੇ ਲਈ ਮੁਫਤ ਉਪਲਬਧ ਹੈ।
POLISH
UWAGA: Jeżeli mówisz po polsku, możesz skorzystać z bezpłatnej pomocy językowej. Zadzwoń pod numer .
PORTUGUESE
ATENÇÃO: Se fala português, encontram-se disponíveis serviços linguísticos, grátis. Ligue para
ROMANIAN
ATENȚIE: Dacă vorbiți limba română, vă stau la dispoziție servicii de asistență lingvistică, gratuit.
RUSSIAN
ВНИМАНИЕ: Если вы говорите на русском языке, то вам доступны бесплатные услуги перевода. Звоните .
SAMOAN
MO LOU SILAFIA: Afai e te tautala Gagana fa'a Sāmoa, o loo iai auaunaga fesoasoan, e fai fua e leai se totogi, mo oe
SERBO-CROATIAN
OBAVJEŠTENJE: Ako govorite srpsko-hrvatski, usluge jezičke pomoći dostupne su vam besplatno.
SPANISH
ATENCIÓN: si habla español, tiene a su disposición servicios gratuitos de asistencia lingüística. Llame al .
SOMALI
Haddii aad ku hadasho Somaliga, adeegyadda luqad kaalmo, waa lacag la‘aan, ayaad heli kartaa.
SWAHILI
DİKKAT: Eğer Türkçe konuşuyor iseniz, dil yardımı hizmetlerinden ücretsiz olarak yararlanabilirsiniz.
TAGALOG - FILIPINO
PAUNAWA: Kung nagsasalita ka ng Tagalog, maaari kang gumamit ng mga serbisyo ng tulong sa wika nang walang bayad. Tumawag sa .
TELUGA
శ్రద్ధ పెట్టండి: ఒకవేళ మీరు తెలుగు భాష మాట్లాడుతున్నట్లయితే, మీ కొరకు తెలుగు భాషా సహాయక సేవలు ఉచితంగా లభిస్తాయి.
THAI
เรียน: ถ้าคุณพูดภาษาไทยคุณสามารถใช้บริการช่วยเหลือทางภาษาได้ฟรี โทร
TONGAN
FAKATOKANGA’I: Kapau ‘oku ke Lea-Fakatonga, ko e kau tokoni fakatonu lea ‘oku nau fai atu ha tokoni ta’etotongi, pea teke lava ‘o ma’u ia.
UKRANIAN
УВАГА! Якщо ви розмовляєте українською мовою, ви можете звернутися до безкоштовної служби мовної підтримки.
URDU
خبردار: اگر آپ اردو بولتے ہیں، تو آپ کو زبان کی مدد کی خدمات مفت میں دستیاب ہیں ۔ کال
VIETNAMESE
CHÚ Ý: NẾU BẠN NÓI TIẾNG VIỆT, CÓ CÁC DỊCH VỤ HỖ TRỢ NGÔN NGỮ MIỄN PHÍ DÀNH CHO BẠN. GỌI SỐ .
YORUBA
AKIYESI: Bi o ba nsọ èdè Yorùbú ọfé ni iranlọwọ lori èdè wa fun yin o.
Disclosure Statements
Disclosure Regarding Pregnancy Termination
As of 12/20/2022
HCA Healthcare hospitals and facilities work with licensed physicians who use their extensive training and experience to exercise their independent medical judgment to assess patients’ needs and determine the course of treatment consistent with applicable federal and state laws and regulations. In medical emergency circumstances, a licensed and appropriately credentialed physician at an HCA Healthcare hospital may perform an emergency abortion that such physician (exercising his or her independent medical judgment) determines and documents as meeting an applicable federal requirement or state law exception. As always, our focus is to provide quality care for our patients.
Responsible Disclosure Statement
As of 6/1/2018
Above all else, HCA Healthcare is committed to the care and improvement of human life. Part of that mission is to protect our patients, people, systems, and facilities.
If you believe you’re aware of a potential security vulnerability, please let us know by emailing our Information Protection & Security team directly at Information.Protection@hcahealthcare.com. We also maintain an ethics line (1-800-455-1996) to receive concerns about a violation of our Code of Conduct or policies and procedures.
Please review the following prior to submitting:
- We ask that you work with us to diagnose and correct a vulnerability prior to publically disclosing it to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our patients and systems.
- We ask that you refrain from including sensitive information in any submission to us, e.g. patient identifying information.
- We ask that you not perform vulnerability or similar testing on products that are actively in use for public safety reasons.
- We ask that you not take advantage of any vulnerability you have discovered.
Notice: In the event you share information with us, you agree that the information you submit will be considered non-proprietary and non-confidential, and that we may use such information in any manner, without restriction. Furthermore, you agree that submitting information does not create any rights for you or any obligation for us.
Last Updated: June 2018
West Houston OBGYN
Notice of privacy practices
If you have any questions about this notice, please contact the Facility Privacy Official at (713) 230-8677.
Effective date: September 23, 2013
This notice describes how health information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information.
Please review it carefully.
Each time you visit a hospital, physician, or other healthcare provider, a record of your visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and test results, diagnoses, treatment, a plan for future care or treatment, and billing-related information. This notice applies to all of the records of your care generated by the facility, whether made by facility personnel, agents of the facility, or your personal doctor. Your personal doctor may have different policies or notices regarding the doctors use and disclosure of your health information created in the doctors office or clinic.
Our responsibilities
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information, provide you a description of our privacy practices, and to notify you following a breach of unsecured protected health information. We will abide by the terms of this notice.
Uses and disclosures
How we may use and disclose health information about you.
The following categories describe examples of the way we use and disclose health information:
For treatment: We may use health information about you to provide you treatment or services. We may disclose health information about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, medical students, or other facility personnel who are involved in taking care of you at the facility. For example: a doctor treating you for a broken leg may need to know if you have diabetes because diabetes may slow the healing process. Different departments of the facility also may share health information about you in order to coordinate the different things you may need, such as prescriptions, lab work, meals, and x-rays.
We may also provide your physician or a subsequent healthcare provider with copies of various reports that should assist him or her in treating you once youre discharged from this facility.
For payment: We may use and disclose health information about your treatment and services to bill and collect payment from you, your insurance company or a third party payer. For example, we may need to give your insurance company information about your surgery so they will pay us or reimburse you for the treatment. We may also tell your health plan about treatment you are going to receive to determine whether your plan will cover it.
For health care operations: Members of the medical staff and/or quality improvement team may use information in your health record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like it. The results will then be used to continually improve the quality of care for all patients we serve. For example, we may combine health information about many patients to evaluate the need for new services or treatment. We may disclose information to doctors, nurses, and other students for educational purposes. And we may combine health information we have with that of other facilities to see where we can make improvements. We may remove information that identifies you from this set of health information to protect your privacy.
Fundraising: We may contact you to raise funds for the facility; however, you have the right to elect not to receive such communications.
We may also use and disclose health information:
- To remind you that you have an appointment for medical care;
- To assess your satisfaction with our services;
- To tell you about possible treatment alternatives;
- To tell you about health–related benefits or services;
- For population based activities relating to improving health or reducing health care costs;
- For conducting training programs or reviewing competence of health care professionals; and
- To a Medicaid eligibility database and the Children’s Health Insurance Program eligibility database, as applicable.
When disclosing information, primarily appointment reminders and billing/collections efforts, we may leave messages on your answering machine/voice mail.
Business associates: There are some services provided in our organization through contracts with business associates. Examples include physician services in the emergency department and radiology, certain laboratory tests, and a copy service we use when making copies of your health record. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health information to our business associates so that they can perform the job weve asked them to do and bill you or your third-party payer for services rendered. To protect your health information, however, business associates are required by federal law to appropriately safeguard your information.
Directory: We may include certain limited information about you in the facility directory while you are a patient at the facility. The information may include your name, location in the facility, your general condition (e.g., good, fair) and your religious affiliation. This information may be provided to members of the clergy and, except for religious affiliation, to other people who ask for you by name. If you would like to opt out of being in the facility directory please request the Opt Out Form from the admission staff or Facility Privacy Official.
Individuals involved in your care or payment for your care and/or notification purposes: We may release health information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care or who helps pay for your care or to notify, or assist in the notification of (including identifying or locating), a family member, your personal representative, or another person responsible for your care of your location and general condition. In addition, we may disclose health information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort in order to assist with the provision of this notice.
Research: The use of health information is important to develop new knowledge and improve medical care. We may use or disclose health information for research studies but only when they meet all federal and state requirements to protect your privacy (such as using only de-identified data whenever possible). You may also be contacted to participate in a research study.
Future communications: We may communicate to you via newsletters, mail outs or other means regarding treatment options, health related information, disease-management programs, wellness programs, research projects, or other community based initiatives or activities our facility is participating in.
Organized health care arrangement: This facility and its medical staff members have organized and are presenting you this document as a joint notice. Information will be shared as necessary to carry out treatment, payment and health care operations. Physicians and caregivers may have access to protected health information in their offices to assist in reviewing past treatment as it may affect treatment at the time.
Affiliated covered entity: Protected health information will be made available to facility personnel at local affiliated facilities as necessary to carry out treatment, payment and health care operations. Caregivers at other facilities may have access to protected health information at their locations to assist in reviewing past treatment information as it may affect treatment at this time. Please contact the Facility Privacy Official for further information on the specific sites included in this affiliated covered entity.
Health information exchange/regional health information organization: Federal and state laws may permit us to participate in organizations with other healthcare providers, insurers, and/or other health care industry participants and their subcontractors in order for these individuals and entities to share your health information with one another to accomplish goals that may include but not be limited to: improving the accuracy and increasing the availability of your health records; decreasing the time needed to access your information; aggregating and comparing your information for quality improvement purposes; and such other purposes as may be permitted by law.
As required by law. We may disclose information when required to do so by law.
As permitted by law, we may also use and disclose health information for the following types of entities, including but not limited to:
- Food and Drug Administration
- Public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability
- Correctional institutions
- Workers compensation agents
- Organ and tissue donation organizations
- Military command authorities
- Health oversight agencies
- Funeral directors and coroners
- National security and intelligence agencies
- Protective services for the president and others
- A person or persons able to prevent or lessen a serious threat to health or safety
Law enforcement: We may disclose health information to a law enforcement official for purposes such as providing limited information to locate a missing person or report a crime.
For judicial or administrative proceedings: We may disclose protected health information as permitted by law in connection with judicial or administrative proceedings, such as in response to a court order, search warrant or subpoena.
Authorization required: We must obtain your written authorization in order to use or disclose psychotherapy notes, use or disclose your protected health information for marketing purposes, or to sell your protected health information.
State-specific requirements: Many states have requirements for reporting including population-based activities relating to improving health or reducing health care costs. Some states have separate privacy laws that may apply additional legal requirements. If the state privacy laws are more stringent than federal privacy laws, the state law preempts the federal law.
Your Rights Regarding Electronic Health Information Technology as required by the Kansas Health Information Exchange.
This facility participates in electronic health information technology or HIT. This technology allows a provider or a health plan to make a single request through a health information organization or HIO to obtain electronic records for a specific patient from other HIT participants for purposes of treatment, payment, or health care operations. HIOs are required to use appropriate safeguards to prevent unauthorized uses and disclosures.
- You have two options with respect to HIT. First, you may permit authorized individuals to access your electronic health information through an HIO. If you choose this option, you do not have to do anything.
- Second, you may restrict access to all of your information through an HIO (except as required by law). If you wish to restrict access, you must submit the required information either online at Kansas Health Information Technology (http://www.KanHIT.org) or by completing and mailing a form. This form is available at Kansas Health Information Technology (http://www.KanHIT.org). You cannot restrict access to certain information only; your choice is to permit or restrict access to all of your information.
- If you have questions regarding HIT or HIOs, please visit Kansas Health Information Technology (http://www.KanHIT.org) for additional information.
- If you receive health care services in a state other than Kansas, different rules may apply regarding restrictions on access to your electronic health information. Please communicate directly with your out-of-state health care provider regarding those rules.
Your health information rights
Although your health record is the physical property of the healthcare practitioner or facility that compiled it, you have the right to:
- Inspect and copy: You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of the health information that may be used to make decisions about your care. Usually, this includes medical and billing records, but does not include psychotherapy notes. We may deny your request to inspect and copy in certain very limited circumstances. If you are denied access to health information, you may request that the denial be reviewed. Another licensed health care professional chosen by the facility will review your request and the denial. The person conducting the review will not be the person who denied your request. We will comply with the outcome of the review.
- Amend: If you feel that health information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information. You have the right to request an amendment for as long as the information is kept by or for the facility. Any request for an amendment must be sent in writing to the Facility Privacy Official.
We may deny your request for an amendment and if this occurs, you will be notified of the reason for the denial. - An accounting of disclosures: You have the right to request an accounting of disclosures. This is a list of certain disclosures we make of your health information for purposes other than treatment, payment or health care operations where an authorization was not required.
- Request restrictions: You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the health information we use or disclose about you for treatment, payment or health care operations. You also have the right to request a limit on the health information we disclose about you to someone who is involved in your care or the payment for your care, like a family member or friend. For example, you could ask that we not use or disclose information about a surgery you had. Any request for a restriction must be sent in writing to the Facility Privacy Official.
- We are required to agree to your request only if 1) except as otherwise required by law, the disclosure is to your health plan and the purpose is related to payment or health care operations (and not treatment purposes), and 2) your information pertains solely to health care services for which you have paid in full. For other requests, we are not required to agree. If we do agree, we will comply with your request unless the information is needed to provide you emergency treatment.
- Request confidential communications: You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For example, you may ask that we contact you at work instead of your home. The facility will grant reasonable requests for confidential communications at alternative locations and/or via alternative means only if the request is submitted in writing and the written request includes a mailing address where the individual will receive bills for services rendered by the facility and related correspondence regarding payment for services. Please realize, we reserve the right to contact you by other means and at other locations if you fail to respond to any communication from us that requires a response. We will notify you in accordance with your original request prior to attempting to contact you by other means or at another location.
- A paper copy of this notice: You have the right to a paper copy of this notice. You may ask us to give you a copy of this notice at any time. Even if you have agreed to receive this notice electronically, you are still entitled to a paper copy of this notice.
- If the facility has a website you may print or view a copy of the notice by clicking on the Notice of Privacy Practices link.
To exercise any of your rights, please obtain the required forms from the Facility Privacy Official and submit your request in writing.
Changes to this notice
We reserve the right to change this notice and the revised or changed notice will be effective for information we already have about you as well as any information we receive in the future. The current notice will be posted in the facility and on our website and include the effective date. In addition, each time you register at or are admitted to the facility for treatment or health care services as an inpatient or outpatient, we will offer you a copy of the current notice in effect.
Complaints
If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with the facility by following the process outlined in the facility’s Patient Rights documentation. You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. All complaints must be submitted in writing.
You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.
Other uses of health information
Other uses and disclosures of health information not covered by this notice or the laws that apply to us will be made only with your written authorization. If you provide us permission to use or disclose health information about you, you may revoke that authorization, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your authorization, we will no longer use or disclose health information about you for the reasons covered by your written authorization. You understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures we have already made with your authorization, and that we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you.
If you have any questions about this notice, please contact the Facility Privacy Official at (713) 230-8677.
Your Rights and Protections Against Surprise Medical Bills
Updated as of December 20, 2021
When you get emergency care or are treated by an out-of-network provider at an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center, you are protected from balance billing. In these cases, you shouldn't be charged more than your plan's copayments, coinsurance and/or deductible.
What is "balance billing" (sometimes called "surprise billing")?
When you see a doctor or other health care provider, you may owe certain out-of-pocket costs, like a copayment, coinsurance, or deductible. You may have additional costs or have to pay the entire bill if you see a provider or visit a health care facility that isn't in your health plan's network.
"Out-of-network" means providers and facilities that haven't signed a contract with your health plan to provide services. Out-of-network providers may be allowed to bill you for the difference between what your plan pays and the full amount charged for a service. This is called "balance billing." This amount is likely more than in-network costs for the same service and might not count toward your plan's deductible or annual out-of-pocket limit.
"Surprise billing" is an unexpected balance bill. This can happen when you can't control who is involved in your care—like when you have an emergency or when you schedule a visit at an in- network facility but are unexpectedly treated by an out-of-network provider. Surprise medical bills could cost thousands of dollars depending on the procedure or service.
You're protected from balance billing for:
Emergency services
If you have an emergency medical condition and get emergency services from an out-of- network provider or facility, the most they can bill you is your plan's in-network cost-sharing amount (such as copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles). You can't be balance billed for these emergency services. This includes services you may get after you're in stable condition, unless you give written consent and give up your protections not to be balanced billed for these post-stabilization services.
Applicable State balance billing information may be found at the bottom of this notice.
Certain services at an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center
When you get services from an in-network hospital or ambulatory surgical center, certain providers there may be out-of-network. In these cases, the most those providers can bill you is your plan's in-network cost-sharing amount. This applies to emergency medicine, anesthesia, pathology, radiology, laboratory, neonatology, assistant surgeon, hospitalist, or intensivist services. These providers can't balance bill you and may not ask you to give up your protections not to be balance billed.
If you get other types of services at these in-network facilities, out-of-network providers can't balance bill you, unless you give written consent and give up your protections.
You're never required to give up your protections from balance billing. You also aren't required to get out-of-network care. You can choose a provider or facility in your plan's network.
Applicable State balance billing information may be found at the bottom of this notice.
When balance billing isn't allowed, you also have these protections:
- You're only responsible for paying your share of the cost (like the copayments, coinsurance, and deductible that you would pay if the provider or facility was in-network). Your health plan will pay any additional costs to out-of-network providers and facilities directly.
- Generally, your health plan must:
- Cover emergency services without requiring you to get approval for services in advance (also known as "prior authorization").
- Cover emergency services by out-of-network providers.
- Base what you owe the provider or facility (cost-sharing) on what it would pay an in-network provider or facility and show that amount in your explanation of benefits.
- Count any amount you pay for emergency services or out-of-network services toward your in-network deductible and out-of-pocket limit.
If you think you've been wrongly billed, contact
Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS)
Website: https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises/consumers
Phone: 1-800-985-3059
Visit Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services No Surprises Act for more information about your rights under federal law
You have the right to receive a "Good Faith Estimate" explaining how much your medical care will cost
Under the law, health care providers need to give patients who don't have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the bill for medical items and services.
- You have the right to receive a Good Faith Estimate for the total expected cost of any non-emergency items or services. This includes related costs like medical tests, prescription drugs, equipment, and hospital fees.
- Make sure your health care provider gives you a Good Faith Estimate in writing at least 1 business day before your medical service or item. You can also ask your health care provider, and any other provider you choose, for a Good Faith Estimate before you schedule an item or service.
- If you receive a bill that is at least $400 more than your Good Faith Estimate, you can dispute the bill.
- Make sure to save a copy or picture of your Good Faith Estimate.
For questions or more information about your right to a Good Faith Estimate, visit www.cms.gov/nosurprises or call 1-800-985-3059.
Texas Surprise Billing
Patients get surprise medical bills if they get care outside their health plan’s network without realizing it. For example, a patient may pick a surgeon in her plan’s network, however; the patient may not be asked about the anesthesiologist. Texas state law may protect patients with state-regulated health insurance from surprise medical bills in emergencies and when they didn’t have a choice of doctors. A patient has a right to be provided: a written disclosure that confirms whether the facility is in-network based on the insurance information the patient provides; to be told that facility-based physicians may bill separately and may not participate in the patient’s insurance plan; to request a list of physicians that have been granted medical staff privileges at that facility and to request from that facility-based physician information whether the physician is in-network with the patient’s insurance plan.
For additional information, please visit the Texas Department of Insurance website or call 800-578-4677.
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That's the plain English version. Here it is in legal language:
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