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Privacy Policy Notice
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES REGARDING PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION
THE RURAL/METRO FAMILY OF COMPANIES
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
REGARDING PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
Rural/Metro Corporation, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides medical transportation, fire protection services and related services. These subsidiaries and affiliates providing such services are hereinafter referred to as "The Company," "we," "our," or "us." Due to the nature of these services, we are required by law to maintain the privacy of certain confidential health care information, known as Protected Health Information (PHI), and to provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to your PHI. We are also required to abide by the terms of the version of this Notice currently in effect.
Uses and Disclosures of PHI: We may use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment and health care operations, in most cases without your written permission. Examples of our use of your PHI:
For Treatment. This includes such things as obtaining verbal and written information about your medical condition and treatment from you as well as from others, such as doctors and nurses who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you. We may give your PHI to other health care providers involved in your treatment, and may transfer your PHI via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center.
For Payment. This includes any activities we must undertake in order to get reimbursed for the services we provide to you, including such things as submitting bills to insurance companies, making medical necessity determinations and collecting outstanding accounts.
For Health Care Operations. This includes quality assurance activities, licensing and training programs to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow established policies and procedures, as well as certain other management functions.
Reminders for Scheduled Transports and Information on Other Services. We may also contact you with a reminder of any scheduled appointments for non-emergency ambulance and medical transportation, or to inform you about other services we provide.
Use and Disclosure of PHI Without Your Authorization. We are permitted to use PHI without your written authorization, or opportunity to object, in certain situations, and unless prohibited by a more stringent state law, including:
- For the treatment, payment or health care operations activities of another health care provider who treats you;
- For health care and legal compliance activities;
- To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend or other individual involved in your care if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection, and in certain other circumstances where we are unable to obtain your agreement and believe the disclosure is in your best interests;
- To a public health authority in certain situations as required by law (such as to report abuse, neglect or domestic violence;
- For health oversight activities including audits or government investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other administrative or judicial actions undertaken by the government (or their contractors) by law to oversee the health care system;
- For judicial and administrative proceedings as required by a court or administrative order, or in some cases in response to a subpoena or other legal process;
- For law enforcement activities in limited situations, such as when responding to a warrant;
- For military, national defense and security and other special government functions;
- To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person or the public at large;
- For workers' compensation purposes, and in compliance with workers' compensation laws;
- To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for identifying a deceased person, determining cause of death, or carrying on their duties as authorized by law;
- If you are an organ donor, we may release health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate organ donation and transplantation;
- For research projects, but this will be subject to strict oversight and approvals;
- Use or disclose health information about you in a way that does not personally identify you or reveal who you are.
Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above will only be made with your written authorization. You may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, except to the extent that we have already used or disclosed medical information in reliance on that authorization.
Patient Rights: As a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to your PHI, including:
The right to access, copy or inspect your PHI. This means you may inspect and copy most of the medical information about you that we maintain. We will normally provide you with access to this information within 30 days of your request. We may also charge you a reasonable fee, as state law permits, to provide a copy of any medical information you have the right to access. In limited circumstances, we may deny you access to your medical information, and you may appeal certain types of denials. We have forms available to request access to your PHI and we will provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know your appeal rights. You also have the right to receive confidential communications of your PHI. If you wish to inspect or obtain a copy of your medical information, you should contact our local privacy representative.
Right to Copy of PHI Maintained in an Electronic Format. If we use or maintains an electronic health record with respect to your PHI you have a right to obtain a copy of that PHI in an electronic format and, if you choose, to have us transmit a copy directly to an entity or person you clearly, conspicuously, and specifically designate. Additionally, any fee that we may charge you for providing a copy of your PHI (or a summary or explanation of the information), if the copy (or summary or explanation) is in an electronic form, will not be greater than our labor costs in responding to your request for the copy (or summary or explanation).
The Right to Amend Your PHI. You have the right to ask us to amend written medical information we may have about you. We will generally amend your information within 60 days of your request and will notify you when we have amended the information. We are permitted by law to deny your request to amend your medical information only in certain circumstances, like when we believe the information you have asked us to amend is correct. If you wish to request an amendment of the medical information we have about you, please contact our local privacy representative to obtain an amendment request form.
The Right to Request an Accounting. You may request an accounting from us of certain disclosures of your medical information we have made in the six years prior to the date of your request. However, your requests for an accounting of disclosures cannot precede the implementation date of HIPAA April 14, 2003. We are not required to give you an accounting of information we have used or disclosed for purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations, or when we share your health information with our business associates, such as our billing company or a medical facility from/to which we have transported you. We are also not required to give you an accounting of our uses of PHI for which you have already given us written authorization. If you wish to request an accounting, contact our local privacy representative.
The Right to Request That We Restrict the Uses and Disclosures of Your PHI. You have the right to request that we restrict how we use and disclose your medical information we have about you. We are not required to agree to any restrictions you request, but any restrictions agreed to by us in writing are binding on us.
Restrictions on Disclosures to Health Plans for Services Paid In Full Out of Pocket. Except as otherwise required by law, at your request we will not disclose your PHI to a health plan for purposes of carrying out payment or health care operations (and is not for the purpose of carrying out treatment), if the PHI pertains solely to a health care item or service for which we have been paid out of pocket in full.
Right to Request Alternative 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 can ask that we only contact you at work or by mail. To request confidential alternative communications, you must make your request in writing on the form provided by the Practice. We will not ask you the reason for your request. We will accommodate all reasonable requests. Your request must specify how or where you wish to be contacted.
Internet and the Right to Obtain a Paper Copy of the Notice on Request. If we maintain a web site, we will prominently post a copy of this Notice for your review. We will always provide you a paper copy of the Notice upon request.
Right to Opt Out of Fundraising. In the event that Rural/Metro would contact you to request your participation in fund raising efforts, you have the right to opt out of receiving such communications.
Right to Pay Out of Pocket. You have the right to request restrictions of disclosures of your PHI to health plans if you consent to pay the balance for services in full.
Revisions to the Notice: We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all PHI we maintain. Any material changes to the Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted to our web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the latest version of this Notice by contacting our privacy official.
Your Legal Rights and Complaints: You also have the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated against in any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government. Should you have any questions, comments or complaints you may direct all inquiries to our privacy official.
Privacy Officer Contact Information:
Privacy Officer
Rural/Metro
9221 E. Via De Ventura,
Scottsdale AZ 85258
(480) 606-3886
Effective Date of the Notice: September 23, 2013.
Terms of Use & General Privacy Policy
The Rural/Metro family of companies values your trust and our relationships with the communities we serve - so we take great care to inform you of our policies and terms governing the access and use of this website, which include this Terms of Use & General Privacy Policy and our Notice of Privacy Practices Regarding Protected Health Information (collectively referred to herein as "Terms"). Our Terms govern the access and use of this website, provide legal notices of importance and highlight our duties regarding the protection of patient care and treatment information Rural/Metro receives when providing emergency and non-emergency medical transportation and/or fire protection services.
Terms of Use
Rural/Metro Family of Companies. Rural/Metro Corporation, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, provides medical transportation, fire protection and other related services throughout communities in the United States. These subsidiaries and affiliates providing such services are hereinafter referred to as "Rural/Metro" or "Rural/Metro family".
Agreement to Terms of this Website. By accessing and/or using this website, you agree to be bound by our Terms and all Applicable Law as defined herein governing this website and the delivery of services to you by a Rural/Metro family member. If you do not agree to these Terms set forth, then do not use this website.
Modifications. Rural/Metro is continually improving its services, offerings and updating its Terms as laws change. Consequently, this website and/or our Terms will be modified and/or discontinued from time to time at the sole discretion of Rural/Metro. Also, given changes in the industry, regulation, technology and business factors, we encourage you to review our Terms each time you visit our websites to make sure you understand our current Terms and to check for any updates or changes to our policies.
Permitted Use & Access. You are permitted a limited, revocable authorization to access, browse, view and/or download one single copy of the website solely for your own personal, non-commercial use. Your use and conduct is strictly regulated by Applicable Law as defined herein. Any other use is strictly prohibited.
Jurisdiction, Venue & Disputes. This website is operated by a Rural/Metro family member with offices in the United States. Rural/Metro makes no representation that the Materials, Terms or website are legal or appropriate for use outside the United States. If you choose to access this website from outside the United States, you do so at your own risk. You agree that any dispute whatsoever arising under our Terms, the use or access of and/or involving this website, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the federal laws of the United States and the laws of the State of Arizona, (collectively referred to herein as "Applicable Law") without regards to conflict of law provisions. You specifically agree that venue and jurisdiction shall be exclusively in the federal and state courts situated in Maricopa County in the state of Arizona.
IP & Publicity Provision. This website and all materials, including but not limited to, images, content, illustrations, design, posts, audio clips, video clips, operation, structure, "look and feel", software, logos, pictures, trade names, trademarks, other commercial or product designations of the Rural/Metro family, and any other related property ("Materials") are the property of the Rural/Metro family and/or third party licensors. These Materials are protected from unauthorized copying and/or dissemination by copyrights that are owned or licensed by the Rural/Metro family and by Applicable Law as defined herein, foreign laws and international conventions. You are strictly prohibited from modifying and/or altering Materials including but not limited to the Materials’ copyright legends and/or proprietary notices. You may not reproduce, sell, perform, create derivative works from, republish, upload, post, transmit, frame, display, publicly perform, or distribute in any way whatsoever Materials from this website (including but not limited to the use of the Materials on any other website and/or in a networked computer environment) without the prior written consent of the Rural/Metro family. Any modifications or use of Materials in any manner not provided herein shall constitute an infringement of the Rural/Metro family’s rights. Separately, you shall not identify or make reference to Rural/Metro in any public announcement, communication, press release, advertising or other promotional modality regardless of its form without the prior written consent from Rural/Metro.
Software Licenses. All software that is made available for downloading from the website ("Software") is protected by copyright and may be protected by other rights. The use of such Software is governed by the terms of the software license agreement or designated Legal Notice accompanying such software ("License Agreement"). The downloading and use of such Software is conditioned on your agreement to be bound by the terms of the License Agreement.
Export Control & Compliance with Local Jurisdiction (if outside of the Untied States). The United States controls the export of products and information. You agree to comply with such restrictions and not to export or re-export the Materials (including any software) to countries or persons prohibited under the export control laws. By downloading the Materials (including any software), you are agreeing that you are not in a country where such export is prohibited or are a person or entity to which such export is prohibited. You are responsible for compliance with the laws of your local jurisdiction regarding your access and use of this website including but not limited to the import, export, or re-export of the Materials.
Links and Search Results. This website may automatically produce search results that reference or link to third party sites throughout the World Wide Web. The Rural/Metro family is not affiliated with these third parties and has no control over these third party sites or their content. The Rural/Metro family Terms apply solely to the Rural/Metro family and its websites.
Disclaimers. The Rural/Metro family does not promise that this website or its Materials shall be complete, reliable, error free, free of virus or contamination, or uninterrupted. The website and its Materials are provided on "as is" and "as available" basis. The Rural/Metro family and its suppliers, to the fullest extent permitted by law, specifically disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied of any nature whatsoever related to every aspect and element of this website including but not limited to warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. IF YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE OR THE MATERIALS RESULTS IN THE DESTRUCTION OF SOFTWARE AND/OR HARDWARE, OR THE NEED FOR SERVICING OR REPLACING EQUIPMENT OR DATA, RURAL/METRO IS NOT AND SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY OF THOSE COSTS WHATSOEVER. FURTHER, IN NO EVENT SHALL RURAL/METRO, ITS SUPPLIERS, OR ANY THIRD PARTIES MENTIONED AT THIS SITE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DIRECT, FORESEEABLE, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL AND/OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, OR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM LOST DATA OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) RESULTING FROM THE USE AND/OR INABILITY TO USE THE WEB SITE AND/OR THE MATERIAL, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT, OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT RURAL/METRO IS ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
Violation of Terms & Indemnity. If you violate the Terms, your permitted use is automatically terminated. You agree to indemnify, hold harmless and defend the Rural/Metro family and affiliates from all loss, liability, damage, or claims including reasonable attorneys’ fees arising out of your act(s) or omission(s), any breach of the Terms and/or any unauthorized use of this website.
Legal Proceedings. In the event either party brings any action for any relief, declaratory or otherwise, arising out of this website, our Terms, and/or on account of any breach or default hereof, the prevailing party shall be entitled to receive from the other party attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses.
Public Forum. Our website may make chat rooms, message boards, and/or news groups available to its users. Please remember that the information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information. You should not disclose your personal information when using these areas. In addition, any conduct or content that is illegal or inappropriate is strictly prohibited from the website. The views, content and opinions expressed in the public Forums are not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Rural/Metro family.
User Submissions. Generally, any communication which you post to the website is considered to be non-confidential. If particular web pages permit the submission of communications, which will be treated by Rural/Metro as confidential, that fact will be stated in Legal Notices on those pages. By posting communications to the website, you automatically grant Rural/Metro a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable nonexclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, edit, translate, distribute, perform, and display the communication alone or as part of other works in any form, media, or technology whether now known or hereafter developed, and to sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of sublicenses. As a user, you are responsible for your own communications and are responsible for the consequences of their posting. You must not do the following things: post material that is copyrighted, unless you are the copyright owner or have the permission of the copyright owner to post it; post material that reveals trade secrets, unless you own them or have the permission of the owner; post material that infringes on any other intellectual property rights of others or on the privacy or publicity rights of others; post material that is obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, or embarrassing to another user or any other person or entity; post a sexually-explicit image; post advertisements or solicitations of business; post chain letters or pyramid schemes; or impersonate another person. Rural/Metro does not represent or guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, or reliability of any of communications posted by other users or endorses any opinions expressed by users. You acknowledge that any reliance on material posted by other users will be at your own risk. Rural/Metro does not screen communications in advance and is not responsible for screening or monitoring material posted by users. If notified by a user of communications, which allegedly do not conform to this Agreement, Rural/Metro may investigate the allegation and determine in good faith and its sole discretion whether to remove or request the removal of the communication. Rural/Metro has no liability or responsibility to users for performance or nonperformance of such activities. Rural/Metro reserves the right to expel users and prevent their further access to the website for violating Rural/Metro Terms or Applicable Law and the right to remove communications which are abusive, illegal, or disruptive.
General Privacy
Your Privacy is Important. We use our best efforts to maintain the personal information you give to us in a secure, safe and responsible manner within the Rural/Metro family. The personal information you provide us is not sold, rented or leased to any third party.
Personal Information (Not Health Information). When you purchase our subscription services and/or products from us, whether in person, over the phone and/or on-line you provide us with information. Depending upon what information you provide to us and whether, and where, you purchase products and/or services, the information we receive may include your name, mailing, billing and/or shipping address, telephone number, driver’s license number, birth date, form of payment, e-mail address, property information, service preferences, what you purchased. (Please see the Notice of Privacy Practices Regarding Protected Health Information). If you use a credit or debit card or pay by check, the information we receive will include your account number and your form of payment. Rural/Metro uses the information you provide to service your account, to ship an order to you, to provide warranty service on products and/or services you purchased, and to personalize your experience with Rural/Metro. For these purposes, your information may be shared with a third party service provider.
Security of Your Transactions. The Rural/Metro Family has company policies and procedures in place to ensure that information you share with us is handled in a safe, secure and responsible manner. We use encryption and other types of technology to reasonably protect and safeguard your personal information and services we provide you. Notice of Privacy Practices Regarding Protected Health Information.
Surveys. From time to time, we may provide you the opportunity to participate in a survey about our services, products and/or website. Your feedback helps us identify customer needs, levels of satisfaction, and improve and/or develop new services and products for you. These surveys are always voluntary.
Contests, Promotions, Advertisements and Other Opportunities Provided With Select Third Parties. The Rural/Metro family may run contests, sweepstakes, advertisements and other promotional offers with select companies outside of the Rural/Metro family on our website, by e-mail or phone or by direct mail. When you choose to participate in these contests, sweepstakes or promotional offers, you may be asked to give the third parties your personal information. These businesses operate independently from the Rural/Metro family. Any personal information that is given to them is at your option and is not controlled by our Terms. To avoid confusion, we will identify these businesses as independent from the Rural/Metro family. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of these businesses if you should have any concerns about how they will treat your personal information.
Legal Requirements. On rare occasions, we may be required to disclose personal information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or as required by applicable law. Also, if the ownership of all or a part of a business within the Rural/Metro family were to change, customer information pertinent to that business’ operations would likely be transferred to, or licensed for use by, the new owner.
Website Usage, Traffic and Purchasing Patterns. We may track our Internet visitors, related traffic patterns and site usage within our website to identify: who is visiting our site from where, which pages are getting accessed and in what ways, and what trends over time emerge. Also, we may collect information about you that is not personally identifiable such as the type of internet browser or operating system you have, the precise time and date you entered our website, or the domain name of the website from which you linked to our website. This information helps us provide superior customer service and convenient access to our products and services, and improve customer access, website responsiveness and usefulness of the website.
Cookies. Cookies are small pieces of information that may be stored on your computer when you view our website and/or advertisements. A cookie lets us recognize you and provide a more meaningful and personalized experience when you visit our site again.
Changing Your Cookie Setting. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies automatically, but you can change this setting. See your browser's "help topics" to learn how to change the setting. If you decide not to accept cookies, you may not be able to access some portions of our website.
Aggregate Statistics. From time to time we may provide aggregate statistics about our customers, website traffic, product and/or service sales and/or other consumer-related information to carefully selected companies to identify trends and make marketing and other business-related decisions. These aggregate statistics do not include personally identifiable information of any individual customer.
Hyperlinks. We have agreements with third parties that allow you to go to their website from our website. If you link to these websites from our website, you may be asked to give information to them. Please be aware that once you have left our website, the Rural/Metro family is no longer your host, does not control, and is not responsible for, the policies or practices of the third party and its website. We encourage you to check each website’s terms of use, legal notices and privacy policies.
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The Rural/Metro family takes the safety of you and your children very serious. Consequently, this website does not knowingly or intentionally collect information from children under 13 without prior parental consent. If you are under 13 and wish to purchase services from a Rural/Metro website or wish to provide personal information, please ask your parent or your guardian for assistance. Please note: Rural/Metro cannot prohibit minors from visiting our website and must rely on parent(s) or guardian(s) to decide which materials are appropriate for children under 13 to view.
Comments. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about our Terms of Use and/or Privacy Policy, please contact us at one of the following addresses:
Email: feedback@ruralmetro.com
Mailing Address:
Rural/Metro Corporation
Public Affairs
9221 E Via De Ventura
Scottsdale, AZ 85258