PRIVACY STATEMENT

Effective date: June 16, 2020
Last modified: June 9, 2020

Introduction

Health New England (“HNE”) respects your privacy and we are committed to protecting your personal data through our compliance with this Website Privacy Policy.  This policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit any of the following the websites www.healthnewengland.org, www.behealthypartnership.org, hnetalk.com (our "Website") and the portals accessible through that Website (“Portals”), as well as our practices for using, maintaining, protecting, and sharing that information.

You may also wish to see HNE’s Notice of Privacy Practices for information about how HNE treats your protected health information (“PHI”), as well as a summary of HNE’s privacy obligations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”).

Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We collect information from and about users of our Website (i) directly from you when you provide it to us and (ii) automatically as you navigate through the site.

  1. Information You Provide to Us

The information we collect on or through our Website may include:

  • Information you enter into your Portal, which may include information by which you may be personally identified, such as name, postal address, email address, and telephone number.
  • Information associated with your Portal, including, for example, your username, password hint information, and other basic account information you may provide.
  • Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Website.
  • Records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us.
  • Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete through the Website.
  • Your search queries on the Website.
  1. Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns.

Automatically collecting information helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

  • Estimate our audience size and usage patterns;
  • Customize our Website according to your individual interests.
  • Speed up your searches.
  • Recognize you when you return to our Website.

The data we may collect in this manner may include:

  • Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
  • Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

  • Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
  • Web Beacons. Pages of our Website may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that count users who have visited those pages or provide other related website statistics.

If you have included a “Do Not Track” request in your browser settings, Health New England will not collect information using cookies or web beacons.

How We Use Your Information

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any personal information:

  • To present our Website and its contents to you.
  • To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
  • To notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide through it, including the addition of features to Portals.
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features on our Website.
  • To enforce the terms and conditions of any agreement between you and HNE, including our User Agreement.
  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it.
  • In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
  • For any other purpose with your consent.

Selling Your Information

We will not sell you information to any third party for any purpose.  However, HNE reserves the right to transfer your personal information to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of HNE’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by HNE about our Website users is among the assets transferred.

Sharing Your Information

We may share without restriction aggregated information about our users and other information that does not identify you or any other individual.

We may share personal information that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy with contractors, service providers, and other third parties that work with, or on behalf of, HNE or its affiliates to provide products and services or otherwise assist in HNE’s operations.  Companies in this category do not have any independent right to share your information and are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we share it with them. 

We may also share your personal information:

  • To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
  • To enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes.
  • If we believe sharing it is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of HNE, our customers, or others.
  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
  • With your consent.

Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You can review and change certain information you have provided, such as your address, phone number, email address, or contact preference, by logging into your Portal through the website and visiting your account profile page.  If you wish to amend protected health information, please follow the procedure for accessing and amending information in your “designated record set” outlined in the Notice of Privacy Practices. 

Data Security

The security of your personal information is important to HNE.  We have implemented administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect the personal information HNE receives from users of its Website and Portals, as well as other personal information on HNE’s servers.  As discussed above, we require third parties with whom we share personal information to adopt similar precautions to protect personal information.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Website, including Portals, you are responsible for keeping your password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Website. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. If the information you are transmitting involves personal health information or other medical information, please use the secure forms in Portals to communicate with HNE or call HNE’s Member Services Department at 413-787-4004 or 800-310-2835.  We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

Links to Third-Party Sites

HNE may occasionally provide links to other entities’ websites for your convenience in locating health-related information, services, and products.  When you follow links to other websites, please remember that you are leaving HNE’s Website, and that these websites are maintained by organizations that HNE does not control.  HNE is not responsible for the privacy practices of any third-party site.

Children Under the Age of 13

HNE understands the importance of protecting children’s privacy in an interactive online world.  The HNE Website is not designed for or intentionally targeted at children under thirteen (13) years of age, nor is it HNE’s policy to intentionally collect information about anyone under the age of 13.  No one under the age of 13 should submit any personal information to HNE through its Website.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may amend this policy from time to time.  The date the privacy policy was last modified is identified above.  If we make material changes to how we treat our Website users’ personal information, we will notify you through a notice on the Website home page.    

Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns about HNE’s Privacy Policy, please contact us at the telephone number or street address below:

Privacy Officer- Compliance Department

Health New England

One Monarch Place, Suite 1500

Springfield, MA 01144-1500

Local: (413) 787-4004

Toll-free: (800) 310-2835

TTY: 711

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