1. About This Policy

 

This Privacy Policy explains how Bethesda Foundation d/b/a Bethesda Senior Living Communities and its affiliated senior living communities (“Bethesda,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collect, use, disclose, and protect information about visitors to our community websites (each, a “Site”).  Bethesda Foundation and Bethesda Senior Living Communities are not affiliated with Bethesda Health Group of St. Louis.

 

This Policy applies to our Sites for communities located in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, and Texas. It applies to information you provide through our Sites, including through our “Schedule a Tour” and “Need Help Today?” forms, and to information we collect automatically when you visit.

 

This Policy does not apply to information collected offline, to information collected by third-party websites we link to, or to employment applications.

 

2. Important Notice About Health Information

 

Our Sites are informational and marketing websites. They are not patient portals, and they are not a place to send medical records, clinical questions, or urgent care requests.

 

Please do not submit detailed medical information through our website forms. Tell us only what you need to tell us so we can return your call — for example, the level of care you are exploring. If you need to discuss a diagnosis, medications, or a specific medical situation, please call the community directly or raise it during your tour.

 

Some Bethesda communities are subject to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”). If you become a resident of one of those communities, health information about you that we create or maintain as your care provider is protected health information and is governed by HIPAA and by that community’s Notice of Privacy Practices — not by this Policy. The Notice of Privacy Practices is available at the community.

 

If information you submit through a Site is later added to your resident or clinical record, that information becomes subject to the Notice of Privacy Practices from that point forward. Until then, this Policy governs.

 

Separately, Arizona and Missouri law impose confidentiality obligations on licensed senior living communities with respect to resident records. We follow those obligations in each state where we operate.

 

3. Information We Collect

 

a. Information you give us

 

When you use our “Schedule a Tour” form, our “Need Help Today?” form, or another contact form on a Site, we ask for:

• Your name, and the name of the person you are inquiring about, if different
• Your email address and telephone number
• The community or location you are interested in, and your preferred tour date or time
• Your relationship to the prospective resident (for example, spouse, adult child, or professional referral source)

You choose what to put in the message field. Because a description of care needs can reveal information about a person’s health, we treat that information as sensitive and handle it as described in Section 6.

 

If you call one of the telephone numbers listed on a Site, we collect the information you give us during that call, and we may keep a record of the call and a summary of what you told us.

 

b. Information we collect automatically

 

When you visit a Site, we and our analytics provider automatically collect:

• Your IP address and general geographic area (city or region level)
• Browser type, operating system, device type, and screen size
• The pages you view, how long you spend on them, and the links you click
• The website or search engine that referred you to us, if any
• The date and time of your visit

We collect this information using cookies and similar technologies. See Section 7.

 

c. Information we do not collect through our Sites

 

We do not ask for, and you should not submit through a Site, your Social Security number, driver’s license or state identification number, financial account or payment card number, insurance identification number, immigration or citizenship status, or biometric information. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18 years of age.

 

4. How We Use Your Information

 

We use the information described above only for the following purposes:

• To respond to your inquiry, schedule and confirm a tour, and answer your questions
• To follow up with you about the community or communities you asked about, and about availability, pricing, and the move-in process
• To determine, with you, whether a Bethesda community can meet the care needs you describe, and to refer you to another Bethesda community that may be a better fit (Please note that Bethesda’s independent living communities do not provide care)
• To operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve our Sites, and to understand which pages visitors find useful
• To keep records of our communications with you
• To comply with law, respond to lawful requests, and establish, exercise, or defend legal claims

We do not use the information you submit through a Site for any purpose that is unrelated to your inquiry without first asking you. In particular, we do not use it to serve you advertising, and we do not use it to build a profile about you.

 

5. When We Share Your Information

 

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share your personal information with anyone for their own advertising or marketing purposes. We do not share it with lead brokers, referral networks, or placement services.

 

We share information only as follows:

• Among Bethesda communities. If the community you contacted cannot meet your needs, we may share your inquiry with another Bethesda community — but only if you ask us to or agree.
• With service providers. We use vendors to host our Sites, deliver email, operate our telephone systems, and provide website analytics. These vendors may process your information only on our instructions and only to perform services for us. They are contractually prohibited from using it for their own purposes.
• With professional advisors. Our attorneys, auditors, and insurers, when they need the information to advise or represent us.
• For legal reasons. When we believe disclosure is required by law, subpoena, court order, or a government or regulatory request, or is necessary to protect the safety of a resident, a visitor, our staff, or the public.
• In a business transaction. If Bethesda or a community is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this Policy.

 

6. Sensitive Information and Your Consent

 

Colorado and Texas law treat information that reveals a person’s physical or mental health condition or diagnosis as sensitive personal data, and generally require your consent before a business may process it.

 

If you choose to describe care needs in a form on our Site, we ask you to check a box confirming that you agree to our using that information to respond to your inquiry. We do not require you to give us that information, and we will not refuse to schedule a tour or answer your questions if you decline. If you do not consent, simply leave the message field blank and we will contact you to discuss your needs directly.

 

You may withdraw your consent at any time using the contact information in Section 13. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it.

 

7. Cookies, Analytics, and Your Browser Choices

 

Our Sites use cookies — small files stored on your device — for two purposes: to make the Site work (for example, to remember what you have typed into a form), and to measure how visitors use the Site.

 

For measurement we use Google Analytics. Google Analytics tells us how many people visit each page, how they got there, and where they leave. We have configured Google Analytics so that it does not share your information with Google for Google’s own advertising purposes, and we do not use Google Analytics data to target advertising to you.

 

You can opt out of Google Analytics entirely by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available from Google.

 

You can also set your browser to refuse cookies or to alert you when a cookie is being set. If you refuse cookies, parts of our Sites may not work properly.

 

Global Privacy Control. Some browsers and browser extensions can send a “Global Privacy Control” or similar universal opt-out signal on your behalf. We honor these signals where the law requires us to. Because we do not sell personal data or use it for targeted advertising, the signal does not change how we handle the information you submit through a form — that information is used only to respond to you.

 

Our Sites do not currently respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals, because no common standard for them has been adopted.

 

8. Calls, Text Messages, and Email

 

If you give us your telephone number, we will use it to respond to your inquiry.

 

You can stop marketing calls by telling us during any call or by contacting us. We will honor your request promptly and in no event later than ten business days after we receive it, and we will apply it to all of our marketing calls and texts.

 

Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies.

 

You can unsubscribe from our marketing emails using the link at the bottom of any marketing email. We may still send you non-marketing messages about an inquiry you made or a tour you scheduled.

 

9. Your Privacy Rights

 

Regardless of where you live, you may ask us to:

• Confirm and access — tell you whether we hold personal information about you, and give you a copy of it
• Correct — fix personal information about you that is inaccurate
• Delete — delete personal information about you that we hold
• Obtain a portable copy — receive the information you gave us in a portable, readily usable digital format, where technically feasible
• Opt out — direct us not to sell your personal information, not to use it for targeted advertising, and not to use it for profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. We do not do any of these things, but you may make the request and we will confirm that to you.
• Withdraw consent — withdraw consent you previously gave us to process sensitive information

How to make a request:

 

Submit a request using any of the methods in Section 13. We will not require you to create an account in order to make a request.

 

We will verify your identity before acting on a request, using information we already hold. If we cannot verify you, we will tell you and explain what we need. An authorized agent may make a request on your behalf; we may ask for proof of the agent’s authority. A parent or legal guardian may make a request on behalf of a child.

 

We will respond within 45 days of receiving your request. If we need more time, we will tell you within that first 45 days and may take up to 45 additional days. We provide this information free of charge at least twice a year. We may charge a reasonable fee, or decline, if a request is manifestly unfounded, excessive, or repetitive, and we will tell you why.

 

We will not discriminate against you, deny you services, or charge you a different price because you exercised a privacy right.

 

If we deny your request, you may appeal. Send your appeal to the address or email in Section 13 with the subject line “Privacy Request Appeal.” Appealing is as easy as making the original request. We will respond in writing, with our reasons, within 45 days of receiving your appeal, and we may extend that period by up to 60 days if reasonably necessary. If we deny your appeal, we will give you a way to contact your state Attorney General.

 

10. Your State Privacy Rights

 

Colorado

 

The Colorado Privacy Act gives Colorado residents the rights listed in Section 9. If we deny your appeal, you may submit a complaint to the Colorado Attorney General at coag.gov/file-complaint. We honor universal opt-out mechanisms recognized by the Colorado Attorney General, including Global Privacy Control, as described in Section 7. Because we do not sell personal data and do not process it for targeted advertising, a universal opt-out signal does not change how we handle the information you submit to us.

 

We obtain your consent before processing sensitive data, as described in Section 6.

 

Texas

 

The Texas Data Privacy and Security Act gives Texas residents the rights listed in Section 9. We do not sell your sensitive personal data. We do not sell your biometric personal data. We do not collect biometric data through our Sites.

 

If we deny your appeal, we will provide you with the online mechanism through which you may submit a complaint to the Texas Attorney General, available at texasattorneygeneral.gov.

 

Arizona and Missouri

 

Arizona and Missouri have not enacted comprehensive consumer privacy statutes. We extend the rights described in Section 9 to residents of Arizona and Missouri as a matter of our own practice, and we handle information from all four states the same way.

 

Missouri residents may register with the Missouri No Call List maintained by the Missouri Attorney General. Residents of any state may register with the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov. We honor both.

 

11. Security and Retention

 

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect the information we collect against loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

 

We keep inquiry information only as long as we need it for the purposes described in Section 4, and then for as long as required by law or reasonably necessary to resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. We delete or de-identify it after that. If you become a resident, the retention of your resident and clinical records is governed by the applicable licensing and health information laws of your state and, where applicable, by HIPAA.

 

If a security incident affecting your personal information occurs, we will notify you and the applicable authorities as required by the breach notification laws of your state.

 

12. Other Terms

 

Children. Our Sites are directed to adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a minor has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

 

Links to other sites. Our Sites may link to websites we do not control. We are not responsible for their privacy practices. Read their privacy policies before giving them information.

 

Where we operate. Our Sites are intended for users in the United States, and we store and process information in the United States.

 

Changes to this Policy. We may update this Policy. We will post the updated Policy here and change the “Last Updated” date. If we make a material change in how we use information we already collected from you, we will notify you before the change takes effect and, where the law requires, obtain your consent.

 

13. How to Contact Us

 

For privacy questions, to exercise a right, to withdraw consent, or to appeal a decision:

 

Bethesda Senior Living Communities
Attn: Privacy Officer
8595 Explorer Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Email: [[email protected]]
Telephone: [719-481-0100]

 

For questions about a community’s Notice of Privacy Practices or about health information covered by HIPAA, contact the community directly or the Privacy Officer at the address above.