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 of Easter Seals Middle Georgia

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed by the department and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully. This notice is effective April 14, 2003. It is provided to you pursuant to provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and related federal regulations. If you have questions about this Notice please contact the Departments' Privacy Officer or Division's Privacy Coordinator at the address below.

Easter Seals Middle Georgia is responsible for numerous programs which deal with medical and other confidential information. Both federal and state laws establish strict requirements for most programs regarding the disclosure of confidential information, and Easter Seals must comply with those laws. For situations where stricter disclosure requirements do not apply, this Notice of Privacy Practices describes how Easter Seals may use and disclose your protected health information for treatment, payment, health care operations and for certain other purposes. This notice also describes your rights to access and control your protected health information, and provides information about your right to make a complaint if you believe Easter Seals has improperly used or disclosed your "protected health information." Protected health information is information that may personally identify you and relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services. Easter Seals is required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices by posting copies at its facilities, publication on the Department's website, in response to a telephone or facsimile request to the Privacy Officer, or in person at any facility where you receive services.

Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information:

Your protected health information may be used and disclosed by Easter Seals, its administrative and clinical staff, and others involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing health care services to you, and to assist in obtaining payment of your health care bills.

• a. Treatment: Your protected health information may be used to provide, coordinate, or manage your health care and any related services, including coordination of your health care with a third party that has your permission to have access to your protected health information, such as, for example, a health care professional who may be treating you, or to another health care provider such as a specialist or laboratory.
• b. Payment: Your protected health information may be used to obtain payment for your health care services. For example, this may include activities that a health insurance plan requires before it approves or pays for health care services such as: making a determination of eligibility or coverage, reviewing services provided to you for medical necessity, and undertaking utilization review activities.
• c. Health Care Operations: Easter Seals may use or disclose your protected health information to support the business activities of Easter Seals, including, for example, but not limited to, quality assessment activities, employee review activities, training, licensing, and other business activities. Your protected health information may be used to contact you about appointments or for other operational reasons. Your protected health information may be shared with third party "business associates" who perform various activities that assist us in the provision of your services.2.Other Permitted or Required Uses and Disclosures with Your Authorization or Opportunity to Object:
  Other uses and disclosures of your protected health information will be made only with your written authorization, which you may revoke at any time, except as permitted or required by law as described below. Generally, if there is protected health information which identifies you as a person who has applied for or received substance abuse services, that information will not be disclosed without your consent unless the law allows or requires such a disclosure. Easter Seals may use and disclose your protected health information when you authorize in writing such use or disclosure of all or part of your protected health information. If you are hospitalized, Easter Seals may use and disclose certain protected health information to your representative, as that term is defined in the Georgia Mental Health Code, upon your admission or discharge; you may be given a chance to object to certain other disclosures to your representative.

Permitted or Required Uses and Disclosures without Your Authorization or Opportunity to Object:

Easter Seals may use or disclose your protected health information without your authorization for continuity of your care or for your treatment in an emergency or when clinically required; when required to do so by law; for public health purposes; to a person who may be at risk of contracting a communicable disease; to a health oversight agency; to an authority authorized to receive reports of abuse or neglect; in certain legal proceedings; and for certain law enforcement purposes. Protected health information may be also be disclosed without your authorization to a coroner or medical examiner, and to the legal representative of your estate.

Required Uses and Disclosure:

Under the law, Easter Seals must make disclosures to you and when required by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to investigate or determine Easter Seals compliance with the requirements of the Privacy Rule at 45 CFR Sections 164.500 et. seq.

Your Rights:

The following is a statement of your rights with respect to your protected health information and a brief description of how you may exercise these rights.

• You have the right to inspect and copy your protected health information. You may inspect and obtain a copy of protected health information about you for as long as Easter Seals maintains the protected health information. This information includes medical and billing records and other records the company uses for making medical and other decisions about you. A reasonable, cost-based fee for copying, postage and labor expense may apply. Under federal law you may not inspect or copy psychotherapy notes; information compiled in anticipation of, or for use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding, or protected health information that is subject to a federal or state law prohibiting access to such information.
• You have the right to request restriction of your protected health information. You may ask Easter Seals not to use or disclose any part of your protected health information for the purposes of treatment, payment or healthcare operations, and not to disclose protected health information to family members or friends who may be involved in your care. Such a request must state the specific restriction requested and to whom you want the restriction to apply. Easter Seals is not required to agree to a restriction you request, and if Easter Seals believes it is in your best interest to permit use and disclosure of your protected health information, your protected health information will not be restricted, except as required by law. If Easter Seals does agree to the request restriction, Easter Seals Middle Georgia may not use or disclose your protected health information in violation of that restriction unless it is needed to provide emergency treatment.
• You have the right to request to receive confidential communications from us by alternative means or at an alternative location. Upon written request to a person listed in section 6 below, Easter Seals will accommodate reasonable requests for alternative means of the communication of confidential information, but may condition this accommodation upon your provision of an alternative address or other method of contact. Easter Seals will not request an explanation from you as to the basis for the request.
• You may have the right to request amendment of your protected health information. If Easter Seals Middle Georgia created your protected health information, you may request an amendment of that information for as long as it is maintained by Easter Seals. Easter Seals may deny your request for an amendment, and if it does so, will provide information as to any further rights you may have with respect to such denial. Please contact one of the persons listed in section 6 below if you have questions about amending your medical information.
• You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures Easter Seals has made of your protected health information. This right applies only to disclosures for purposes other than treatment, payment or healthcare operations, excluding any disclosures Easter Seals made to you, to family members or friends involved in your care, or for national security, intelligence or notification purposes. You have the right to receive legally specified information regarding disclosures occurring after April 14, 2003, subject to certain exceptions, restrictions and limitations.
• You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice from Easter Seals, upon request.

Complaints:

You may complain to us and to the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated. You may file a complaint by notifying the Privacy Officer of the basis for your complaint. Easter Seals will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint. You may contact the Privacy Officer by telephone (478) 275-8850, facsimile (478) 275-8852, or by mail to P. O. Box 847, Dublin, Georgia 31040, OR to the staff for further information about the complaint process or this notice.