Welcome to Portamedic Direct.
We greatly appreciate your business and trust in our services. As a provider of
paramedical services to the insurance industry that involves compiling personal—and
sometimes, sensitive—information, protecting the confidentiality of that information
has been, and will continue to be, a top priority at Portamedic Direct.
We at Portamedic Direct are thoroughly committed to protecting the privacy and security
of your visit to our website. Outlined below is our online privacy policy:
Whether you are a current customer, former customer, or potential customer, we believe
that you should know about the information we collect, the measures we take to safeguard
it, and the limited circumstances in which we may share the information collected.
1. We collect only the information necessary to consistently deliver responsive
services to the insurance industry.
The information we collect, and the extent to which we use it, will vary depending
on the level of paramedical services provided.
Portamedic Direct only collects information that helps serve the insurance industry
by completing paramedical exams on the proposed insured which include obtaining
the required laboratory specimens and paperwork while fulfilling legal and regulatory
requirements by remaining HIPAA compliant.
The information collected generally varies depending on the products or services
requested and may include:
- For example, name, age, gender, address, contact information, Social Security number,
Driver’s License information, policy amount, carrier name, product type, necessary
laboratory requirements, paperwork and any special instructions.
Portamedic Direct is authorized by its clients to act as their representatives in
obtaining information on individuals regarding the following:
- Health history
- Medical information
- Family history
- Lifestyle character
- General reputation
- Habits, use of alcohol and other drugs
- Marital status
- Past and present employment and job duties
- Finances
- Other insurance coverage
- Participation in hazardous hobbies or activities
2. We maintain safeguards to protect privacy and information security.
We have implemented security standards and processes—including physical, electronic
and procedural safeguards. For example, we use commercially reasonable tools and
techniques to protect against unauthorized access to our systems, including technical
barriers that together form a protective firewall around the information stored
at this site. We periodically subject our site to simulated intrusion tests and
have developed comprehensive disaster recovery plans. We limit access to customer
information to employees, registered representatives or agents who may need it to
perform their jobs. These individuals are trained to respect the confidentiality
of your personal information and understand their duty to safeguard it.
Your own efforts to protect against unauthorized access play an important role in
protecting the security of your personal information. You should be sure to log
off when finished using a shared computer, and must log out of any site when viewing
personal information.
3. We restrict the sharing of customer information with anyone for use in marketing.
First and foremost, we do not sell or share customer or proposed insured information
with outside parties who want to market their products to you. Portamedic Direct will
not share any information with any one for marketing purposes.
Similarly, we will not share personal information with third-party financial services
entities, such as banks, credit unions, credit union service corporations, insurance
companies, or securities broker-dealers, for purposes of joint marketing unless
you direct us to, or unless we notify you first and give you a chance to say no.
4. We share proposed insured information as necessary for business, regulatory,
and servicing purposes.
We will share proposed insured information to facilitate or service a paramedical
order you have requested, but only in accordance with Federal or state law. For
example:
- The proposed insured’s information (e.g., name, address, age, and Social Security
number) as well as a Part 1 application, Part 2 paramedical exam, and any laboratory
specimens will be sent to the insurance carrier’s laboratory of choice for processing.
The laboratory will then forward all documentation and specimen results onto the
respective insurance carriers for underwriting purposes.
- We may share or exchange information with companies engaged to work with us, such
as third-party administrators and vendors hired to effect, administer or enforce
a transaction that you request or authorize, or to develop or maintain software.
We require these companies to maintain the confidentiality of customer information
and use it only for the purpose for which it was provided.
- The requestor, agent, agency or insurance carrier may also have access to view their
paramedical orders.
We may also share customer and/or proposed insured information in accordance with,
or as required by, law or regulation (e.g., in response to a subpoena, to prevent
fraud, and to comply with rules of, or inquiries from, industry regulators).
5. Browser information collected on Portamedic Direct's web site.
We log IP addresses, which are the locations of computers or networks on the Internet,
and analyze them in order to improve the value of our site. In addition, we log
the number of visits for troubleshooting purposes and record authentication credentials
to comply with auditing requirements and assist in investigation of customer-initiated
service requests. We do not gather, request, record, require, collect or track any
Internet users' Personal Information through these processes.
You should also be aware that when you visit our website, we collect certain information
that does not identify you personally, but provides us with "usage data," such as
the number of visitors we receive or what pages are visited most often. This data
helps us to analyze and improve the usefulness of the information we provide at
our website.
Like most commercial website owners, we use what is known as "cookie" technology.
A "cookie" is an element of data that a website can send to your browser when you
link to that website. It is not a computer program and has no ability to read data
residing on your computer or instruct it to perform any step or function. By assigning
a unique data element to each visitor, our website is able to recognize repeat users,
track usage patterns and better serve you when you return to that site. The cookie
does not extract other personal information about you, such as your name or address.
Session specific or persistent cookies may be used on Portamedic Direct's website to
improve the user experience, for basic web metrics or to help maintain the integrity
of your web site session. These cookies expire in a very short time frame or when
a browser window closes and are permitted by current Federal guidelines.
6. Link to Other Websites
From time to time, Portamedic Direct's website may provide links to other websites,
not owned or controlled by Portamedic Direct, that we think might be useful or of
interest to you. We cannot, however, be responsible for the privacy practices used
by other website owners or the content or accuracy of those other websites. Links
to various non-Portamedic Direct websites do not constitute or imply endorsement by
Portamedic Direct of these websites, any products or services described on these sites,
or of any other material contained in them.
7. Policy Modifications
We will revise or update this policy if our practices change, or as we develop better
ways to keep you informed about them. Please refer back to this page for the latest
information and the effective date of any changes. If we decide to change this policy,
we will post a new policy on our site and update the date at the bottom. This statement
is not intended to and does not create any contractual or other legal rights in
or on behalf of any party.
8. Opt Out
Portamedic Direct does not use the information it obtains on behalf of its clients
(agent, requestor, agency or insurance carrier). Therefore, if an individual desires
to opt out of having the information used for any purpose, the individual should
address this option with Portamedic Direct's client (agent, requestor, agency or insurance
carrier) when the individual provides the authorization to release information to
Portamedic Direct's client (agent, requestor, agency or insurance carrier). However,
when Portamedic Direct makes a direct inquiry of the individual for the information,
there is an opportunity presented for the individual to opt out of providing the
information requested. In these instances, the individual need only decline to provide
the requested material. In all other instances, Portamedic Direct only gathers and
discloses the information pursuant to the individual’s written authorization obtained
by Portamedic Direct's clients (agent, requestor, agency or insurance carrier).
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the APPS Executive
Office at (516) 822-6230.
Updated: August 13, 2018