Easter Seals Disability Services

Easter Seals Online Network Privacy Policy

Notification of Change
The Information We Collect
Opting Out
Your California Privacy Rights
Correct/Update Your Profile
Aggregate Information
Cookies
Security of Your Information
Tell-A-Friend, Ecards and Personal Fundraising Pages
Links to Other Web Sites
Information from Children
Transmission of Health-Related Data

Welcome to the Easter Seals Online Network, the Web site of Easter Seals, Inc. (Easter Seals headquarters) and participating Easter Seals affiliates across the country.

Because Easter Seals values the privacy of constituents visiting the Easter Seals Online Network, users of the Easter Seals Online Network have the right to manage their own personal information.

You can contact Easter Seals for more information related to the privacy of the information you provide online:

Mail:  233 South Wacker Drive, Suite 2400, Chicago, IL 60606.
Phone:  312-726-6200
Online:  Click here to contact Easter Seals via email. Your request will be answered within 2-3 business days.

Notification of Change
Easter Seals reserves the right to change this policy at any time. Easter Seals privacy policy will be kept up-to-date and clearly posted on our Web site.

The Information We Collect
On many pages of the Easter Seals Online Network -- in particular when donating online, completing an action alert, registering for a special event, purchasing a product, or completing various feedback forms -- visitors are asked to list name, address, and other personal contact information. Information collected is specifically and knowingly provided by site visitors and may include name, email address, format preference (HTML vs. text), address, telephone number, interests and other similar information. Collecting this information helps Easter Seals to better provide site visitors with relevant and useful content.

Easter Seals has partnered with Convio, Inc. to power the Web content, email and transaction processing capabilities to serve our constituents and fulfill our mission on the Internet. Convio, Inc. is an Internet software and services company that provides online electronic Constituent Relationship Management (eCRM) solutions for nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions. Convio will not disclose your name or other personally identifiable information (such as your e-mail address or phone number) to any party other than Easter Seals.

Neither Easter Seals nor Convio store sensitive information such as credit card numbers. When an online transaction is completed through the Easter Seals Online Network, such as a charitable contribution, credit card information is used solely for the purpose of completing that specific transaction and is not retained in the Easter Seals or Convio database.

Easter Seals will not sell, share or exchange personal contact information collected from this Web site with other organizations. If a user has a previous relationship with Easter Seals through another channel (i.e., mail, phone), Easter Seals will occasionally rent or exchange those names and addresses with other organizations as a way of providing extra funds to help support services. If you do not want to participate in this program, please let us know.

Visitors to the Easter Seals Online Network are not required to share any personally identifiable information. Users who do not wish to share personal information when visiting the Easter Seals Online Network can still access the Network's Web pages and the valuable information provided.

Opting Out
Easter Seals provides site visitors with the opportunity to opt-out of receiving our online and offline communications.

If you would like to opt-out of receiving email communications please update your user profile. Email unsubscribe requests are processed immediately.

To discontinue the receipt of postal mail, please contact Easter Seals. Shortly, Easter Seals will be adding the capability to remove your name from our postal mailing list online. You'll need to register as user of the Easter Seals Online Network. Please note: there is a 8-12 week lapse period due to the fact that a subsequent mailing may already be in production. If you do receive another mailing, please disregard it.

Your California Privacy Rights
To review a special notice for California residents only per California Privacy Law (SB27): Exchanging, Renting, Reselling Personal Information, please visit the "Your California Privacy Rights" section. 

Correct/Update Your Profile
Easter Seals offers the option to change and modify personally identifiable information. Upon your request, Easter Seals will remove personally identifying information retained in organizational databases. If you are a registered user of this site, you can access your Easter Seals profile and update your contact information and user preferences by clicking here.

Easter Seals reserves the right to maintain information on users who have had their access to the Easter Seals Online Network blocked.

Aggregate Information
Demographic and profile data (i.e., age, gender, browser usage) is also collected via the Easter Seals Online Network. Easter Seals uses such data to improve marketing and promotional efforts, statistically analyze site usage, improve content and product offerings and to customize site content, layout, and services. Additionally, this data may be shared with third parties on an aggregated basis. Easter Seals does not share personally identifying information with third parties, except to a court or governmental agency if required by law and as stated above in the section titled "The Information We Collect."

Cookies
A cookie is a small text file a Web site places on a site visitor’s computer hard drive. Its purpose is to let the site know when a user visits and to perform certain functions such as saving passwords and personal preferences.
 
Cookies help evaluate visitors' use of a Web site, such as what viewers want to see and what they never read. This information allows Easter Seals to better focus online information and to concentrate on information people are using.

Your browser is probably set to accept cookies. If you would like to turn this feature off, you will need to change the settings of your Internet browser.

Security of Your Information
All credit card and personal profile information provided to Easter Seals or our Internet software partner, Convio, Inc., is transmitted using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption using Verisign as a payment gateway. SSL is a proven coding system that allows a browser to automatically encrypt, or scramble, data before it is sent.

Easter Seals also protects account information by placing it on a secure portion of the Easter Seals Online Network that is only accessible by certain qualified employees of Easter Seals. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. Easter Seals strives to protect your information, however cannot ensure or warrant the security of such information.

Tell-A-Friend, Ecards and Personal Fundraising Pages
If you elect to use the referral service to inform a friend about a page on the Easter Seals Online Network, send an ecard, or raise funds for Easter Seals by soliciting friends and family, you will be asked for the friend's name and email address. Easter Seals will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the site. Easter Seals stores this information to send this one-time email only. In addition, the contact information will be maintained solely for the future convenience of the individual who provided the information -- to send subsequent ecards or fundraising reminders/updates.

Links to Other Web Sites
Easter Seals has links to other Web sites outside of the Easter Seals Online Network. Easter Seals is not responsible for the content of any linked Web site, or any link contained in a linked Web site, or any changes or updates to such Web sites. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by Easter Seals of that Web site.

In addition, please be aware that Easter Seals is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other Web sites. Easter Seals encourages you to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that requests personal information from you.

Information from Children
Easter Seals does not seek to collect personal information about children through the Easter Seals Online Network. If a child submits information through any part of the Network, and Easter Seals is aware that the user submitting the information is a child, the information is not used for any purpose, nor is it disclosed to third parties. Easter Seals will comply with all regulations set forward by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). To learn more about COPPA, visit the Federal Trade Commission.

Transmission of Health-Related Data
Easter Seals understands the sensitivity of collecting and using health-related data. Personally identifiable health-related data collected on the Easter Seals Online Network will not be shared with entities other than Easter Seals, Inc., and Easter Seals affiliates. Any transfer of personally identifiable health-related data between Easter Seals organizations will take place in a secure environment with access allowed only to certain qualified employees of Easter Seals. Easter Seals will comply with all regulations set forward by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). To learn more about HIPAA, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights.

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

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.

Effective Date of Notice: April 14, 2004

Who will follow this notice
This notice describes the health information practices of the Flexible Spending Plan (the “Plan”) and that of any third party that receives medical information from or for us to assist us in providing your flex spending benefits.

Our pledge to you
We understand that medical information about you and your health is personal.  We are committed to protecting medical information about you.

This notice is required by the Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information regulations (the “Rule”).  This notice will tell you about the ways in which we may use or disclose medical information about you.  It also describes our obligations and your rights regarding the use and disclosure of medical information.

We are required by law to:

•  make sure that medical information that identifies you is kept private;
•  give you this notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to medical information about you; and
• follow the terms of the notice that is currently in effect.

How the Plan may use and disclose your medical information
The following categories describe different ways that we use and disclose medical information, as permitted by law.  The Plan, its business associates, and their agents/subcontractors, if any, will use or disclose medical information to carry out treatment, payment and health care operations.

In addition, the Plan may contact you to provide information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.  The Plan will disclose your medical information toEaster Seals Wisconsin (“Plan Sponsor”) for purposes related to treatment, payment and health care operations.  The plan sponsor has amended it plan documents to protect your medical information as required by the Rule.

Treatment means the provision, coordination, or management of health care by one or more health care providers, or a health care provider and a third party.

Payment means activities undertaken by a health plan to determine coverage responsibilities and payment obligations for the provision of health care, or activities undertaken by a health care provider, or a health plan to obtain or provide reimbursement for health care.

For example, the Plan may disclose to your provider that you are eligible for benefits.
 
Health Care Operations means activities directly related to the provision of health care or the processing of health information.  This includes internal quality oversight review, credentialing and health care provider evaluation, underwriting, insurance rating and other activities related to creation, renewal or replacement of a contract of health insurance or health benefits.

For example, the Plan may use medical information about you to project future benefit costs.

The Plan will disclose medical information about you when required by federal, state or local law.

The Plan may use and disclose medical information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person.

The Plan may disclose medial information if you are a member of the armed forces and this is required by military command authorities.

The Plan may disclose medical information about you for workers’ compensation or similar programs as required by law.

The Plan may disclose medical information about you for public health activities.  These activities may include the following:

•  to prevent or control disease, injury or disability;
• to report child abuse or neglect;
• to report reactions to medications or problems with products;
• to notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or condition;
• to notify the appropriate government authority if we believe a patient has been the victim of abuse or domestic violence.  We will only make this disclosure if you agree or when required or authorized by law.

The Plan may disclose medical information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law.

The plan may disclose medical information about you if you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute and we are responding to a court or administrative order.  Also, the Plan may disclose medical information about you in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process by someone else involved in the dispute.

The Plan may disclose medical information about you if asked to do so by law enforcement official, such as:

•  in response to a court order, subpoena, warrant, summons or similar process;
  
• to identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness or missing person;
• about the victim of a crime if we are unable to obtain the person’s agreement;
• about a death we believe may be the result of criminal conduct;
• about criminal conduct, including laws that require the reporting of certain types of wounds.

The Plan may disclose medical information to a coroner or medical examiner for the purpose of identifying a deceased person, determining a cause of death or other duties as authorized by law.  Also, disclosure to funeral directors, as necessary to carry out their duties, is permitted.
 
Your Rights
You have the following rights regarding medical information the Plan maintains about you:

You have the right to request an inspection and copy of medical information of your medical information contained in a “designated record set,” for as long as the Plan maintains your medical information in the designated record set.

“Designated record set,” means a group of records maintained by or for a health plan that is enrollment, payment, claims adjudication and care or medical management record systems maintained by or for a health plan; or used in whole or in part by or for the health plan to make decisions about individuals.  Information used for quality control or peer review analyses and not used to make decisions about individual is not in the designated record set.

The Plan has the right to charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for providing a copy of your medical information or summary or explanation of your medical information.

The Plan has the right to deny your request to inspect and copy in certain very limited circumstances.  If you are denied access to medical information, you may request that the denial be reviewed.

If you feel the medical information the Plan has about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask the Plan to amend the information.  You have a right to request an amendment for as long as the information is kept by the Plan.

To request an amendment, your request must be in writing and should be addressed to the following individual: Privacy Officer, Director of Human Resources. All requests for amendment of your medical information must include a reason to support the requested amendment.

The Plan may deny your request for an amendment if it is not in writing or does not include a reason to support the request.  In addition, the Plan may deny your request if you ask to amend information that:

•  is not part of the medical information kept by or for the Plan;
• was not created by the Plan, unless the person or entity that created the information is no longer available to make the amendment;
• is not part of the information which you would be permitted to inspect and copy; or
• is accurate and complete.

You have the right to request an “accounting of disclosures,” where such disclosure was made for any purpose other than treatment, payment or health care operations.  Additionally, no accounting of disclosures will be made for the following reasons:

•  if the disclosure was made to the individual about his or her own medical information;
•  if the disclosure was made pursuant to an authorization;
• if the disclosure was made to certain person involved in your care or payment for your care;
• if the disclosure was made prior to the compliance date of April 14, 2004.

To request an accounting of disclosures, address your request to the following individual:  Privacy Officer, Director of Human Resources.

If you request more than one accounting in a 12-month period, the Plan can charge a reasonable, cost-based fee for each subsequent accounting, unless you withdraw or modify the request for a subsequent accounting to avoid or reduce the fee.

You have the right to request a restriction or limitation on the medical information the Plan uses or discloses about you for treatment, payment or health care operations.  You also have the right to request a limit on the medical information the Plan discloses about you to someone who is involved in your care or payment for your care, such as friends or family members.

The Plan is not required to agree with your request.

To request restrictions, you must make your request in writing to the following individual: Privacy Officer, Director of Human Resources. The request must include (a) what information you want to limit, (b) whether you want to limit the Plan’s use, disclosure or both, and (c) to whom you want the limits to apply.

You have the right to request to receive communications of your medical information from the Plan by alternative means or at alternative locations if you clearly state that the disclosure of all or part of the information could endanger you.  The Plan will accommodate all such reasonable requests.

You will be required to request confidential communications of your medical information in writing.  The request should be addressed to the following individual Privacy Officer, Director of Human Resources.

You have the right to a paper copy of this notice.  You may ask the Plan 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.

To obtain a paper copy of this notice, contact the following individual Privacy Officer, Director of Human Resources.

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may complain to the Plan.  Any complaint must be in writing and addressed to the following individual Privacy Officer, Director of Human Resources.

You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The Plan will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.  The Plan will only release the minimum amount of PHI necessary to complete the required task or request.

Other uses or disclosures of your medical information not covered by this notice or the laws that apply will be made only with your written authorization, subject to your right to revoke such authorization.  You may revoke the authorization at any time, providing the revocation is done in writing.  You understand that the Plan is unable to take back any disclosures already made with your permission.