Collection of Confidential Information

Personal Information
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The personal information that DiabeticSupplies.com collects will only be use to process your order, or for those customers that use DiabeticSupplies.com to bill Medicare or their health insurance plan(s), we will also will contact you when you are eligible for your next reorder of diabetic supplies, typically every three months, since we send a 90-day supply when billed to Medicare or a health insurance plan.

In order to set up an account on the Web site, we request certain personally identifiable information from you on the registration form. During registration you are required to give contact information (such as name and email address).  We use this information to contact you about the services on the site in which you have expressed interest.

If you choose DiabeticSupplies.com to evaluate your eligibility for us to bill Medicare or your health insurance for your diabetic supplies, we will collect the information below:

• Name
• Date of Birth
• If applicable, Medicare Number
• If applicable, Name of Health Insurance company and Policy Number
• If applicable, Customer Service Phone Number for your health insurance
• Email Address
• Contact Phone Number

This Personal Health Information will be used to contact Medicare and/or your health insurance.  We will contact Medicare and/or your health insurance to determine your eligibility for DiabeticSupplies.com’s Free Home Delivery Program, whereby we bill the cost of the diabetic supplies to Medicare or your health insurance and your only responsibility is your co-insurance (co-pay) or deductible, if any.  We will contact you with the results of our verification process via email and/or your contact phone number.

DiabeticSupplies.com will collect the information listed below if you decide to proceed with our service after we contact you with the results of our verification process with Medicare and/or your health insurance.

• Shipping Address
• Billing Address on file with Medicare and/or your health insurance.
• If you have a deductible or co-insurance (co-pay), we will collect either your credit card information (i.e, billing address, credit number, expiration date, and security code) or you can pay by check
• Doctor’s Information - used to contact your doctor for a Doctor’s Order (Prescription) of diabetic supplies specific to your diabetes condition and used to bill Medicare and/or health insurance.

We will contact you, via email or your contact phone number, to review what your doctor has ordered and get your approval before sending any order billed to Medicare and/or health insurance.  There is never any charge for our service if we bill Medicare or your insurance.  Your only cost is your co-insurance or deductible, if any.  If you have a supplemental (i.e., Medigap) insurance, you may owe nothing. We will then bill at no charge, Medicare or your health insurance, for the diabetic supplies sent to you at the contracted Medicare or health insurance allowed rates (which are usually much lower than if you paid the Self-Pay Price amount listed on our site).If you purchase a product from us, we request certain personally identifiable information from you on our order forms.  You must provide contact information (such as name, email, and shipping address) and financial information (such as credit card number and expiration date).  We use this information for billing purposes and to fill your orders.  If we have trouble processing an order, we will use this information to contact you.

Your Health Information Rights:
Although your health record is the physical property of the healthcare facility that compiled it, the information belongs to you.

You have the right to:

• Request a restriction on certain users and disclosures of your information;
• Obtain a paper copy of the notice of privacy practices;
• Inspect and copy your health care record;
• Obtain an account of disclosures of your health information;
• Request confidential communication;
• Amend your healthcare record;
• Revoke your authorization to use or disclose health information except to the extent that action has already been taken.
  
  Our Responsibilities:
  
  
  • DiabeticSupplies.com is required to:
  • Maintain the privacy of your health information;
  • Provide you with a notice as to your legal duties and privacy practices with respect to information we collect and maintain about you;
  • Abide by the terms of this privacy policy;
  • Notify you if we are unable to agree to a requested restriction;
  • Accommodate reasonable requests you may have to communicate health information by alternative means.

Account Information
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If you are purchasing items paid exclusively via credit card, you must create an online account.

If you are using our site for billing diabetic supplies to Medicare or your heatlh insurance plan, you do not need an online account.  First time Medicare or health insurance customers enroll or current customers placing their next order of diabetic supplies, can place a reorder.  However, as part of the enrollment process, you will be asked to provide insurance information and physician information in order for us to bill your diabetic supplies to Medicare or your health insurance plan. Medical information collected is regulated by the Federal Government under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. If you do choose to use our medical billing services, you will be provided with a copy of the HIPAA policy with your first order.

Examples of Disclosure for Treatment, Payment, and Healthcare Operations:
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We will use your health information for payment. In order to determine your eligibility for equipment and/or supplies, DiabeticSupplies.com may contact your insurance company and disclose healthcare related information. Also, DiabeticSupplies.com will bill you or a third-party payer for services that you receive from our company. The health information that identifies you, your diagnosis, equipment, and supplies may be included on this bill.

We will use your health information for healthcare operations. DiabeticSupplies.com may use your health information to evaluate the quality of care you receive from us, to conduct cost management assessments, and to plan business activities. This information is used in an effort to continually improve the quality and effectiveness of the healthcare services we provide.

Special Offers and Updates
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We will send you information on products, special deals and promotions. You may sign up for these emails from us on our home page and various places throughout the site. Out of respect for your privacy, we present the option not to receive these types of communications by emailing us at customerservice@diabeticsupplies.com

Service-Related Announcements
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We will send you service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so.  For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email.

Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.

Cookies
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As a part of our continuing goal to provide outstanding customer service, we often monitor the use of our site with cookies. Cookies are small data files that are transferred onto your computer through our site. They are used in the collection of non-personal information about your use of our site. They also allow you to maintain an account on our site, add items to your shopping cart, and allow us to monitor what our most popular items are. In the process of monitoring our most popular items, we are able to better direct our advertisements and promotions.

We are unable to identify a specific user by the use of these cookies unless you tell us.

The use of cookies by our tracking utility company and service providers is not covered by our privacy policy.  We do not have access or control over these cookies.  Our tracking utility company and service providers use session ID cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site and in order for you to use the shopping cart.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons)

Our third party tracking utility company employs a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. web beacons), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective.  Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users.  In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on Web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.  We do not tie the information gathered by clear gifs to our customers’ personally identifiable information.

Information Sharing & Disclosure
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DiabeticSupplies.com does not sell, share, rent, or trade personal information with third parties other than as disclosed within this privacy policy.

All of the DiabeticSupplies.com products are shipped directly from our warehouse or our vendors. The vendors are only supplied with the shipping information: your name, address, product model name and serial number. The vendors will not be supplied with any personal information, such as your credit card number or any medical information, if provided.

If a credit card is used as your method of payment, your card number will be transmitted to secure web page and will only be saved long enough to complete the transaction. DiabeticSupplies.com uses a credit card processing company to process your purchases. This company will not use your card for any other purposes.

Your information will not be shared with any unauthorized third party, without your explicit permission; unless there is suspected fraud, potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of the DiabeticSupplies.com's terms of use.

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 Web site. 

Linking to Other Web Sites
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The DiabeticSupplies.com website contains links to other sites. Because we cannot control the activities of third parties, we cannot accept responsibility for any use of your personally identifiable information by such third parties, and we cannot gurantee that they will adhere to the same privacy practices as DiabeticSupplies.com.  We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any other service provider from whom you request services.  If you visit a third party website that is linked to DiabeticSupplies.com, you should read that site’s privacy policy before providing any personally identifiable information.

Correspondence
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DiabeticSupplies.com will contact you only to update you on the status of your order, if there any problems with your order, or if you have your items billed to Medicare or insurance that it may be time to place a reorder of covered diabetic supplies, or if you choose so, to be reminded of upcoming promotions.

If you choose to be sent promotional emails through our company, you will receive emails about upcoming promotions and new products and services that DiabeticSupplies.com will offer. These emails will also provide information on how to unsubscribe to our website and mailing list.

If you wish to no longer receive these emails and promotional offers you unsubscribe by following the instructions listed on the bottom of these emails or by calling toll-free at 1-877-SUPPLIES (1-877-787-7543).

Editing & Deleting Account Information
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Our site allows you to correct, update and delete any personal information you provide to us at anytime.

Editing Your Account Information
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You may update your personal information at any time by phone or online:

• Call 1-877-SUPPLIES (1-877-787-7543) Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Pacific Standard Time.  You must verify your current information before we can update any information.

• Sign In and update your account.

Deleting Your Account Information
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If there is any personal information on your account that simply needs to be deleted from our database, or you would like to stop receiving communications, send an email to customerservice@DiabeticSupplies.com with the words “Delete all Data” in the subject area with your name and contact information, in case we have any questions.

Access to E-Health Records
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HITECH expands this right, giving individuals the right to access their own e-health record in an electronic format and to direct DiabeticSupplies.com to send the e-health record directly to a third party.  DiabeticSupplies.com may only charge for labor costs under the new rules.

Accounting of E-Health Records for Treatment, Payment, and Health DiabeticSupplies.com does not currently have to provide an accounting of disclosures of PHI to carry out treatment, payment and health care operations. However, starting January 1, 2014, the Act will require DiabeticSupplies.com to provide an accounting of disclosures through an e-health record to carry out treatment, payment, and health care operations.  This new accounting requirement is limited to disclosures within the three-year period prior to the individual’s request.

Email a friend
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If you choose to use our email a friend feature to email a friend a product that we offer, we will ask for your friends name and email address.  We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to view the product.  DiabeticSupplies.com, Inc. stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of the email a friend program.

Your friend may contact us at customerservice@DiabeticSupplies.com to request that we remove this information from our database.

Customer Reviews
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We post customer reviews on our Web site which may contain personally identifiable information.  We do obtain the customer’s consent via email prior to posting the review to post their name along with their review.

Your Consent
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By using the DiabeticSupplies.com website and the services available to you on the site, you are consenting to our collection and use of your personally identifiable information as described in the Privacy Policy.

Security
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The security of your personal information is important to us.  When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and personal health information) on our registration or order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL). 

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personally identifiable 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.

If you have any questions about security on our Web site, you can email us at customerservice@diabeticsupplies.com

Changes in this Privacy Statement
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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.  If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page.

DiabeticSupplies.com reserves the right to change our practices and to make the new provisions effective for all protected health information we maintain. Should our information practices change, we will mail a revised notice to your address on file and/or maintain a currently copy on our website: www.diabeticsupplies.com.  We will not use or disclose your health information without your authorization, except for treatment, payment and healthcare operations.

Other Necessary Disclosures
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1. Contain a brief description of what happened, including the date of the breach and the date of discovery;
2. The steps the individual should take to protect themselves from potential harm resulting from the breach;
3. A brief description of what DiabeticSupplies.com is doing to investigate the breach, mitigate losses, and to protect against further breaches.

Business Associates
Effective February 2010, DiabeticSupplies.com’s Business Associate Agreements have been amended to provide that all HIPPA security administrative safeguards, physical safeguards, technical safeguards, and security policies, procedures, and documentation requirements apply directly to the business associate.

Cash Patients/Clients
HITECH states that if a patient pays in full for their services out of pocket they may demand that the information regarding the service not be disclosed to the patient’s third party payer since no claim is being made against the third party payer.

Other Uses or Disclosures:
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Business Associates: There are some individuals who are under contract with DiabeticSupplies.com and, from time to time, are engaged in the improvement or financial enhancement of our business. So that your health information is protected, however, we require any business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.

Public Health: As required by law, we may disclose your health information to public health or legal authorities charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability.

Law Enforcement: We may disclose health information for law enforcement purposes as required by law, or in response to a valid subpoena.

Health Oversight Activities: We may disclose health information to health oversight agencies for activities authorized by law, including surveys, audits, and compliance inspections.

Worker's Compensation: We may release your health information to the extent necessary to comply with laws relating to workers compensation or other similar programs established by law.

For More Information:
Please contact DiabeticSupplies.com's Privacy Officer, at (360) 723-9001, if you require additional information and/or want to pursue your rights, including:

• Requesting restrictions;
• Inspecting and copying your record;
• Securing an accounting of disclosures;
• Requesting additional disclosures;
• Revoking authorizations at any time;
• Filing a complaint

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may contact our company's General Manager. You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Office of Civil Rights). There will be no retaliation for filing a complaint.

Contacting Us
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If you would like to contact DiabeticSupplies.com directly, the “Contact Us” link on our website allows you to send us emails regarding questions or comments. We read every message that is sent and try to reply as quickly as possible. We will respond only to information you have supplied to us in the email. Any comments that are sent to DiabeticSupplies.com may be used for improvements to our site, or for the review and discarding of website content.

1. Contacting Our Privacy Officer
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2. If you have questions about your privacy rights, please send an email to customerservice@DiabeticSupplies.com,write, or call our Privacy Officer at:

DiabeticSupplies.com.: Privacy Officer
2210 W. Main St. Suite 107, PMB 388
Battle Ground, WA 98604
Tel: (877)787-7543, ext. 107