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HIPAA, PRIVACY & WEBSITE TERMS OF USE
This is the Web site of Professional Ambulance & Oxygen Service,
Inc.
Our mailing address is:
P.O. Box 410326
Cambridge, MA 02141-0003
We are physically located at:
31 Smith Place
Cambridge, MA 02138
We can be reached via email at: contactus@proems.com
We can be reached via telephone at:
(617) 492-2700
(800) 653-3640
If you have any questions about the terms & conditions below, the privacy
statement, the practices of this Web site, or your interaction with this
Web site, contact Bill Mergendahl, CEO at wmerg@proems.com
This site created by Skyrope, LLC
Photos
Photography credits go to Brian Higgins, Jeffrey Mayes, Bob Paige,
DD Deurell, Alexi Wagner and Jay Starzynski. Each photograph is
used with their consent. No photographs may be reused, reproduced
or copied without prior consent of Professional Ambulance and the
photographer.
Professional Ambulance & Oxygen Service, Inc. ("PRO") maintains
this site (the "Site") for your personal entertainment, information,
education, and communication. Please feel free to browse the Site. You may
download material displayed on the Site for noncommercial, personal use only
provided you also retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained
on the materials. You may not, however, distribute, modify, transmit, reuse,
repost or use the content of the Site for public or commercial purposes, including
the text and images without PRO's written permission. Your access to and use
of the Site is also subject to the following terms and conditions ("Terms
and Conditions") and all applicable laws. By accessing and browsing the
Site, you accept without limitation or qualification, the Terms and Conditions
and acknowledge that any other agreements between you and PRO are superseded
and are not enforceable.
Privacy
For each visitor to our Web pages, our Web server automatically recognizes
no information regarding the domain or e-mail address. We reserve the right
to collect the e-mail addresses of those who communicate with us via e-mail.
The information we collect is primarily used to improve the content of our
Web pages and IS NOT shared with other organizations for commercial purposes. Disclaimer
Nothing contained in the site is intended for instructional use or for medical
diagnosis or treatment. The information should not be considered complete,
nor should it be relied on to suggest a course of treatment for a particular
individual. It should not be used in place of a visit, call, consultation
or the advice of emergency medical professionals, your physician or other
qualified health care providers. In an emergency, you should always call 911 or your local EMS. Should
you have any non-emergent health care related questions, please call
or see your physician or other qualified health care provider promptly.
You should never disregard or delay seeking medical advice because
of something you have read on our website. External Links
In order to provide visitors with greater value, the site may provide links
to various third party Web sites. Proamb.com exercises no authority over
linked sites, each of which maintains independent privacy and data collection
policies and procedures. Proamb.com assumes no responsibility or liability
for these independent methods or actions and is not responsible for the independent
policies or procedures of destination sites. Proamb.com links may lead unintentionally
to sites containing information that some people may find inappropriate or
offensive. It may also lead to sites that contain inaccurate information,
false or misleading advertising, or information that violates copyright,
libel or defamation laws. These destination links are provided only for your
convenience and as such, you access them at your own risk. You are encouraged
to use discretion while browsing the Internet on searches initiated at proamb.com. Proamb.com makes no representations concerning any effort to review
all of the content of sites listed. However, proamb.com wishes to
ensure the integrity of the proamb.com Web site and its destination
links, so any comments pertaining to the proamb.com Web site or any
sites accessed through proamb.com links are greatly appreciated. Terms and Conditions
- You should assume that everything you see or read on the Site
is copyrighted unless otherwise noted and may not be used except
as provided in these Terms and Conditions without the written permission
of PRO. PRO neither warrants nor represents that your use of materials
displayed on the Site will not infringe rights of third parties
not owned by or affiliated with PRO.
- While PRO uses reasonable efforts to include accurate and up
to date information in the Site, PRO makes no warranties or representations
as to its accuracy. PRO assumes no liability or responsibility
for any errors or omissions in the content of the Site.
- Your use of and browsing in the Site are at your own risk. Neither
PRO nor any other party involved in creating, producing, or delivering
the Site is liable for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect,
or punitive damages arising out of your access to, or use of the
Site. PRO also assumes no responsibility and shall not be liable
for any damages to, or viruses that may infect your computer equipment
or other property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing
in the Site or your downloading of any materials from the Site.
- Any communication or material you transmit to the Site by electronic
mail or otherwise, including any data, questions, comments, suggestions,
or the like is, and will be treated as non-confidential and nonproprietary.
Anything you transmit may be used by PRO or its designee for any
purpose, including, but not limited to, reproduction, disclosure,
transmission, publication, broadcast and posting.
- Images of people or places displayed on the Site are either the
property of, or used with permission by, PRO. The use of these
images by you or anyone else authorized by you, is prohibited.
Any unauthorized use of the images may violate copyright laws,
trademark laws, the laws of privacy and publicity, and communications
regulations and statutes.
- PRO has not reviewed all of the sites linked to the Site and
is not responsible for the content of any off-site pages or any
other sites linked to the Site. Your linking to any other off-site
pages or other sites is done at your own risk.
- PRO may at any time revise these Terms and Conditions by updating
this posting. You are bound by any such revisions and should therefore
periodically visit this page to review the then current Terms and
Conditions to which you are bound.
Professional Ambulance Service
Notice of Privacy Practices IMPORTANT: THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION
ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO
THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY. As an essential part of our commitment to you, Professional Ambulance
Service (PRO) maintains the privacy of certain confidential health
care information about you, known as Protected Health Information
(PHI). We are required by law to protect your health care information
and to provide you with the attached Notice of Privacy Practices.
The Notice outlines our legal duties and privacy practices respect to your
PHI. It notonly describes our privacy practices and your legal rights, but
lets you know, among other things, how PRO is permitted to use and disclose
PHI about you, how you can access and copy that information, how you may
request amendment of that information, and how you may request restrictions
on our use and disclosure of your PHI.
PRO is also required to abide by the terms of the version of this
Notice currently in effect. In most situations we may use this information
as described in this Notice without your permission, but there are
some situations where we may use it only after we obtain your written
authorization, if we are required by law to do so. We respect your privacy, and treat all health care information about
our patients with care under strict policies of confidentiality that
all of our staff are committed to following at all times. Purpose of this Notice: PRO is required
by law to maintain the privacy of certain confidential health care
information, known as Protected Health Information (PHI), and to
provide you with a notice of our legal duties and privacy practices
with respect to your PHI. This Notice describes your legal rights,
advises you of our privacy practices, and lets you know how PRO is
permitted to use and disclose PHI about you. PRO is also required to abide by the terms of the version of this
Notice currently in effect. In most situations we may use this information
as described in this Notice without your permission, but there are
some situations where we may use it only after we obtain your written
authorization, if we are required by law to do so Uses and Disclosures of PHI: PRO may
use PHI for the purposes of treatment, payment, and health care operations,
in most cases without your written permission. Examples of our use
of your PHI: For treatment. This includes such
things as verbal and written information that we obtain about you
and use pertaining to your medical condition and treatment provided
to you by us and other medical personnel (including doctors and nurses
who give orders to allow us to provide treatment to you). It also
includes information we give to other health care personnel to whom
we transfer your care and treatment, and includes transfer of PHI
via radio or telephone to the hospital or dispatch center as well
as providing the hospital with a copy of the written record we create
in the course of providing you with treatment and transport. For payment. This includes any activities
we must undertake in order to get reimbursed for the services we
provide to you, including such things as organizing your PHI and
submitting bills to insurance companies (either directly or through
a third party billing company), management of billed claims for services
rendered, medical necessity determinations and reviews, utilization
review, and collection of outstanding accounts. For health care operations. This
includes quality assurance activities, licensing, and training programs
to ensure that our personnel meet our standards of care and follow
established policies and procedures, obtaining legal and financial
services, conducting business planning, processing grievances and
complaints, creating reports that do not individually identify you
for data collection purposes, fundraising, and certain marketing
activities. Reminders for Scheduled Transports and Information
on Other Services.We may also contact you to provide you
with a reminder of any scheduled appointments for non-emergency
ambulance and medical transportation, or for other information
about alternative services we provide or other health-related benefits
and services that may be of interest to you. Use and Disclosure of PHI Without Your Authorization. PRO
is permitted to use PHI without your written authorization, or opportunity
to object in certain situations, including:
- For PRO’s use in treating you or in obtaining payment
for services provided to you or in other health care operations;
- For the treatment activities of another health care provider;
- To another health care provider or entity for the payment activities
of the provider or entity that receives the information (such as
your hospital or insurance company);
- To another health care provider (such as the hospital to which
you are transported) for the health care operations activities
of the entity that receives the information as long as the entity
receiving the information has or has had a relationship with you
and the PHI pertains to that relationship;
- For health care fraud and abuse detection or for activities related
to compliance with the law;
- To a family member, other relative, or close personal friend
or other individual involved in your care if we obtain your verbal
agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to
such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection. We may also
disclose health information to your family, relatives, or friends
if we infer from the circumstances that you would not object. For
example, we may assume you agree to our disclosure of your personal
health information to your spouse when your spouse has called the
ambulance for you. In situations where you are not capable of objecting
(because you are not present or due to your incapacity or medical
emergency), we may, in our professional judgment, determine that
a disclosure to your family member, relative, or friend is in your
best interest. In that situation, we will disclose only health
information relevant to that person's involvement in your care.
For example, we may inform the person who accompanied you in the
ambulance that you have certain symptoms and we may give that person
an update on your vital signs and treatment that is being administered
by our ambulance crew;
- To a public health authority in certain situations (such as
reporting a birth, death or disease as required by law, as part
of a public health investigation, to report child or adult abuse
or neglect or domestic violence, to report adverse events such
as product defects, or to notify a person about exposure to a possible
communicable disease as required by law;
- For health oversight activities including audits or government
investigations, inspections, disciplinary proceedings, and other
administrative or judicial actions undertaken by the government
(or their contractors) by law to oversee the health care system;
- For judicial and administrative proceedings as required by a
court or administrative order, or in some cases in response to
a subpoena or other legal process;
- For law enforcement activities in limited situations, such as
when there is a warrant for the request, or when the information
is needed to locate a suspect or stop a crime;
- For military, national defense and security and other special
government functions;
- To avert a serious threat to the health and safety of a person
or the public at large;
- For workers’ compensation purposes, and in compliance with
workers’ compensation laws;
- To coroners, medical examiners, and funeral directors for identifying
a deceased person, determining cause of death, or carrying on their
duties as authorized by law;
- If you are an organ donor, we may release health information
to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ, eye or
tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary
to facilitate organ donation and transplantation;
- For research projects, but this will be subject to strict oversight
and approvals and health information will be released only when
there is a minimal risk to your privacy and adequate safeguards
are in place in accordance with the law;
- We may use or disclose health information about you in a way
that does not personally identify you or reveal who you are.
Any other use or disclosure of PHI, other than those listed above
will only be made with your written authorization, (the authorization
must specifically identify the information we seek to use or disclose,
as well as when and how we seek to use or disclose it). You
may revoke your authorization at any time, in writing, except to
the extent that we have already used or disclosed medical information
in reliance on that authorization. Patient Rights: As
a patient, you have a number of rights with respect to the protection
of your PHI, including:
The right to access, copy or inspect
your PHI. This means you may come to our offices and
inspect and copy most of the medical information about you
that we maintain. We will normally provide you with access
to this information within 30 days of your request. We may
also charge you a reasonable fee for you to copy any medical
information that you have the right to access. In limited circumstances,
we may deny you access to your medical information, and you
may appeal certain types of denials. We have available forms to request access to your PHI and we will
provide a written response if we deny you access and let you know
your appeal rights. If you wish to inspect and copy your medical
information, you should contact the privacy officer listed at the
end of this Notice. The right to amend your PHI. You
have the right to ask us to amend written medical information that
we may have about you. We will generally amend your information within
60 days of your request and will notify you when we have amended
the information. We are permitted by law to deny your request to
amend your medical information only in certain circumstances, like
when we believe the information you have asked us to amend is correct.
If you wish to request that we amend the medical information that
we have about you, you should contact the privacy officer listed
at the end of this Notice. The right to request an accounting of our
use and disclosure of your PHI. You may request an accounting
from us of certain disclosures of your medical information that
we have made in the last six years prior to the date of your request.
We are not required to give you an accounting of information we
have used or disclosed for purposes of treatment, payment or health
care operations, or when we share your health information with
our business associates, like our billing company or a medical
facility from/to which we have transported you. We are also not required to give you
an accounting of our uses of protected health information for which
you have already given us written authorization. If you wish to request
an accounting of the medical information about you that we have used
or disclosed that is not exempted from the accounting requirement,
you should contact the privacy officer listed at the end of this
Notice. The right to request that we restrict the
uses and disclosures of your PHI. You have the right to
request that we restrict how we use and disclose your medical information
that we have about you for treatment, payment or health care operations,
or to restrict the information that is provided to family, friends
and other individuals involved in your health care. But if you
request a restriction and the information you asked us to restrict
is needed to provide you with emergency treatment, then we may
use the PHI or disclose the PHI to a health care provider to provide
you with emergency treatment. PRO is not required to agree to any
restrictions you request, but any restrictions agreed to by PRO
are binding on PRO. Internet, Electronic Mail, and the Right
to Obtain Copy of Paper Notice on Request. . If we maintain
a web site, we will prominently post a copy of this Notice on our
web site and make the Notice available electronically through the
web site. If you allow us, we will forward you this Notice by electronic
mail instead of on paper and you may always request a paper copy
of the Notice Revisions to the Notice: PRO reserves
the right to change the terms of this Notice at any time, and the
changes will be effective immediately and will apply to all protected
health information that we maintain. Any material changes to the
Notice will be promptly posted in our facilities and posted to our
web site, if we maintain one. You can get a copy of the latest version
of this Notice by contacting the Privacy Officer identified below. Your Legal Rights and Complaints:
You also have the right to complain to us, or to the Secretary of
the United States Department of Health and Human Services if you
believe your privacy rights have been violated. You will not be retaliated
against in any way for filing a complaint with us or to the government.
Should you have any questions, comments or complaints you may direct
all inquiries to the privacy officer listed at the end of this Notice.
Individuals will not be retaliated against for filing a complaint. If you have any questions or if you wish to
file a complaint or exercise any rights listed in this Notice,
please contact:
William Mergendahl
Chief Executive Officer
Professional Ambulance Service
PO Box 410326
Cambridge, MA 02141
(617) 492.2700
(800) 653.3640
(617) 492.0806 – Fax
wmerg@proems.com Effective Date of the Notice: March
1, 2004
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