Privacy Policy

Kidney Specialists of Minnesota, P.A. (together with its affiliates and subsidiaries, “KSM,” “we,” or “our”) respects your privacy and understands it is important for you to know how we handle the information we receive from you when accessing KSM’s website or services. During the course of our interactions we will collect, store and process personal data about our patients, customers, users, suppliers, and other third parties.

This privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) operates in conjunction with our Master Services Agreements, Terms of Service, and other agreements (each a “KSM Agreement”) with individuals or businesses that use or interact with KSM services (each a “Client”). This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we may collect from individuals (“you” or “your”) that we treat or users who visit, download, install, or use our publicly available website or in the course of our consultation and care (collectively, the “Services”) and the reasons we collect that information. By using our Services, you authorize KSM to collect and use your information as set forth in this Privacy Policy and any applicable KSM Agreement. KSM Agreements may further restrict and limit the way in which KSM collects, uses, and shares personal information provided by its Clients through or in connection with their use of KSM Services.

This Privacy Policy applies to information collected by KSM and does not apply to information collected by any third-party websites to which our website may link or to information provided to, or collected by, third-party technologies during your visit to our website.

As we update and expand our Services, this Privacy Policy may change, so please check this web page for updates to our Privacy Policy. In the event we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will provide notice through our website, or by other means, to provide you with an opportunity to review the changes. If you object to any changes, you may discontinue our Services and/or discontinue your use of the website.

By using our Services, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy. You acknowledge that your continued use of our website or our Services after we publish or send a notice about changes to our Privacy Policy means that the collection, use and sharing of your personal data is subject to this Privacy Policy.

1. What information is collected?
KSM collects “Personal Information” for its own business purposes and to fulfill its contractual obligations to its Clients. Personal Information includes information that may be used to identify, locate, or contact you, such as your name, address, e-mail address, phone number, social security number, tax identification number, credit card number, and banking information, as well as information that reasonably can be related or linked to a particular individual or a household, including through an IP address, such as relationship information regarding products and services we provide or may provide to you, information about how you use the website, and information about the device(s) and networks that you use in conjunction with the website, such as login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and website, device type, browsing history with respect to the website for each device, referring websites, emails, or other electronic communications, and search terms.

Unless otherwise required by law, Personal Information does not include publicly available information or aggregated or deidentified information that cannot be used to identify you individually or reasonably be re-associated with you.

We also collect Protected Health Information (“PHI”). The term “Protected Health Information” means any information, in any form, related to the past, present, or future health or medical status, condition, or treatment of a person, including, by way of example, but not limitation, names of doctors, health conditions, medicines, and/or prescription information and history. In addition to this Privacy Policy, the “Notice of Privacy Practices” describes how we may use and disclose Health Information, and your rights to access and update your Health Information, and how to request restrictions on our use and disclosure of your Health Information. To the extent any terms in this Privacy Policy conflict with any terms in the Notice of Privacy Practices, the conflicting terms in the Notice of Privacy Practices will control and override the corresponding terms in this Privacy Policy.

We do not knowingly collect or provide the personal information of minors under the age of 16 to others, without affirmative authorization. If you believe that a minor has submitted Personal Information on or through the website without the consent and supervision of a parent or guardian, please contact us using the information provided below and we will delete such information in accordance with applicable law.

2. Who is collecting the information?
When you are asked for personal information from KSM, you are sharing that information with KSM. The KSM website may contain various links to third-party websites, including MyChart. These sites may provide information, products and services that are separate from and in addition to KSM information, products and services. These websites are owned and operated by third parties and not by KSM. As such, any information you provide to these third-party websites will be subject to their data collection practices and governed under the terms of their privacy policy. All questions, comments, and concerns regardingthird party websites should be directed to the third party.

3. How is my information collected and used?
If you submit information to us, including registration and profile information, then we use this information to operate, maintain, and provide the features and functionality of the website. We also use this information to provide you with our Services. By providing your email address to KSM, you consent to our using the email address to send you Service-related notices, including among other things notices required by law. You may not opt out of Service-related e-mails. We may also use your email address to send you other messages, including changes to Service features and other offers. Additionally, we use your information for:

• Responding to your questions or addressing your requests.
  Providing customer assistance or technical support and solving problems or disputes.
• Customizing content, providing recommendations and enhancing the quality of the website, including presenting content in the most effective manner for the browser or device you use to access the website.
• Maintaining, operating, improving and developing the website and related content, products or services.
• Learning about how you and others interact with and respond to the website, including by measuring and optimizing usage, reliability and performance, conducting market research, analyzing trends, and supporting our operations.
• Sending you informational messages about our Services and the website.
• Delivering marketing or promotional communications, including offers or promotions about our or third parties’ products and services.
• Developing, managing and conducting advertising and marketing campaigns, promotions and offers and other initiatives.
• Detecting, preventing and responding to fraud or potentially illegal activities, misuse of the website, intellectual property infringement or other violations of law, this Privacy Notice or other applicable policies.
• Performing audits, assessments and testing or troubleshooting activities.
• Complying with and enforcing applicable industry and legal requirements (including legal process such as court orders, warrants or subpoenas) and fulfilling contractual obligations.

We use cookies and other forms of automatic data collection with respect to some of the information we collect. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer. We use cookies for the following purposes:

• Strictly Necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of the website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website.
• Analytical or Performance cookies. These cookies allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors to the website and monitor usage at a collective level.
• Functionality cookies. These are used to recognize individual users and tailor the website to their preferences. For example, these cookies might be used to greet you by name after you have logged into a secure area of the website, or deliver content in your preferred language.

Once they have been placed, these cookies may remain on your browser until you remove them. Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also place cookies on your browser using other websites you access, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to record your browsing activity, which may include your usage of our website. You can clear or adjust settings related to cookies at any time using your web browser.

We treat information collected by automatic data collection technologies as Personal Information when it is associated with or stored in a way that can be reasonably associated with identifiable Personal Information we collect in other ways. While our website currently does not recognize Do Not Track signals from your browser, we do provide information below about how to manage your choices and preferences related to online tracking. To learn more about browser tracking signals and Do Not Track please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.org/. Additionally, you may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting, please note that some parts of the website may become inaccessible or not function as intended.

4. With whom does KSM share my information?
It is KSM’s policy not to provide your Personal Information to third parties except as outlined in this policy or unless we have your prior consent. KSM may provide Personal Information to KSM affiliates, to our own auditors or other service providers, or to third party vendors whose services are integrated into our website in order to provide the services we offer or upon whom we rely on to operate and market our business. These include selected third parties to the extent we reasonably consider the disclosure to be necessary for our legitimate business interests or in your best interest.

Before we disclose information to third parties, we contractually require the recipients to use such information solely for purposes related to providing the services requested and to provide at least the same level of data protection as described in this Privacy Policy.

We do not sell Personal Data to third parties for their own use.

In addition, we disclose Personal Data to:

• you and, where appropriate, your appointed representatives;
• others with your consent or at your request.
• sharing certain Personal Information and/or Health Information and communicating with you and/or your doctor, pharmacist, health plan, or plan administrator. These disclosures are made in accordance with the terms of your health plan.
• we may share your Personal Information and Health Information with selected service providers or consultants acting on our behalf. Those third parties will be required to protect your Personal Information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy and our Notice of Privacy Practices.
• legal and regulatory authorities, upon request, or for the purposes of reporting any actual or suspected breach of applicable law or regulation;
  accountants, auditors, consultants, lawyers and other outside professional advisors to KSM, subject to binding contractual obligations of confidentiality;
• third-party business partners of KSM at your request prior to entering into a contract, or to perform a contract upon your request;
• third party Processors (such as payment services providers; shipping companies; telemarketing companies; data supply service providers; data cleansing service providers etc.), located anywhere in the world;
• any relevant party, regulatory body, governmental authority, law enforcement agency or court, to the extent necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims;
• any relevant party, regulatory body, governmental authority, law enforcement agency or court, for the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties including safeguarding against, and prevention of, threats to public security;
• any relevant third-party acquirer(s) or successor(s) in title, in the event that we sell or transfer all or any relevant portion of our business or assets (including in the event of a reorganization, dissolution or liquidation); and
• any relevant third-party provider, where our website uses third party advertising, plugins or content. If you choose to interact with any such advertising, plugins or content, your Personal Data may be shared with the relevant third-party provider (e.g., LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook). We recommend that you review that third party’s privacy policy before interacting with its advertising, plugins or content.
• may also disclose aggregated and other non-personal information, including user statistics, to describe our website to prospective business partners, advertisers, and other third parties.

5. Text Messages
If you provide us with your mobile phone number, we may send you text messages. Text messaging may include one-time or recurring texts related to your healthcare, programs, products, services, or tools. The only way to end text messages for a specific texting program is to reply STOP. You understand and approve that replying STOP to one texting program will not opt you out of all programs that you are enrolled in. You must reply STOP to each texting program that you no longer want to be a part of. In all programs, you may text HELP for help. Text messages may be sent to your mobile number using an automatic dialing system. Message and Data rates may apply. Text messaging may not be available from all carriers.

After you send “STOP” to us, we may send you a message to make sure that you no longer want to get text messages from that program. After this, you will no longer get text messages from us from that texting program. If you want to join again, just sign up as you did the first time and we will start sending text messages to you for the programs you have signed up for.

Text messages may include Protected Health Information (PHI). Since text messaging is unencrypted, there is a risk that this PHI could be intercepted or viewed by third parties, including others who look at your device. When you choose to get text messages from us, you do so at your own risk. The use and disclosure of PHI in text messaging may be governed by other privacy notices, including applicable HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices.

We do not guarantee the successful delivery of text messages by your wireless provider.

We will not be liable for losses or damages that come from (i) a message not delivered, a message delivered late, or (ii) a message that goes to the wrong number; or (iii) inaccurate or incomplete content in a text message. We are not liable for your use or reliance on the content of any text message.

6. Choices about how we use and disclose your information
We strive to provide you with choices regarding the Personal Information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your information:

Tracking Technologies and Advertising. In many cases, you can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. Each browser is different, so visit the “help” section of your browser to learn about cookie preferences and other privacy settings that may be available. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website may then be inaccessible or not function as intended.

Targeted Advertising. Third party advertising companies may place cookies on your computer when you visit our website or other websites so they can display targeted interest-based advertisements to you. This Privacy Policy does not cover the collection methods or use of the information collected by these third parties. However, these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way.

Analytics. We use Analytics to monitor and improve our user experience on the website. Analytics allows us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that you can find information easily.

7. Your Privacy Rights
Privacy rights vary depending on where you reside, but we will make reasonable efforts to honor your request even if you are a resident of a country or state that does not require us to do so under applicable law. You may have the following privacy rights under applicable state laws:

• Right to Know: you may have the right to request information about the Personal Data we have collected about you and for what purpose.
• Right to Access: you may have the right to request information about how we process your Personal Data and to obtain a copy of that personal information in a readily usable format (to the extent “technically feasible”).
• Right to Portability: to the extent technically feasible, you may have the right to receive your Personal Data, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to have that information transmitted to another organization in certain circumstances.
• Right to Correct Inaccuracies: you may request that inaccuracies in your Personal Data be corrected, considering the nature of the data and the business’ purposes in using it.
  Right to Deletion: you may have the right to request the deletion of your Personal Data that we have collected from you.
• Right to Be Free from Discrimination: we will not discriminate against you for exercising your consumer privacy rights.
• Right to Opt-out of Sharing: you may have the right to opt out of us sharing your Personal Data with third parties for some purposes, including sharing that may be defined as a sale under certain laws.
• Right to Make Choices About Email Marketing: you may have the right to make choices about receiving email marketing.

Please note that if you submit a request to exercise any of the above rights (a “Privacy Rights Request”), we may request additional information to enable us to process your request. We will use the information you provide to verify your identity, locate your personal information that we may hold about you, and to fulfill your request.

Please keep in mind that we may not be able to honor all requests, such as if the information is required to process your payments or returns, to fulfill your order, or to comply with tax, audit, or other regulatory requirements.

8. Data Security
KSM has implemented reasonable, risk-based technical and organizational measures designed to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where you have chosen a password for access to your account, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Information transmitted to the website. Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Application by any third party unless the circumvention was the result of our gross negligence or willful misconduct.

9. Data Retention
The period for which we retain your Personal Information varies depending upon the legal basis for which we collected such data: