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MyChart -- Patient Portal Terms Of Use

Last Updated: June 11, 2021

GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM OF A LOCAL HOSPITAL OR DIAL 911 IMMEDIATELY IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY.

THIS IS A CONTRACT BETWEEN YOU AND [CHI]. PLEASE READ THESE PATIENT PORTAL TERMS OF USE (“Terms” or “Patient Portal Terms”) CAREFULLY. By accessing and using this website and any related websites and any related mobile applications related to this website (the "Patient Portal") that are provided by [CHI] and its subsidiaries and affiliates (referred to as “CHI,” “us,” “our,” or “we”), you agree to be bound by these Patient Portal Terms. These Patient Portal Terms are between you (sometimes referred to as “you” or “your” or “your family”) and CHI.

Your use of this Patient Portal is at all times also subject to the CHI Website Terms and Conditions and the CHI Privacy Policy, which are incorporated into these Terms (the Patient Portal Terms of Use, the CHI Website Terms and Conditions, and the CHI Privacy Policy are referred to collectively as the “Agreement”). Please read the entire Agreement and print or download a copy of all of the entire Agreement for your records.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE PATIENT PORTAL AT ALL TIMES SATISFIES YOUR REQUEST FOR ELECTRONIC HEALTH INFORMATION (EHI) IN THE MANNER YOU HAVE REQUESTED IT IN CONNECTION WITH THE PATIENT PORTAL. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THESE TERMS, THEN YOU MUST NOT CREATE A PATIENT PORTAL ACCOUNT AND MUST NOT USE (OR MUST IMMEDIATELY STOP USING) THE PATIENT PORTAL.

If you do not agree with all of these Terms, we will consider your request for EHI through the Patient Portal as withdrawn by you. If you do not wish to withdraw your EHI request, please contact the Health Information Management department or office manager of the facility where you receive care and tell us what EHI you are requesting. We will work with you to fulfill your EHI request in another manner permitted by the state and federal laws that apply to us.

1. Electronic Health Information (EHI) Available In The Patient Portal

We have contracted with Epic (MyChart) to offer patients and their personal representatives access to certain EHI maintained by us as part of a patient’s health record.

You understand and acknowledge that the EHI available to you through your Patient Portal account is not a complete record of all your health information kept by or for us in your health record. Also, it is not a complete record of all your health information that is maintained by other health care providers, health plans or others.

You acknowledge and agree that by accessing the Patient Portal and using the Services, we are providing to you the following types of EHI. If you already have a Patient Portal account, you will already have access to some of these types of information, but beginning on April 5, 2021 these are the types of information that will be available. If you open a portal account on April 5, 2021 or later, these are the types of information that will be available for all health care you receive from us after you open your portal account.

	▪	Identifying and demographic information (like name, date of birth, ethnicity, phone number, email address, etc.)
	▪	Allergies
	▪	Medications
	▪	Immunizations
	▪	Procedures
	▪	Care team members (for each hospitalization or office visit)
	▪	Assessment and plan of treatment
	▪	Goals
	▪	Clinical notes (by doctors, nurses, and others)
	▪	Health concerns
	▪	Laboratory test results
	▪	Vital signs
	▪	Problems (information about a diagnosis, condition, or health issue)
	▪	Smoking status
	▪	Unique identifiers for implanted devices

We must comply with many state and federal health information laws. Also our computer systems have limited technical and administrative ability to segment (separate out) data. Because of this, we may delay immediate access to some EHI or may withhold some EHI to prevent harm to a person. Specifically, it may not be not feasible for us to:

	▪	Provide abnormal laboratory test results for up to two days after the results are available
	▪	Provide radiology (imaging and x-ray) reports for up to three days after the reports are available
	▪	Provide pathology reports for up to five days after the reports are available
	▪	Provide behavioral health notes
	▪	IN TEXAS: provide HIV test results sooner than five days after the results are available

You acknowledge and agree that your Patient Portal may not contain any of the following information:

	▪	Health information that is outside of the health record maintained by or for us;
	▪	Non-final health information, such as draft clinical notes or incomplete test results before confirmation if we are not using such data to make health care decisions about individuals;
	▪	Psychotherapy notes (as defined by HIPAA);
	▪	Information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or for use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding;
	▪	Health Information that an individual has requested, and we have agreed, to not share through the Patient Portal;
	▪	Health information created or obtained during research that includes treatment;
	▪	Health information protected by the federal Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. § 522a);
	▪	Information provided by a non-health care provider, such as a family member or friend, under a promise of confidentiality if the information would reveal the confidential source, like a family member; and
	▪	Health information for which a licensed health care professional—who has a current or prior clinical-patient relationship with the patient whose health information is at issue—has determined on an individualized basis in the exercise of professional judgment that denying or delaying the access, exchange or use of EHI will substantially reduce a risk of a harm to the patient or other natural person. Depending on the circumstances, it may not be feasible for use to segment (separate out) this health information from other EHI in your Patient Portal. In such instances, we may suspend, disable or terminate your Patient Portal Account.

To ask for health information that is not in your Patient Portal, and/or to ask for health information (including EHI) in a manner other than through the Patient Portal, please contact the Health Information Management (HIM) department of the facility where you received care. The HIM department will offer you several ways that you can ask for your health information.

For all other health information requests, such as asking for a one-time disclosure of health information to a third party, please also contact the HIM department of the facility where you received care for assistance.

We will use reasonable efforts to provide you with the requested health information in the manner you request it. If we cannot provide it to you in the manner you request it, we may provide it to you using certified technology standards, content and transport standards developed by the federal government or accredited by the American National Standards Institute, or using an alternative machine-readable format. Depending on the circumstances, the only feasible way for us to provide you with health information requested may be to send it to you in a portable document format (PDF) or word format (such as .doc and .docx).

2. PATIENT PORTAL ACCOUNTS

We offer portal accounts to adult patients and to legally emancipated minors. By requesting a Patient Portal account, you are certifying that you have reached the age of majority in your state or are an emancipated minor under state law. Also, as an adult patient, you can allow another adult to see your patient information via a “Proxy Access” account. “Proxy Access” means the ability to see patient information about another person.

In addition to giving another adult the right to see your patient information, you can also request a Proxy Access account to be able to view information about another person for whom you have legal responsibility. For example if you are a parent or legal guardian of a minor child up to a certain age or you are the personal representative of an incompetent adult, you may also be provided with Proxy Access to the minor child’s information or the incompetent adult’s information, as the case may be.

State laws govern when adolescents or their parents have access to and can control adolescents’ health information. State laws provide that adolescents can control health information for some types of treatment (such as pregnancy, mental health, sexually-transmitted diseases, etc.) and parents/guardians can control health information for other types of treatment for their adolescent children. Our computer systems cannot segment (separate out) the information that adolescents can control from the information that parents/guardians can control. As a result, when the adolescent for whom you have proxy access turns 12 or 13 (depending on state law), your proxy access to the adolescent’s information will be ended. If the adolescent is willing to sign a consent form giving you permission to see all his or her information, including sensitive information such as mental health treatment, pregnancy care, birth control prescriptions, etc., then you may request and receive continued proxy access to the adolescent’s information. Also, if you are willing to sign a consent form giving permission for the adolescent to see all information about him or herself, including the information that you as parent or guardian have the right to control, then the adolescent may request and receive his/her own account. Either you or the adolescent may revoke (take back) your consent at any time, but if that happens, the account will be ended. To learn more, and to request an adolescent proxy account, contact the facility at which you receive care.

We want to make sure that only you see and can control your health information. Thus, we offer accounts only to those whose identity has been verified (checked) and have shown that they have the right under law to have an account. You can enroll in the Patient Portal in one of two ways. One way is to sign up on our website. Our website has a Patient Portal link that allows you to sign up for the Patient Portal. You must provide certain information which is then checked to make sure it matches other information you have provided to us in the past. If it matches, you will be able to open an account. Another way to sign up is with a code that we send to your email address or provide with your aftercare summary. If you fail to use your enrollment code within fourteen (14) days after it was sent, it will expire and you will need to request a new enrollment code from us. Opening a Patient Portal account is usually easy and fast, but it might take up to one week if we have problems in checking your identity.

Using your Patient Portal is not the same as your right under HIPAA to have access to some or all of your protected health information. If you want to exercise your right under HIPAA, please contact the HIM department of the facility where you received care for assistance. Tell them that you want to make an access request and they will help you as stated in our Notice of Privacy Practices.

You may terminate your account or the account of designated proxies by contacting the MyChart support line at 844-528-8383.

3. PATIENT PORTAL UNAVAILABILITY AND LIMITATIONS

We want to make sure your Patient Portal account is available, stays private and keeps in good working order. We also will improve and upgrade the Patient Portal services from time to time. So we can take such steps, your Patient Portal account may be unavailable temporarily or the Portal’s performance degraded (lessened) from time to time. You acknowledge and agree that we may make your Patient Portal account temporarily unavailable, or otherwise degrade their performance, under the following circumstances:

	▪	To perform regularly scheduled or unscheduled maintenance and/or upgrades;
	▪	For backup procedures or other system outages;
	▪	To investigate or correct data corruption issues, such as if we reasonably suspect there is misidentified, mismatched or corrupt data due to a technical failure or other reason that is reasonably likely to endanger the life or physical safety of a person;
	▪	In response to a security event or risk; and/or
	▪	In response to an uncontrollable event, such as a natural or human-made disaster, public health emergency, public safety incident, war, terrorist attack, civil insurrection, strike or other labor unrest, telecommunication or internet service interruption, or act of military, civil or regulatory authority. If there is an uncontrolled event, we will take reasonable steps to notify you that the Patient Portal is unavailable, such as by posting a notice on our website or communicating with you through any of the contact information you have provided to us.

When the Patient Portal is unavailable please use other communication methods (such as the telephone) to contact us.

4. PATIENT PORTAL SAFETY ITEMS

	▪	Emergency or Urgent Matters. EVEN IF YOU ARE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER THROUGH THE PATIENT PORTAL, IF YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU OR ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL FOR WHOM YOU ARE ACTING HAS AN EMERGENCY AND NEEDS TO SPEAK TO A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER RIGHT AWAY, YOU SHOULD GO TO AN EMERGENCY ROOM OR DIAL 911.
	▪	Not Medical Advice. Unless you use the Patient Portal to communicate directly with a health care provider, information in the Patient Portal is informational only. If you have any health care related questions, contact your health care provider promptly. NEVER IGNORE MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY IN SEEKING IT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU READ IN THE PATIENT PORTAL.
	▪	Non-CHI Providers. Not all of the information that you have access to through the Patient Portal was created by CHI or a provider employed by CHI. Further, you may have the ability to send electronic messages through the Patient Portal to health care providers that are not employed by CHI (all independent parties are referred to as “Non-CHI Providers”). CHI EXPLICITLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL LIABILITY RELATED TO THE HEALTH INFORMATION CREATED BY NON-CHI PROVIDERS THAT IS MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE PATIENT PORTAL AND TO ANY INFORMATION, ACTIVITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS OF NON-CHI PROVIDERS THAT ARE MADE THROUGH THE PATIENT PORTAL.
	▪	Use of Patient Portal. You may view or download content from the Patient Portal for your own personal use or to make your health information available to another provider. However, the information available to you through the Patient Portal is not guaranteed to include your entire medical record or to be accurate or complete. Thus, if another medical facility or health care provider requires your health information or full medical record to provide treatment to you, you should contact the Health Information (HIM) Department of the CHI facility where care is being or was provided and request access to a copy of your full medical record.
	▪	Electronic Messaging. YOU SHOULD NOT USE THE PATIENT PORTAL TO COMMUNICATE URGENT ISSUES TO A HEALTH CARE PROVIDER. Health care providers may take up to 3 business days or even much longer to respond to a message that you send through the Patient Portal. If your health care provider is unavailable, messages may be routed to another authorized health care provider. If you have not received a response to an electronic message you sent to a health care provider through the Patient Portal, you should call the health care provider directly. Any communications you have with a health care provider through the Patient Portal may be made part of your medical record or the medical record of the individual for which you have Proxy Access.
	▪	Access to Medical Information. If you are able to access your medical information, or the medical information for someone you have Proxy Access for, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT THE MEDICAL INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU THROUGH THE PATIENT PORTAL IS THE WHOLE MEDICAL RECORD OR THAT SUCH MEDICAL INFORMATION IS COMPLETE OR ACCURATE. Further, CHI is not responsible for how you use or disclose the medical information after you access it through the Patient Portal.
	▪	Your Personal Information. You may create an account or give us personal information, which will be governed by the CHI Privacy Policy. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE THAT WE CAN PROTECT THE PRIVACY OF YOUR INFORMATION. If you would like to request an update such as a revision, amendment or correction to information within your record contact the healthcare entity where the documentation was created.
	▪	Your Health Information. Some information you provide may be PHI. CHI’s protection of your PHI is described in one of our HIPAA notice of privacy practices - see the list of privacy practices located at Notice of Privacy Practices to ensure you understand how your PHI is protected by CHI.
	▪	Your Account. Do not share your login information with anyone, and write down your Patient Portal ID and password and keep it in a safe place. If you share your login information with anyone, that person will be able to access your medical information and send messages as if they were you. We recommend you log out after accessing your account, change your password on a periodic basis, and limit access to your computer or mobile device and their browsers. Do not use the Patient Portal from computers or public libraries or Internet cafes because your medical information may not be protected. Any change to your account information, and all postings, text, images, messages, files, or other materials you post, transmit through, or link to the Patient Portal (collectively, “Your Content”), are your sole responsibility. We are not liable for any loss or damage of any kind relating to Your Content.

5. PATIENT PORTAL ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS AND OTHER SERVICES

	▪	Patient Portal and other Apps and Devices. The Patient Portal may include the availability of mobile applications ("Mobile Apps") for you to download and use on handheld devices ("Mobile Devices"). You consent to our sending you emails and text messages to your mobile phone. You may opt out of receiving emails or texts from us by updating your communications preferences on your MyChart profile or contacting your healthcare provider.
	▪	Prohibited (forbidden) Conduct. You are prohibited from doing any of the following:

	o	Using the Patient Portal for illegal, unethical, abusive, offensive, harassing, or unsolicited purposes
	o	Misrepresenting (lying about) your identity, providing false information or impersonating someone else, or misrepresenting (lying about) your relationship with a person or entity
	o	Attempting to use someone else’s account

	▪	Notice of Privacy Practices. Our Notice of Privacy Practices and Website Privacy Policy describe how CHI uses and discloses your health information, and how we collect and use your information generated from the Patient Portal. The information you upload or add into the Patient Portal is subject to federal, state, and local laws regulating the privacy, security, and confidentiality of health information. Your access to the Patient Portal occurs through a secure, password protected web site. However, no information system can perfectly guard against the risks of intentional intrusion or inadvertent disclosure of information sent to us. When you use Patient Portal, information transmitted over the internet is beyond the control of CHI. Once information is received by us, your person health information will be treated confidential and given the protections as set forth in the Notice of Privacy Practices and Privacy Policy.
	▪	Technical Support. If you need technical support for MyChart, do not share your password or personal health information with the technical staff. MyChart technical staff does not require access to your personal health information to provide technical support.
	▪	No Warranty or Promises. THE PATIENT PORTAL IS PROVIDED "AS IS." It may not be accurate, complete, timely (real-time), error-free, or available without interruption. You are responsible for making sure your content and other information you want to keep is downloaded from the Patient Portal or backed up.
	▪	CHI’s Limited Liability. CHI IS NOT LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES GREATER THAN $1000, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED UNDER APPLICABLE LAW.
	▪	Termination of Your Portal Account. We have the right to suspend or terminate your access to, or use of, the Patient Portal:

	o	If we find your access or use violates these Terms or the law;
	o	If we reasonably find that your access to, or use of, the Patient Portal would present an unacceptable risk to the security of our computer systems or networks, or cause us to violate any state or federal laws that apply to us;
	o	For any other reason stated in these Terms of Use.

6. Changes to These Terms of Use

WE MAY REVISE AND UPDATE THE AGREEMENT FROM TIME TO TIME WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO YOU. ANY CHANGES TO THE AGREEMENT WILL APPLY IMMEDIATELY UPON POSTING. Note that if there are any inconsistencies between these Patient Portal Terms and the updated CHI Terms and Conditions or CHI Privacy Policy, these Patient Portal Terms will govern. YOU AGREE TO PERIODICALLY REVIEW THESE TERMS FOR SUCH CHANGES.

7. How to Contact Us

You can contact us through your account or by contacting the MyChart support line at 844-528-8383.

YOUR AGREEMENT WITH THESE TERMS OF USE

By clicking on the “AGREE” button below and/or by using this patient portal, you are confirming that you understand and agree with the above terms, and with the CHI Terms and Conditions AND Privacy Policy.