The Physicians First Financial Privacy Policy was updated on November 14, 2022.

Physicians First Financial (“Physicians First Financial”, “we”, “us”) has created this Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy” or “Policy”) to provide you with information on how we collect, use and disclose personal information, including through the App and Physicians First Financial Platform (as defined hereafter). The Physicians First Financial Platform is owned and operated by us and is an online service that includes a mobile app (separately, the App) and technology, applications, content and websites (collectively, the Physicians First Financial Platform).

This Privacy Policy applies to all individuals, including patients, who use the Physicians First Financial Platform (“Users” or “you”), who have registered with Physicians First Financial and have a User Account or a profile in a User Account as described in the Terms of Use which is incorporated herein. We are committed to complying with this Policy and with applicable provincial and federal privacy legislation.

The privacy of our users is of great importance to us. By using the Physicians First Financial Platform or by visiting our website, you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Privacy Policy and you hereby consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

We use a number of precautions to protect the privacy of Users of the Physicians First Financial Platform and the confidentiality of their Personal Information including personal health information (each as defined below and collectively referred to together in this Privacy Policy as “Information”). We advise you not to submit personal health information in the course of accessing the appointment scheduling and any related services (“Informational Services”) after initiating your User Account, nor will you be asked to resubmit your health care information.

THE Physicians First Financial PLATFORM IS NOT INTENDED FOR EMERGENCY USE. YOU MUST NOT USE THE PLATFORM FOR EMERGENCY MEDICAL NEEDS. IF YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE DEALING WITH A MEDICAL EMERGENCY, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY OR ATTEND YOUR NEAREST EMERGENCY ROOM.

DEFINITIONS

“Device” means a mobile or desktop device owned or controlled by a User and used to access the App or Sites.
“Personal Information” means information about an identifiable individual.
“Personnel” in relation to Physicians First Financial, means its employees and agents including independent contractors and sub-contractors, for whom Physicians First Financial is responsible at law.
“PHI” or “personal health information” means information about an individual’s health or healthcare that is subject to Privacy Law.
“Privacy Law” means the applicable legislation governing the collection, use, disclosure, and/or protection of PHI in the province or territory in which a User resides.

COLLECTING AND USING INFORMATION

Physicians First Financial collects and uses Information only as necessary to provide our services which includes providing the App that (i) enables a User who is a patient to create a profile and submit information to the App for the User’s use or (ii) enables Physicians First Financial to provide Informational Services to Users who are patients.

Patient Accounts

Patients must have a valid App account (User Account) in order to access the App. Physicians First Financial collects patients’ names, email addresses, phone number and health card number to allow the patients to initiate a User Account the App. When a patient creates an User Account, Physicians First Financial collects the following Information through the Physicians First Financial Platform:

first and last name, email address, phone number and health card number;

This information is used to verify accuracy of the information by matching the patient Information with the records on the Physicians First Financial EMR system. The health card number is used for the limited purposes of verifying patient information for setting up the User Account. The health card number entered is not stored or saved but is held in memory for the brief period of time required to verify patient information and thereafter deleted from the Physicians First Financial Platform.

Managing Your Appointments

The App will manage your appointments by allowing you to book new appointments, organize existing appointments and providing you with notifications. Information regarding your appointment will be stored in the App for the purposes of providing Informational Services.

Provision of Informational Services

The Physicians First Financial Platform will aggregate and provide Information for the purposes of scheduling procedures. This Information will be collected and stored on the Physicians First Financial Platform.

Provision of the Physicians First Financial Platform

We collect and use your Information to register you, create your User Account, authenticate you when you log in and personalize your experience while using the App.
We use Information that you enter, or upload, or which is created as part of an interaction with Physicians First Financial Personnel for the provision of Informational Services and other services.
We may use Information to comply with regulatory and legal requirements.
We may use Information to help us create, develop, operate, deliver, support and improve the Physicians First Financial Platform and its content.
We may use Information in an anonymized and aggregated form to create derivative and insights to benefit patients (“Derivatives”). For further details, please see the section below entitled “Aggregated and Anonymized Data.”

App Usage Data

We may further use Information to develop, assess, and improve our services. The App tracks certain information about usage of the software and Physicians First Financial Platform, including the entry of patient Information, the interaction with the Physicians First Financial Platform for quality improvement, links to other health or biometric tracking tools such as Apple Health and relevant health data therein (“Usage Data”). Physicians First Financial uses Usage Data in order to diagnose technical issues with the Physicians First Financial Platform, monitor and improve Allevio Platform efficiency, and inform product development and Physicians First Financial Platform improvement.

Website Data

Physicians First Financial may also collect information relating to internet activity or other electronic network activity, which includes operating system type and version; web server type and version; PHP version; database type and version; cookie information; device information; browsing activities, and platform or mobile application use data; referring domain; destination domain and destination path; performance, security, software configuration and availability of our software on your servers and network; website user statistics and website and portal use and viewing activity records; communication preferences (“Website Data”). We may also collect geolocation data, which includes geographic information derived from a User’s IP address or MAC address and latitudinal and longitudinal data. This information is logged to respond to user queries, provide ongoing email updates, and to constantly improve the quality of the App and Platform.

Mobile Devices

When you use your mobile device to interact with us or use the App via your mobile device, we may receive information about your mobile device, including, as noted above, a unique identifier for your device. We, our service providers and third parties we collaborate with, including ad networks, insurance carriers, health systems, research organizations, health technology platforms and other strategic partners, may use cross-device/cross-context tracking. For example, you might use multiple browsers on a single device, or use various devices (such as desktops, smartphones, and tablets), which can result in your having multiple accounts or profiles across these various contexts and devices. Cross-device/cross-context technology may be used to connect these various accounts or profiles and the corresponding data from the different contexts and devices.

Aggregated and Anonymized Data

To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may use, process, transfer, and store data (including Information) about Users in an anonymous (or pseudonymous) and aggregated manner. We may combine such aggregated personal information with other information, collected online and offline, including information from third party sources.

We may also use Information in other ways with consent or as permitted by applicable law for benchmarking, analytics, A/B testing, metrics, research, reporting, machine learning and other business purposes, as permitted by applicable law.

COMMUNICATING WITH YOU

Updates and marketing. From time to time, we may send you service announcements, including policy updates and updates to our Terms of Use and software and keep you posted on our latest products and any upcoming events that may be of interest to you or apply to you. You may opt-out of receiving non-essential communications by logging in to your User Account and updating your preferences or by sending an email informing of your intention to opt-out to info@PhysiciansFirstFinancial.com. For clarity, service announcements including updates to our policies and Terms of Use and software are not considered non-essential communications.
Customer support. If you email, fax, write to us or complete a ‘contact us’ form on the Physicians First Financial Platform, we will collect the name and contact information that you provide to us and will use it to respond to you.

We only permit our Personnel to access Information to the extent necessary to perform their designated functions. We require them to protect the Information and maintain its confidentiality by complying with our policies, procedures and applicable law.

DISCLOSING INFORMATION

We will not disclose, share or sell your Information with or to any third party, except with your consent, or to the extent necessary, in our good faith judgment, to comply with applicable laws or regulations, respond to a subpoena, Court order, or similar obligation to produce information; establish or exercise Physicians First Financial’s legal rights or defend against legal claims; or investigate, detect, suppress, prevent or take action regarding illegal or prohibited activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the reputation or safety of any person.

We may share Information among companies that we own or control or with an affiliated company and we may share Information with companies working with Physicians First Financial for purposes that you have authorized, but all information we share will always be protected under the terms of this Privacy Policy. Physicians First Financial also reserves the right to disclose and/or transfer Information to a third party in the event of a proposed or actual purchase, sale (including a liquidation, realization, foreclosure or repossession), lease, merger, amalgamation or any other type of acquisition, disposal, transfer, conveyance or financing of all or any portion of Physicians First Financial or of any of the business or assets or shares of Physicians First Financial or a division thereof, subject to appropriate safeguard for confidentiality. We will comply with any applicable legal requirements, including notice requirements, that apply to such transactions.

RETAINING AND DISPOSING OF INFORMATION

Unless we otherwise give you notice, your Information is retained in the Physicians First Financial Platform, with the exception of your health card number, on your behalf until such times as you or we terminate your User Account. Physicians First Financial is not the custodian of Information held on the App or Platform; rather it holds Information on behalf of Users.

In any event, Physicians First Financial will retain any and all Information that we are required to retain under any applicable laws and regulations for the full duration of time required under those laws and regulations. We may also retain any anonymized and de-identified information and continue to use this information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

ACCESSING AND CORRECTING INFORMATION

Informational Services

You can access Information you provided in your request(s) for Informational Services by logging in to your User Account on the Physicians First Financial Platform or through direct contact with Physicians First Financial, with the exception of your health card number as that is not stored.

YOUR CHOICES

The App offers you functionality and choices for protecting your privacy which include:

The App uses two-factor authentication on your User Account to help ensure that only you can access your account.
When seeking Informational Services, any previous Information collected regarding appointments will be accessible to you.
You may choose whether to receive communications by email or SMS.
You can check your log-in history when you access the App.

Please contact us directly at info@PhysiciansFirstFinancialcom for assistance with using the privacy functionality or with any questions about using the App or Platform. Additionally, you may contact us at any time to: stop receiving e-mails or other correspondence from us, seek assistance with viewing and correcting Information, and close your User Account. To protect privacy, we may request information to verify your identity when you contact us.

SAFEGUARDING INFORMATION

Physicians First Financial takes the security of your Information seriously. We store your Information in electronic format within Canada, using cloud computing systems with restricted access and housed in facilities using physical security measures. More generally, we have in place appropriate physical, technological, and organizational safeguards to protect Information against loss, theft, and unauthorized access, use and disclosure. As mentioned, Physicians First Financial Personnel are obligated to protect Information by adhering to our policies, practices and applicable laws. Please note, however, we cannot fully eliminate security risks associated with the storage and transmission of personal information.

You also play an important role in protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your Information. For example:

Create a strong and unique password for your User Account and update it periodically.
Do not share your User Account or password with anyone. We will never ask you for your password, including in any unsolicited communication such as letters, phone calls or email messages, so please contact us if you receive such a request.
Log out of your User Account once you are finished using it, especially if you share your Device with anyone else.
Have a strong and unique password on your Device.

CHOICES AND OPT-OUT

To the extent required by applicable law, or in our discretion otherwise, you can limit certain uses of Personal Information. Where consent is the basis of processing, you may at any time withdraw the consent you provided for the processing of your personal information for the purposes set forth in this Privacy Policy by contacting us as set forth below, provided that we are not required by applicable law or professional standards to retain such information.

If you would like to stop receiving notifications, or updates, you may do so by contacting us at info@PhysiciansFirstFinancial.com to opt-out of direct marketing. Please be advised that you may not be able to opt-out of receiving certain service or transactional messages from us, including legal notices.

Please note that if you do not provide consent, if you withdraw your consent or object to processing, or if you choose not to provide certain personal information, we may be unable to provide some or all of the services to you.

COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES

The Physicians First Financial Platform and email messages may use “cookies” and other technologies such as pixel tags, fingerprints and web beacons. We use these technologies to better understand User behavior, analyze trends, administer, personalize and improve the experience of using the App or Platform. You have the ability to accept or decline our use of cookies. You can refuse cookies by turning them off or blocking them in your Internet browser. If you decide to turn off or block cookies, the Physicians First Financial Platform might not function correctly. By using the App or Platform and not turning off cookies, you are consenting to their use for the purposes described in this Policy.

LINKS AND THIRD PARTY WEBSITES AND APPLICATIONS

The Physicians First Financial Platform may contain links to other websites that we do not own or operate. These links are not intended as an endorsement of or referral to the linked websites. We strongly encourage you to review the privacy policies applicable to any site you visit. This Policy does not apply to such linked pages or other sites, and we are not responsible for the content or practices of any linked websites or their operators which are provided solely for your convenience.

POLICY CHANGES

We publish the current version of our Policy at https://physiciansfirstfinancial.com/privacy-policy. We reserve the right to amend our Policy at any time. Check back often to ensure you are aware of our current practices for collecting, using, disclosing, retaining, destroying and protecting Information.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions about our privacy practices, please contact our Chief Compliance Officer. Please include your name and contact information if you’d like us to respond to you.

Physicians First Financial
ATTN: NAME
Admin@PhysiciansFirstFinancial.com