Patients Rights and Privacy

Houston Family Physicians is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how we collect, use, disclose and protect your Personal Information (defined below). It applies to all Personal Information processed by us in connection with or as part of providing our Services or engaging in written or electronic communications with you.

For health systems, virtual healthcare is essential to reaching and serving more people and addressing resource and staff shortages. Virtual healthcare can also be useful for providing second opinions, consultations, chronic condition management, and remote monitoring of certain conditions.

Virtual healthcare is most commonly known as “telehealth” and “telemedicine.” Those terms limit virtual healthcare’s capabilities. In whole or in part, virtual healthcare is the ability to remotely see and engage a patient who is outside of the office no matter the technology used to do so.

This Policy does not:

  • Describe how we collect or use your Protected Health Information (as defined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”)), including information collected for our COVID-related services, which is covered by our Notice of HIPAA Privacy Practices; or
  • Describe how we collect or use Personal Information provided to us or collected by us about a person in the course of the person acting as a job applicant or employee with us, which is covered by our Employee Privacy Notice.

By using or interacting with our website, app, and other products or services (“Services”), you accept the privacy practices described in this Policy. If you disagree with any part of this Policy, you must not use or access our Services.

We may modify this Policy from time to time. The date of change will be shown next to “Last Updated” at the top of this page. We encourage you to read this Policy periodically to ensure you have up-to-date knowledge of our privacy practices. When we make material changes to this Policy, we will provide you with notice before the modifications are effective by sending a message to the email address associated with your account. By continuing to access or use the Services after changes to this Policy become effective, you accept the revised Policy. If any changes are unacceptable to you, you may stop using our Services at any time.

Categories and Sources of Personal Information We Collect

We collect Personal Information when you use our Services, including any COVID-related services, create an account with us or provide Personal Information to us. “Personal Information” is any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly with a particular individual, including, but not limited to, a first and last name, unique identifier, email address, a home, postal or other physical address, and phone number. The categories of Personal Information that we may collect about you are:

a. Information You Provide to Us

We collect information you give us when you register with us for an account, when you use our Services, when you participate in surveys or promotional activities, give us feedback, or when you otherwise choose to provide your information to us.

  • When you sign up for an account we may collect your name, address, phone number, email address, race, ethnicity, title, birth date, sex, gender identification, credit card information, together with other information such as occupation and personal interests. We may also ask you about income or other financial information to determine if you qualify for a waiver of the Annual Membership Fee or other fees where applicable.
  • When you use our Services, such as logging into your account or speaking with our administrative staff, we may collect your name, address, email address, phone number, birth date, credit card information, audio (with your permission), photos and videos (with your permission), or other files in media storage or other shared storage directories (with your permission), and/or request access to your microphone or camera in order to verify your identity and provide Services to you.
  • From time-to-time, we invite users to volunteer to participate in surveys or promotional activities or give us feedback. When a user participates, we request certain Personal Information such as name and email address. We may use this information to follow-up with the participants, or, if applicable, to notify contest winners and award prizes.

 

b. Communications from You

When you use our Services (for example on our website), complete electronic forms, or contact us by online chat, email, phone, or text, we may automatically collect and store certain information about you and the activity you engaged in, for example: your name and contact information; information that you voluntarily provide to us; the nature of your communication; the purpose of the interaction, and the action we took in response to your inquiry or request.

 

c. Information Related to Your Use of the Services

We may automatically collect information about your use of the Services (we refer to this information as “Usage Data”), including information sent by your device. For example, we may collect:

  • Device information, such as your hardware model, IP address (the Internet address of your computer), unique device identifiers, and other information such as your browser type and operating system.
  • Website usage information regarding customer traffic patterns and website usage. This may include the web page that you were visiting before accessing our website or mobile application, the pages or features of our website or mobile application you browsed to inform us which part of our website, app and Services you visit and how much time you spend there.
  • Information about your preferences to make your use of the website more productive through the use of cookies.

 

d. Information Sent by Your Mobile Devices

We collect certain information that your mobile devices send when you use our Services, such as the unique identifier, user settings and the operating system of your device, as well as information about your use of our services on your mobile device.

 

e. Location Information

When you use our online Services, we may collect and store information about your general location by converting your IP address into a rough geo-location, so we can, for example, provide you with information about services available in your geographic market. We may also access your mobile device’s GPS coordinates or course location, but only if you have previously agreed that we can collect this information by allowing the sharing of your location information. If you do not want us to have your location information, you may disable the location sharing feature on your device or browser.

 

f. Information from Our Clients and Partners

We may receive your Personal Information from our business clients and partners, such as your employer, in connection with one or more business purposes, including to make our Services available to you.