Privacy and Your Personal Health Information

Please review this privacy policy as it explains how personal health information may used and disclosed.

Purpose:

Blood Assurance collects personal information from you when you donate blood.  This information is used to identify you, provide safety in the blood supply, recruit, match recipients and donors, provide a means for testing and follow-up, and/or any other activities related to your donation that may be necessary as required by law and/or for medical purposes. 

Blood center donors are not covered by HIPAA; however, confidentiality of the donor’s information and protection of such shall be accomplished to the best of our ability and as applicable by law. The information below contains our policy on use and privacy of your information.

How is Your Personal Information Used?

Your personal health information may be used:

·      To contact you regarding appointment day and time.

·      To request a donation from you.

·      To schedule an appointment for you.

·      To provide your name, blood type, and phone number to your volunteer coordinator when you participate in blood drives with your company.

·      To contact you in the event of an emergency that creates an urgent need for your type of blood.

·      To provide appropriate testing information to health providers (e.g. autologous donation, therapeutic donation).

·      To promote internal activities which may include, but is not limited to, quality initiatives, training, licensing/accreditation, evaluation of staff members, insurers of liability or risk management, and/or attorneys as necessary in the course of business.

·      To allow normal business operations (e.g. installation and upgrades to systems where technical representatives may have access to your records).

·      To allow for notification of a family member or responsible person in the event you have a medical emergency while in our care (e.g. adverse reaction information and instruction).

·      To provide appropriate limited information for use in research activities.  A general consent for use of de-identified information is provided at donation.  If identifying information is required, you will be asked to authorize the use of your information in a separate consent, which you may, or may not elect to provide. If you elect no authorization, your information will not be used for such research purposes.

·      As permitted by law:

o   To provide appropriate information for the safety of the blood, and during public health activities to include, but not limited to, state agencies and other required reporting entities for injury, death, reactions, product issues, recalls, disease control and prevention.

o   To provide appropriate information to government and accrediting agencies as necessary for audits, investigations and licensing.

o   To provide for the judicial process as related to any dispute or suit.

o   To provide appropriate information as necessary by court order or other legal request.

o   To authorities of the military, if applicable.

o   To aid in national security and/or intelligence, including protection of the U.S. President and other appropriate persons.

·      To provide information for Blood Assurance fundraising activities (e.g. name, address, phone number). You may at any time refuse to receive communication regarding fundraising.

·      To provide information to you regarding a specific blood need.

·      To encourage you in remaining a blood donor.

·      To aid in prevention of a serious threat to the blood supply and the health and safety of those around us.

·      To provide information during disaster relief, as applicable.

Disclosure of personal information may be used, or disclosed electronically. 

Other Disclosures:

Other than as above, and/or required by law, you may authorize, in writing, to disclose your personal information for any purpose you authorize. Revocation of your authorization may be provided by written means and will be effective as of the date of the written document.

Other Options Regarding Your Health Information:

·       You may request a copy of your personal information in writing.  Proof of identity is required and a fee may be applied for the preparation and sending out of the information.

·       Confidential communication may be requested to be provided by telephone, email/mail, and at locations as specified.

·       Special confidentiality requests may be made in writing regarding your information; however, accommodations may not always be possible.

Additional Data
Additional data may be collected in order to provide operation effectiveness and ensure you are receiving the best possible experience with donation and our company.  Data collected may be related to your contact data and demographics, any passwords and/or security information related to access of your Blood Assurance account on the donor portal (“MyBloodAssurance”), any information necessary to complete your payment for therapeutic phlebotomy, if applicable, along with data related to your use of our services.

Access to Personal Data
Access, view and revise your personal data within the donor portal (“MyBloodAssurance”).  Contact Blood Assurance by clicking the “Contact” button at the bottom of the web page, email address, or phone. 

Communications

Choose whether you wish to receive promotional emails, text, postal mail, or telephone calls by updating contact preferences in the donor portal (“MyBloodAssurance”).  If you do not have a “MyBloodAssurance” account, you may contact our Telerecruiting Department at 1-800-962-0628.  Some communications are required by law (e.g. certain notifications and transactions) and it is not possible to opt out in these cases.

Use of Cookies

Blood Assurance uses cookies (“a string of text that contains information about the browser”) to aid in provision of services and collection of data. Cookies may be used for many purposes, including:

·      Sign in and Authentication for “MyBloodAssurance” account.  A unique ID number is stored, along with the time you sign into your account, in the encrypted cookie on your device.  You may then move from page to page on the website without resigning in for each page.

·      Analytics.  Cookies are used, along with other identifiers, to gather data related to the number of visitors to a web page, as well as, for development of statistics to aid the company in providing the best experience for you as a user. 

Personal Data Security
Blood Assurance is committed to the protection of your personal data.  A variety of procedures and security techniques are in place to protect your data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.

Stored data is on controlled systems in controlled facilities.  Transmission of any personal data is accomplished through the use of encryption.

Changes to the Privacy Policy
This privacy policy may change, as necessary.  Any change(s) made will be applicable to historic and future data. You may request a printed copy of the privacy policy at any time.

Complaints 

Should you believe your privacy has been violated, you may file a complaint through the website by scrolling to the bottom of a webpage, clicking “Contact”, scrolling down to the bottom of the page, and clicking on “For All Other Inquiries”.  Select the reason for your submission and add information as necessary, which will be forwarded to the appropriate person.  You may also contact the company by phone at 1-800-962-0628. Lodging a complaint will in no way affect your relationship with Blood Assurance. 

Contact

Contact Blood Assurance by phone at 1-800-962-0628, postal mail at Blood Assurance, Inc. 705 E 4thSt, Chattanooga, TN 37403, or by email by clicking “Contact” on the web page. Please contact Blood Assurance regarding any complaint, to review your account information, or should you have questions regarding this privacy policy. 

SMS Terms and Conditions

US Short Code Service

This service will be used by Blood Assurance for marketing/alerting purposes to their opt-in guests who have opted in directly to the short code number.

You may contact Blood Assurance at call 1-800-962-0628 if you have any questions or need help enrolling or opting out of text message notifications from Blood Assurance.

How can you opt-in to SMS Text Messaging from Blood Assurance?

Send text message BAGIVE to 999777.

How often will your guest receive text messages?

Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply.

How can you opt-out of SMS Text Messaging from Blood Assurance?

Send text message STOP to 999777.

How can I get more information about Blood Assurance's SMS Text Messaging program?

Please call Blood Assurance at 1-800-962-0628.

Supported Carriers

AT&T, Boost Mobile, T-Mobile, Metro PCS, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, U.S. Cellular, NTelos, Cricket & Virgin Mobile. List may be updated by Blood Assurance at its sole discretion from time to time without other means of prior notice. T-Mobile is not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.