Your privacy is important to us. We understand that your health is a very personal subject and we want you to feel as comfortable as possible using this Web site.  That's why we take our responsibility to protect the privacy of your personal information very seriously. This notice describes how we manage and protect your personal information. It also describes how information may be used and disclosed and how you may exercise your rights with regard your personal information. PLEASE REVIEW THIS POLICY CAREFULLY.

Summary of Privacy Policy

As a health care organization, HealthPartners is required by law to maintain the privacy of your personal information and abide by the terms of this Privacy Policy. However, privacy as it applies to the Internet is a rapidly developing area. To keep your personal information as safe as possible, we reserve the right to change the terms of this Privacy Policy and to make the new provisions effective for information we maintain. We do not notify users of these changes, so you should check the posted Privacy Policy each time you access this site. Your use of this site constitutes your agreement to these terms and conditions of use.

Information you voluntarily provide us through this online health program and Internet site is necessary to process your registration, including secure e-commerce transaction. All data is kept secure, in compliance with the federal regulations now and in the future. Under state and federal law, we may use and disclose your personal information to carry out activities related to your participating in this program, payment for your registration and our health care operations, as well as for other purposes permitted or required by law.  In general, it is our policy to use and disclose your personal information only to the extent reasonably necessary to conduct those activities.  We permit access to your personal information by our staff and others only to the extent that they need that information to do their jobs. 

This Privacy Policy applies only to your use of this Web site. Under state and federal law, you have the right to: access, copy or amend your personal information; request restrictions on the use or disclosure of your information; request that we communicate with you in alternative forms; and receive an accounting of certain disclosures of your personal information.  You also have the right to receive a paper copy of this Privacy Policy, and to file a complaint with us or with certain government agencies if you believe that we have violated your privacy rights. These rights, and how you may exercise them, are described in more detail below.

What is "Personal Information"? 

"Personal information" is information that can be used to identify or contact you.  For example, we collect personal information that you choose to share with us in the registration, health risk assessment, or health management portions of our site. Besides demographic information being necessary to complete your registration, information collected may include data for billing and/or shipping purposes, such as: your name, address, phone number, email address, date of birth, gender, or credit card number. Information may also result from your doing business with us or our affiliates, such as contacting us to process a request or referral or asking about coverage determinations. Health information may be collected, with your permission only, through the answers you provide to survey questions and may be updated or deleted by you prior to completion of the survey or program.

What information is automatically collected and stored?

When you browse through any Web site, certain personal information about you can be collected. Our Web server software automatically collects and temporarily stores the following information about each visit for statistical purposes: access date and time, browser type, pages visited, and IP address. We use this information to help us make our site more useful to visitors.

How are IP addresses used?

An IP address is a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you access the Internet. Your IP address allows your computer and server to recognize and communicate with ours. We collect IP addresses and certain information about your computer to properly administer our system, maintain service quality, and gather aggregate information to help us enhance the design of the site. To maintain your anonymity, we do not associate IP addresses with any records that contain personally identifiable information. However, we will use IP addresses to personally identify you if we need to enforce our legal rights or if required to do so by law enforcement authorities.

How are cookies used? 

We may collect information through the use of "cookies." Cookies are small data files, which the Web site places in the browser file of your computer's hard drive. Our Web site assigns every computer a different cookie. Cookies allow us to quickly identify your browser to our server whenever you interact with this Web site. We use cookies to ensure only you have access to your confidential account and health information. Our use of a cookie is not linked in any way to your personally identifiable information while on the Web site. Cookies also help ensure that your session remains secure by maintaining an identifier unique to your session and logging you off the Web site automatically after a certain period of inactivity. We do not use persistent cookies; each cookie is deleted automatically after a set time or when you close your Web browser. Most browsers automatically accept cookies. If you change your browser setting to reject cookies you will not be able to access the health assessment.

How does HealthPartners use or disclose my personal information?

To administer this online program, we may share your personal information — with our affiliates or with nonaffiliated parties — only to the extent reasonably necessary to conduct treatment, payment or health care operations on your behalf, as required or permitted by law, or as otherwise authorized by you.We never sell or rent your personal information to anyone. Nonaffiliated (non-related) third parties with whom we contract to administer or provide selected functions on our behalf are required to sign agreements with us that limit how they use and disclose your personal information and require them to safeguard your information. Following are some examples of when and why HealthPartners uses or discloses your personal information:

To support treatment: For example, your answers to survey questions form the basis from which we can personalize our services to focus on your individual health interests and needs, provide accurate and useful tailored feedback customized action plans, and follow-up communications that are unique to you.

For payment purposes: For example, to administer this health education program, we need to ensure that our systems collect the correct registration payment, apply the correct benefits to which you're entitled, and coordinate health services so you receive appropriate and effective care. If your registration was through a subsidized promotion sponsored by your employer or an association you belong to, any information published and reported back to the sponsor will be in aggregate form only. Aggregate data is created by combining data we collect from you and other individuals to produce anonymous, aggregated statistical information.  We may disclose limited personal information to your promotion sponsor, if necessary to administrate participation incentives or subsidies. 

For health care operations: As a program administrator, we may disclose your personal information to an administrative support organization to process your registration or fulfill shipment of information or a product to you. By combining anonymous information from you and other individuals who participate in the program, we can create aggregate statistical data. Non-identifiable aggregate demographic information, such as the number of visitors of a certain age and gender, may be used to conduct program and process evaluation to enhance our service and program quality, improve the content of our site, or determine future program offerings. HealthPartners may publish non-identifiable aggregate data in health risk reports that are shared with third parties with which HealthPartners has business relationships. This is used to help evaluate health initiatives and the effectiveness of programs offered through HealthPartners, as well as assist in the development of future health programs.

Are there other times my information could be used or disclosed?

There may be state and federal laws that may require the release of your personal information to others. We may be required to provide information for the following reasons:

• To public health authorities, for purposes such as tracking and controlling certain diseases, injuries, and other health conditions.
• To health and health plan oversight agencies, such as the Minnesota Departments of Health, Commerce, and Human Services, and the United States Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services.
• To law enforcement, military or other persons under certain circumstances, such as to avert serious threat to public safety or to a specific individual, or to protect national security.
• To law enforcement, courts or administrative bodies under certain circumstances, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena.

There may be times when we, as your health plan or program administrator, wish to use or disclose your personal information in a way that is not considered treatment, payment or health care operations or is not required by law. In those situations, we are required to get your specific written authorization to do so. If you do not wish to authorize the proposed activity, you may do so with no fear of reprisal. If you do give us this authorization, then later wish to revoke it, you may do so in writing at any time, except if we have already relied on it.

Email communication and related services.

This online program provides you with the opportunity to receive communications from us or third parties. For example, you have the option of signing up for motivational email messages that will be sent only if you choose to participate. If you would rather not receive these messages, simply indicate your preference at registration or at any time by updating your user profile. As part of your preference flexibility, you'll always have the option to opt back in.

Email communication you send to us via the email links on our site may be shared with a Customer Service representative, employee, medical expert or agent that is most able to address your inquiry. We make every effort to respond in a timely fashion once communications are received. Once we have responded to your communication, it may be discarded or archived, depending on the nature of the inquiry.  The email functionality on our site does not provide a completely secure and confidential means of communication. It's possible that your email communication may be accessed or viewed by another Internet user while in transit to us. If you wish to keep your communication private, do not use our email.

In order to ensure your privacy, we will be implementing some changes when speaking with our members and program participants.  When you call HealthPartners, you will be asked for some additional information such as your complete name, your HealthPartners member ID number or your date of birth.  If someone contacts HealthPartners on your behalf, we may need you to sign a release of information before we can provide information. Your verbal authorization will cover conversations related to a specific event or concern. For long-term arrangements, a written document will be required. You can obtain a copy of our authorization form by contacting the Health Behavior Group or visiting our Web site at www.healthpartners.com.

How does HealthPartners protect my information?

We permit access to your personal information by our staff and others only to the extent they need that information to administer your health plan, facilitate treatment, make payment or provide other services to you or to comply with legal and regulatory or accreditation requirements.  Whenever feasible, we de-identify or encrypt your personal information so that you cannot be personally identified.  We maintain a variety of physical, electronic and procedural safeguards designed to protect your personal information and prevent unauthorized access.

What about children's privacy?

The Web site is not targeted toward or designed or intended to attract children under the age of 13. We will not knowingly allow children under the age of 13 to register on our site for any purpose or to access any features that require registration. We require visitors to indicate their year of birth to register. If we learn that we inadvertently have collected identifying personal information from a child under the age of 13, we will promptly delete that information from our system.

What about program surveys? 

After registering in the program, you may be asked to participate in program surveys. If you agree to participate, you will be asked to answer questions that we will use to evaluate this health tool and determine future program offerings. You may be asked to review and accept terms and conditions relating specifically to the use of the information you provide, which may include personally identifiable information. Those terms and conditions will be in addition to this Privacy Policy, and may include sharing the personally identifiable information with a third party with whom we have a business relationship in order to process the surveys.

What about links to other sites?

For you reference, this Web site may contain links to Web sites operated by third parties. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by HealthPartners of that Web site.  This Privacy Policy applies only to this Web site. Please be aware that HealthPartners is not responsible for and has no control over the privacy policies and practices of such third party sites. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that requests personal information from you.

What are my privacy rights and how do I exercise them? 

This Privacy Policy applies only to your use of this Web site. Under state and federal law, you have the right to: access, copy or amend your personal information; request restrictions on the use or disclosure of your information; request that we communicate with you in alternative forms; and receive an accounting of certain disclosures of your personal information.  You also have the right to receive a paper copy of this Privacy Policy or to file a complaint with us or with certain government agencies if you believe that we have violated your privacy rights. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint with us.  To learn more about these rights or file a complaint, please contact the Health Behavior Group at 952-883-7800, toll-free at 1-800-311-1052, or 952-883-7498 (TTY), or by writing to HealthPartners, Health Behavior Group, P.O. Box 1309, Minneapolis, MN  55440-1309.  

Who should I call if I have other questions?

We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or your privacy rights.  You can do this by contacting the Health Behavior Group at 952-883-7800, toll-free at 1-800-311-1052, or 952-883-7498 (TTY), or by writing to HealthPartners, Health Behavior Group, P.O. Box 1309, Minneapolis, MN  55440-1309.  Alternatively, you can email the Health Behavior Group by using the "Contact Us" link on this Web site.

Additional detailed information on HealthPartners privacy policy for health plan members can be found at HealthPartners' corporate Web site.

Site Users Agreement

Health information on this site is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended to serve as medical advice. You should consult your own medical provider directly regarding your health and any specific medical questions you may have. Check with your health care provider before beginning any vigorous physical activity program.

This Web site is owned and operated by HealthPartners, Inc., on behalf of HealthPartners, Inc. All rights regarding the Web site and the materials contained in the Web site are reserved by HealthPartners. You may use, copy and distribute the materials found on this Web site only for internal, noncommercial and informational purposes. Any other use of the Web site or the information contained in the Web site not expressly authorized is strictly prohibited. All copies made of the materials must contain any copyright, trademark or other proprietary notice located on the Web site that is related to the materials being copied. Except as authorized in this paragraph, you are not granted a license under any copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right in the materials or the services, products, processes or technology described therein. HealthPartners and/or the third-party owner of such rights retain all such rights.

HealthPartners names and logos and all related product and service names, design marks and slogans are the trademarks or service marks of HealthPartners and/or its subsidiaries. You are not authorized to use any HealthPartners name or mark in any advertisement, publicity or in any other commercial manner without the prior written consent of HealthPartners.

The product and service marks contained in this Web site that are not HealthPartners marks are the trademarks of their respective owners. References that we make to any specific names, marks, products, services or processes of third parties do not necessarily constitute or imply our endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation of the third-party name, mark, product, service or process, unless it is explicitly stated. HealthPartners does not endorse the content of any Web sites to which it provides hypertext links, nor is it liable for your reliance on or use of any information or materials contained in them. These links are provided for convenience and reference purposes only. In addition, the views and opinions of authors do not necessarily state or reflect those of HealthPartners.

Information and materials provided by this Web site are provided as a courtesy by HealthPartners. While we try to keep the information as accurate as possible, the materials on this Web site are provided "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, AND WE DISCLAIM ANY EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION ABOUT THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS OR APPROPRIATENESS OF THE INFORMATION AND MATERIALS, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties; accordingly the above exclusion may not apply to you. Changes may be periodically incorporated into this material. HealthPartners may make improvements or changes in the products, services or programs described in these materials at any time without notice. You assume full responsibility for your use of the information at this Web site, and understand and agree that HealthPartners is neither responsible nor liable for any claim, loss or damage resulting from its use.