Privacy Policy

Website Privacy Policy

This website is provided by Essen Medical Associates PC, House Call Medical Services of New York PLLC d/b/a Essen House Calls PLLC, Essen Medical Urgicare PLLC d/b/a Metro Urgicare and its affiliates (collectively, “Essen Health Care”, “our”, “us” or “we”). We respect the right to privacy of our patients and every person who visits this website (www.essenhealthcare.com) as well as all other websites, owned, operated, licensed or controlled by Essen Health Care (“Websites”). This Privacy Policy does not govern privacy practices associated with offline activities, website other than Essen Websites or products and services not available or enable via Essen’s site. All mobile applications (“Apps”) offered under the Essen Health Care name that do not have a separate privacy policy or that links to this Privacy Policy. Collectively, the Websites and Apps will be referred to in this Privacy Policy as “Services.”

This Privacy Policy applies to the use of the Services and the information provided by and obtained from users of these Services. Essen Health Care maintains a separate policy in connection with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) that can be viewed here: Notice of Privacy Practices

Please review this Privacy Policy before accessing or using the services through this website. This Site is also subject to our website Terms and Conditions of Use, which can be found at Terms and Conditions. By accessing, browsing and/or using our website and services, you agree to accept the terms of this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions. If you do not accept the terms of this Privacy Policy and the Terms and Conditions, please do not use our website or services.

Personal Information We Collect and Use

Essen Health Care may collect certain identifying information from or about you in connection with your use of or submissions to Essen’s Website (collectively, the “Collected Information”). We sometimes supplement the information we receive from you with other information we receive from third party sources, such as credit card issuers or clearinghouses.

In addition, we may retain the content of, and metadata regarding, any correspondence you may have with us or our representatives, regardless of the mode of communication by which such correspondence was made. This information helps us to improve the Website and the online media, content, materials, opportunities, and services that we feature or describe on the Website, and to more effectively and efficiently respond to both current and future inquiries.

Voluntary Information That Your Provide on our Websites

Essen Health Care collects personally identifiable information that you voluntarily and knowingly enter into data fields on our Websites. One example is through a registration process or sign in procedure used to access protected information via our Websites, including, but not limited to, your name, postal address, email address, home or work telephone number. Other features of our Websites may ask for other personally identifiable information necessary for the proper functionality of such features. If you decline to provide certain information while using our Websites, you may not be able to use or participate in some or all of its features offered. Additionally, we may retain email and other communications that you send us in order to process your inquiries, requests, send you information and improve our Services.

Information You Voluntarily Provide on our Patient Portal and Mobile Applications

With your permission, you may connect with our patient portal to access certain portions of your medical records and to share information with Essen Health Care and your healthcare providers. Our patient portal is subject to its own Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, and you should review that Terms of Use and Privacy Policy before accessing and using the patient portal.

You may also choose to connect with various mobile applications through Essen Health Care to receive health information and to share that information with your healthcare providers. If you choose to access that application, the information you share through that application and the collection of information will be subject to the privacy policies and terms of use of the app vendor. You should carefully review their privacy policy and terms of use before using any Apps.

Essen Health Care collects personally identifiable information that you enter into data fields on our Apps. For example, when you access the “Request an Appointment” feature, you may be asked for certain personally identifiable information, including, but not limited to your name, address, date of birth and email address. If you decline to provide certain information while using an App, you may not be able to use or participate in some or all of its features.

Information Automatically Collected on our Websites

When you access our Websites, Essen Health Care may collect certain generalized information without your providing such information. This information may include, for example, your internet browser type, your computer operating system, and your Internet Protocol (IP) address. This information may be collected using various technologies including cookies, as explained below.

Information Automatically Collected on our Mobile Applications

Essen Health Care may collect certain generalized information without your actively providing such information, when you access our Apps. This information may include the type of mobile device and mobile operating system you are using. Certain Apps may also use location services to provide location-based features. If you enable location services on your device and grant permission for such Apps to access this feature, we may collect your location via GPS in order to provide you with such features.

Information Collected Using Web Logs, Cookies, IP Addresses and Third-Party Websites.

We maintain standard Web logs that record and store data about Website users. The web server automatically collects the IP address of the computers that access our site. The IP address is a number that is assigned to a computer when it accesses the Internet. An IP address is not truly personally identifiable information because many different individuals can access the Internet via the same computer. The Website may also collect the type of operating system (e.g., Windows, macOS or Linux) and web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari and Opera) you use when accessing our Website.

Features of many third-party websites may collect your IP address and which page you are visiting on our site and may set a cookie to enable the Features to function properly. Social Media Features are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Website.

Cookies

We collect information about visitors to our Website and mobile applications using “Internet cookies.” Internet cookies are unique identifiers placed on the hard drive of each computer used to access our Website to obtain statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, such as how many users visit our Website, what web pages they visit and the website from which they enter our site. This information does not identify you or contain any of your health information. The data is collected on an aggregate, anonymous basis, which means that no personally identifiable information is directly associated with the data. We use session cookies to keep you signed on while you navigate our Website and to track your navigation through our site to help us understand how people use our site. Session cookies expire after you end your session on our Website and close your browser. We also use persistent cookies, which remain on your hard drive after you exit our Website. Persistent cookies allow us to recognize a repeat visitor and offer our Website visitors a set of services or information requested in a previous visit.

Web Beacons

We may also use “Web beacons” on our Website. Web beacons are tiny images that are placed on a web page or email that, when used in connection with persistent cookies, can tell us if you have visited a particular area on our Website. We use Web beacons to collect non-personal information about your response to our Website and email communications and for other purposes. For example, if you have given us permission to email you, we may send you an email with a Web beacon recommending that you visit a particular feature of our Website. If you do visit that feature, the Web beacon will report that you responded to our email communication.

Pursuant to applicable laws, rules and regulations, we may periodically email or text you regarding products or services that we think may be of interest to you. You may also subscribe to online publications we may provide from time to time. We may use a third-party vendor to help us manage our email, subscription and text messaging communications. While we may supply these vendors with email addresses or phone numbers of those individuals we want to contact, we do not permit them to use your email address or phone number for any purpose other than to communicate with you on our behalf. When you click on a link to our Website in an email or other communication from us, you may be temporarily redirected through one of the vendor’s servers, which will register for us that you have clicked on that link. We will not share, sell, rent, swap or authorize any third party to use your email address or phone numbers for commercial purposes without your permission. You can choose not to receive messages in the future by either (1) following the “unsubscribe” instructions located near the bottom of the email or other communication or (2) sending an email to info@essenmed.com

If you send us comments or questions by email, they may be shared with the Essen Health Care employees to follow up on your concern.

Cookies and Web beacons are used for remarketing with Google Analytics to advertise online, allowing Google and other third-party vendors to show our ads on other sites you visit across the Internet. Google Analytics is a web analytics tool that helps us understand how visitors engage with our Website and which advertisements bring users to our Website. You may utilize the Google opt-out tool at the Google website to opt out of having these cookies and Web Beacons used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads. If you opt out of targeted advertising, you may continue to receive non-targeted ads.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies; however, you may be able to change your browser setting to prevent the acceptance of cookies. Please note that certain changes to your browser settings may prevent you from using some of the features and functionalities of our Website and Services. Consult the website for your internet service provider or browser for information about deleting cookies.

How We Use Information Collected

We use the information that we collect from you to improve your experience with our Website, our Services and develop new Services. Essen Health Care employs a variety of online security measures to safeguard and keep your information private. Personally identifiable information is processed only for purposes for which it is collected and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Essen Health Care may share your personally identifiable information with its affiliates and trusted third parties who assist us by providing services to users of our Website, including, but not limited to, surveys, credit card processing, fulfillment processing, email distribution and website management. These parties are required by contract to use the personal information we share with them only to perform services on our behalf and to protect the confidentiality of your personal information. We will only provide these trusted suppliers only with the information they need to perform designated services and require that they either comply with this Privacy Policy or maintain comparable privacy policies that protect your personally identifiable information.

Disclosures

Essen Health Care reserves the right to comply with legal requirements, in which we may release the personal information we collect without notifying you when we reasonably believe: (1) disclosure is necessary to comply with the law, regulatory, or judicial requirement (e.g. court order); (2) to protect the security of the Website or Essen Health Care’s legal rights, property or safety of its patients, employees, affiliates or the public; (3) to prevent or investigate fraud or illegal activities; (4) to protect you or others from threats of imminent harm; or (5) to respond to an emergency.

We also reserve the right to report to appropriate law enforcement or government agencies any activities that we, in good faith, believe to be unlawful without providing notice to you.

If Essen Health Care merges or sells all or a portion of its assets and/or operations to another organization, we may also disclose your information subject to this Policy.

Aggregate and Demographic Information

Aggregate information is information presented in summary form, which does not permit the identification of a specific individual without extraordinary effort. We may also collect and retain demographic information we obtain from you and from third parties for fundraising and research purposes.

When you download and access our Apps, notifications to alert you of important information may be sent to you. If you no longer wish to receive such communications from us, you may disable them or “opt-out” via your mobile device.

Children

This Website is intended for adult use only. We do not knowingly or intentionally collect personal or identifying information from persons under the age of 18. If you are under 18 years of age, you must use our Website only with the involvement of a parent or guardian. If you are under the age of 18 and have already provided personally identifiable information through the Website, please have your parent or guardian contact us immediately using the information below so that we can remove such information from our files.

Protecting the privacy of the very young is especially important to us. For that reason, our Websites are not intended for use by children under the age of 13 in accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (“COPPA”).

If you are eligible to use our Website but are under the age of 18, we ask that your parents be involved in any information you provide to us about yourself or others. By using our Websites, you represent that you are not under 18 years of age.

Social Media and External Links

For your convenience, we may provide links to websites owned and operated by unrelated third parties. Our Websites include Social Media Features, such Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter buttons, which allow you to share information with third-party Social Media sites. Your interactions with these Social Media Features, including your submission of personal information, are governed by the privacy statement and terms of use of the Social Media site. If you share information with a Social Media site through the Social Media Feature on our Website and associate your Social Media account with any account you create when you use any feature of our Website, those Social Media sites may give us access to certain personal information that they store, depending on the privacy settings you have selected with the Social Media sites. When you associate your Social Media account with any account you create through our Website, you authorize us to have access to this information and agree that we may collect, use and store the information provided by Social Media sites as described in this Privacy Policy.

Our Website may include links to other websites. Your use of such websites, including submission of information and the collection and use of your information by those websites, will be governed by the privacy statement and terms of use of those websites.

Essen Health Care does not have any control or influence over the privacy practices or other operations of Social Media companies or third-party websites. We encourage you to be cautious when leaving our Website and to carefully review the privacy policies and terms of use of any Social Media company or website that you interact with through our Website. Essen Health Care does not endorse any Social Media company or any external websites and is not responsible for your use of any third-party external websites.

Website Data Security

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect through our Websites. It is important that you understand, however, that no website or database is completely secure or “hacker proof.” You are responsible for taking personal steps to protect your personal information against unauthorized disclosure or misuse—for example, by protecting your password from unauthorized use or disclosure.

Data Retention

Essen Health Care stores certain personally identifiable information using Google Analytics, a third-party hosting service provider. Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to Google Analytics web services, and Essen Health Care makes no warranty regarding the privacy, integrity or security of any information stored by Google Analytics. Details regarding the data protection and privacy practices observed by Google can be found here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/

In accordance with all applicable laws, we will carefully consider the means we use to dispose of such information to reduce the risk of an unauthorized person accessing your personal identifying information, and we will dispose of such information in a way that reduces the chance of such unauthorized access. Any information that we collect pursuant to this policy will be retained in accordance with applicable laws and Essen Health Care policy.

Contact Us to “Opt Out,” Access, Update or Delete Your Information

At your request and where the law requires us to do so, we will make reasonable efforts to confirm what personal information we have about you, update your information, remove your information, fulfill specific opt-out requests and/or correct any inaccuracies in such personal information by sending us an email at compliance@essenmed.com .

We may decline to process a request that is unreasonable, jeopardizes the rights or privacy of others, is impractical or for which access is not otherwise required.