Privacy Policy

This privacy statement was last updated in August of 2009.

Introduction

The primary goal of Santa Clara Family Health Plan (SCFHP) is to provide quality, comprehensive health care for those who do not have access to, or who are not able to purchase, health care coverage at an affordable price. In doing so, we strive to protect any personal and health care information that we have about you. Our confidentiality and privacy practices for this web site are described below.

Personal Information

When you log into the SCFHP web site, we create a record with your current internet address, the type of operating system you are using, and the type of browser software you are running. We may also keep track of what portions of the web site you visit. We compile this information to help us manage the site and provide useful functionality to users of the site. For instance, we may update more frequently those parts of the web site that are heavily visited.

When you visit the SCFHP web site, we do not know who you are, unless you choose to identify yourself to us. You are not required to provide us with personal information to use our web site, unless we expressly say so in a particular portion of the site. For instance, certain parts of our web site require you to provide identifying information and use individual passwords in order to submit personal information or to access personal information that you have previously given to us. You also may have to provide personal information, such as your name, address, e-mail address and phone number, to use certain features of the website (such as to file a member grievance). You may choose to avoid accessing these protected portions of the site in order to remain anonymous.

Security

If you do choose to provide us with personal information, the information is kept in secured databases. All personal information in our computers is protected from unauthorized access by a secure firewall and other database architectural elements. Only SCFHP personnel, authorized medical providers, and those staff members who have a legitimate business reason to access your personal information (such as those individuals in Member Services) may access your personal information.

Some areas of this website use encryption (data scrambling) to promote secure communication of personal information with you. Other areas of the website use no encryption. If you need to send confidential information, you should check to see if the information being transmitted is encrypted in order to increase the security of your information. A padlock will appear in the lower right hand corner of your browser when encryption is being used. You can also check to see that the website address at the top of the browser is prefixed with https. The 's' indicates that this portion of the site is secured with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption software. If you are worried about the security of the website area you are in, you may want to provide personal information by phone or registered mail instead of electronically.

Cookies

A cookie is a small information file that a web site maintains on your computer. It may be stored in a file on your desktop or hard drive. A cookie contains information about you, the web site user.

At this time, the site maintains a small set of cookies. For instance, the cookie scfhp_lang_pref is used for the purpose of remembering the user language preference setting. None of our cookies contain sensitive medical information, and all carry the prefix "scfhp_".

Disclosure of Personal Information

SCFHP treats your personal information as confidential. However, we may disclose this information to SCFHP personnel or authorized medical providers and their staff who need it to administer the health plan (for example, to respond to your inquiries or to help you if you forget your password). SCFHP may also disclose your personal information to third parties when we believe it is required by law or necessary in order for us to administer the health plan (for example, to help us make benefit or eligibility decisions or to respond to a grievance or a request for information or assistance.

If you choose to participate in our health education programs, your personal information may also be used to allow us to send you customized health care information from time to time. We do not share personal information gathered at this website with SCFHP staff or with third parties, unless there is a legitimate business reason or unless required by law.

SCFHP will not use your personal information for any promotional or marketing purposes without your permission.

Opt In

You will be given the choice of receiving correspondence from the website and information from third parties, such as information on new products, health information, and educational information. To receive this information, you will have to "opt in" by checking a box on the screen. If you do not opt in, we will assume that you do not want to receive communications from us (or one of our third party associates), and we will not send any information except that which we are required by law to send.

Medical Privacy (HIPPA)

The privacy of your medical information is ensured via HIPPA and its Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule provides federal protections for personal health information held by covered entities and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information. At the same time, the Privacy Rule allows for the disclosure of personal health information needed for patient care and other purposes.

You may wish to download and review the following document, entitled "Your Health Information Privacy Rights", to gain a better understanding of medical privacy and your rights. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view this file, and is available for download here).

 Your Health Information Privacy Rights

For more about HIPPA and the privacy rights it guarantees, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services privacy page.

Additional Rights

You may have additional rights not described in this policy, under applicable law.

Updates

Please review this Privacy Statement periodically for changes and updates. SCFHP reserves the right to make changes to any section of this website, including this Privacy Statement. To notify you of when this Privacy Statement was last revised, please see the Last Revision Date section at the beginning of this Statement.