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Privacy Policy

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There is nothing more personal and private than your healthcare information. STD Test Express (the "Site"), a web site provided by Analyte Physicians Group, S.C. ("APG"), was founded on the principle that all information about your health status, provision of healthcare services, or payment for your health care must remain under your control to the greatest extent allowed by law.

 

Protection under HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal program. It requires that all medical records and other individually identifiable health information disclosed to or used by the Site or APG in all forms such as electronic, paper or oral are kept confidential. All such information relating to a patient's health is called Protected Health Information (PHI). HIPAA gives patients the right to understand, protect and control the usage of their PHI. Patients have the following specific rights with respect to their PHI, which they can exercise by giving a notice in writing to APG:

  • Patient has the right to ask to restrict ways APG uses and discloses their PHI for treatment, payment and health care operations.
  • Patient has the right to request that APG communicate their PHI by alternative means or at alternative locations. As an example, a patient may request that APG contact them with their health information only at home.
  • Patient has the right to inspect or copy medical billing and other records used to make decisions about them.
  • Patient has the right to ask APG to correct anything they perceive to be inaccurate or inconsistent in their health information.
  • Patient has the right to request a list of certain instances where APG had used or disclosed their health information.

Privacy Policies

APG has adopted the following usage and disclosure policies relating to sharing of a patient's PHI. These policies are based on requirements of HIPAA. The policies are:

  • With your permission, the APG healthcare providers who will counsel you regarding your results will have access to your PHI. APG will only release this information in accordance with the HIPAA.
  • We will not misuse your personal information.
  • We will not sell your information.
  • We will not mail you unwanted information. We will never mail anything to your home address, all written communication is sent via e-mail.
  • We will not distribute your e-mail address in case we collect it from you.
  • We will not store credit card information. We keep credit card information safe never storing anything other than the last four digits and transferring all financial information using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL encryption).
  • We will maintain security of our systems and information.
  • We will not call you with marketing solicitations or unnecessary status updates. APG provides telephone access for your questions from 8:00AM to 6.00PM Central Time Monday through Friday.
  • We use software, hardware, and strict policies to keep your health information safe and private.
  • The health information you store with us is protected by state of the market technologies including Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption and firewalls.
  • We have backup systems in place to protect the integrity of your information.
  • Our servers are protected by strong physical security at our facilities, including pass codes, locks and security personnel.
  • Procedural safeguards are also in place to secure your PHI. Within APG, only those who need to have access to your PHI will have access, and they are bound by strict policies to not disclose your PHI to others either within APG or to anyone outside.
  • As is true of most web sites, we gather certain information automatically and store it for aggregate analysis. This information includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and click stream data. We use this information, which does not identify individual users or constitute PHI, to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track users' movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.
  • We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site. A session ID cookie expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your Internet browser's "help" file. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site. To find out more information on cookies, please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie.
  • When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number), we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
  • As stated above, all orders placed on this site are transmitted using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology. Maintaining the confidentiality of site visitor IP addresses and using SSL are all additional measures that we take to ensure that your information remains under your control. If you have any questions about security on our Web site, please contact us.

We reserve the right to disclose your personally identifiable information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our Site.

Our Site may contain links to other sites. Please be aware that APG is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our customers to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Site.

Some state laws require positive test results for HIV and other STDs to be reported for the tracking of incidence. In this event, the state may require a name and address to be submitted to the Department of Public Health before results can be released. By law, neither APG nor your state's Department of Public Health can compromise your confidentiality. As a company licensed in the United States, we are bound by law to comply with state and federal requirements.

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the home page, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We reserve the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently.

STD Test Express and Analyte Physicians Group is located at:

351 W Hubbard St
Suite 500
Chicago, IL 60654

We look forward to hearing from you. We wish you the best of health.

Updated: June 30, 2009