Privacy Policy

Last Revised:  2022.

This Privacy Policy explains the privacy practices of Smith Medical Direct Specialty Care and certain of its affiliates identified in the section “Affiliates” below, (collectively “Smith Medical Direct Specialty Care”, “we”, “us”, “our”) for personal information collected when you visit our website, https://wwww.SmithDSC.com, (the “Site”) and when you communicate with us in other ways.

This Privacy Policy covers:

1. The personal information collected from you through the Site, how it is used and with whom it may be shared;The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information;
2. What choices are available to you regarding the use of your personal information; and
3. How to correct any inaccuracies or learn more about the personal information we have collected.

This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect on the Site or in emails and other electronic messages between you and the Site, and information gathered when you interact with our advertising on third-party websites if such advertisements include links to this Privacy Policy. 

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by any third party, or information collected by any third party through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from the Site (for further information, see below, “Social Media Activities and Third Party Links”). 

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our practices regarding your information and how we will treat it.  If you do not agree with our policies and practices, then please do not use our Site.  By using our Site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.  This Privacy Policy may change from time to time (see below, “Changes to this Policy”).  Your continued use of our Site after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the Privacy Policy periodically for updates.

This Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with our Terms of Use, into which this Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference.

Information We Collect and How We Use It

Personal Information Collected on the Site

The term “personal information” as used in this Privacy Policy refers to any information that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you or a particular user. In particular, the Site may collect the following personal information from you and other users of the Site: (1) first and last name, (2) telephone number, (3) email address, (4) mailing address, and (4) in certain Site features,  insurance and medical information. 

We obtain such personal information from the following sources:

• Directly from you. For example, when you:  
  • book an appointment with us; or
  • communicate with us, such as request information.
• Indirectly from you. For example, through information we collect from you in the course of providing our services to you.

• Directly and indirectly from activity on our Site. We and our authorized marketing partners may use cookies and other technologies to collect data about our Site visitors including IP address and Site usage, as described below under “Automatic Collection Using Cookies and Other Technologies.”

Protected Health Information. While some of the information you provide or access through the Site may be health-related, the Site and any information you provide directly to it is not subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) nor is any information “protected health information” as defined under HIPAA. If you establish a patient and physician relationship with BEST Health System, our separate Notice of Privacy Practices explains how we collect, handle, store, and share protected health information protected HIPAA. We do not share protected health information with third parties except as permitted under HIPAA and described in the Notice of Privacy Practices.

De-Identified and Aggregated Information. We may create de-identified data from personal information by electronically removing data components (such as your name, email address, or linkable tracking ID) that make the data identifiable to a particular individual. Our use of de-identified data is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

Free Text Boxes. The information that you provide in each case will vary. In some cases, you may be able to provide personal information via email or free text boxes, such as contacting us to request further information.  When providing your personal information, please provide only relevant information and do not provide unnecessary sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, credit card information or other sensitive personal data, unless required for our services.  

Information from Other Sources

We obtain personal information from our direct email and other communications with you and may obtain demographic information (age, sex, household income, employment) from marketing and data analytics resources. The personal information you give us and information about you collected from our Site and other points of contact may be combined with other personal information available from our records and third party sources.

Purposes of Information Collection

We use the information that you provide for the following purposes:

• responding to your requests for information regarding our services;
• evaluating whether you are a candidate for our services;
• communicating with you in order to schedule, perform, bill, administer, and otherwise fulfill the services we will provide you;
• reviewing live agent chats created when using the “Chat Now” feature for training purposes;
• evaluating health insurance payment options;
• providing marketing information and updates about our programs and services that may be of interest to you; and
• asking you to participate in surveys and other activities that help us to evaluate our services.

If you do not want us to use your contact information to provide marketing and promotional materials, you should let us know as explained under the section titled “How to Opt-out of Promotional E-mails and Personalized Advertising” below.

Automatic Collection Using Cookies and Other Technologies

Our Site also collects data using “cookies” and other internet technologies as you browse. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (unless you disallow) that enable the Site or our service provider to recognize your browser and capture and store your personal setting and other information. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction that are used to analyze visitor demographics and improve the Site.

The types of information collected using these technologies include:

• Identification – date and time of your visits to our Site, and history of visits;
• Device – IP address, internet domain name, browser type, operating system, mobile network, device telephone number;
• Usage – previous website, history of Site pages viewed, time spent viewing each page, number and duration of visits, and other internet activities that reflect your interests.

In addition to the above, we may collect general geographic location determined by your IP address and more specific location from mobile device use (unless blocked).

You can set your computer to warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Apple Safari) settings. Each browser is different – your browser’s “Help” menu can provide the correct way to modify the way it handles cookies. If you turn cookies off, you may not have access to features that make your Site experience more efficient and some of the Site’s services may not function properly.

Note that your internet service provider and mobile device manufacturer also may collect information about you or your activities via the Site. The data they collect generally are not available to BEST Health System.

Some of the tools we use to automatically collect information about you may include:

1. Cookies.  A “cookie” is a small data file transmitted from a website to your device’s hard drive.  Cookies are usually defined in one of two ways, and we may use either (or both) of them: 
   
   (1) session cookies, which do not stay on your device after you close your browser, and
   
   (2) persistent cookies, which remain on your device until you delete them or they expire.  

We may use the following categories of cookies on our Site.

• Strictly Necessary Cookies.  These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the Site and use its features. Without these cookies, services you have requested, such as maintaining a record of your purchased items, cannot be provided.

• Performance Cookies.  These cookies collect anonymous information on how you use our Site to help us understand how you arrive at our Site, browse or use our Site and highlight areas where we can improve, such as navigation. The data stored by these cookies never shows personal details from which your individual identity can be established.

• Functionality Cookies.  These cookies remember choices you make such as the country from which you visit our Site, your preferred language, and your search parameters. This information can then be used to provide you with an experience more appropriate to your selections and to make your visits to our Site more tailored to your preferences. The information in these cookies may be anonymized.  These cookies cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

• Targeting Cookies or Advertising Cookies. These cookies collect information about your browsing habits in order to make advertising more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign.  The cookies are usually placed by third-party advertising networks.  These cookies remember the websites you visit and that information is shared with other parties, such as advertisers. 

Of course, if you do not wish to have cookies on your devices, you may turn them off at any time by modifying your internet browser’s settings.  However, by disabling cookies on your device, you may be prohibited from full use of the Site’s features or lose access to some functionality.

1. Web Beacons.  A Web Beacon is an electronic image.  Web Beacons can track certain things from your computer and can report activity back to a web server allowing us to understand some of your behavior.  If you choose to receive emails from us, we may use Web Beacons to track your reaction to our emails.  We may also use them to track if you click on the links and at what time and date you do so.  Some of the third-party marketers we engage with may use Web Beacons to track your interaction with online advertising banners on our Site.  This information is only collected in aggregate form and will not be linked to your Personal Information.  Please note that any image file on a webpage can act as a Web Beacon.
2. Embedded Web Links.  Links provided in our emails and, in some cases, on third-party websites may include tracking technology embedded in the link.  The tracking is accomplished through a redirection system.  The redirection system allows us to understand how the link is being used by email recipients.  Some of these links will enable us to identify that you have personally clicked on the link and this may be attached to the Personal Information that we hold about you.  This data is used to improve our service to you and to help us understand the performance of our marketing campaigns.
3. Third-party Websites and Services.  We work with a number of service providers of marketing communications technology.  These service providers may use various data collection methods to improve the performance of the marketing campaigns we are contracting them to provide.  The information collected can be gathered on our Site and also on the websites where our marketing communications are appearing.  For example, we may collect data where our banner advertisements are displayed on third-party websites.

Why and With Whom We Share Information

Important note about Protected Health Information. We do not share any protected health information with third parties except as permitted under HIPAA. 

We do not sell or lease your Personal Information to any third party.  The information in this section of our Privacy Policy explains why and with whom we may share other types of personal information (for example, contact information and usage data collected by cookies) with third parties or allow third parties to have access to those types of information.

• Service providers. We share information with our service providers (including payment processors, cloud storage and other service providers, email servicing providers, e-commerce content management system providers,) who perform administrative and technology functions on our behalf. In addition to these partners, we may, upon receiving your written consent, share your information with third-party financing partners that can assist in covering the costs for your care. We seek to select service providers who demonstrate their commitment to protecting the personal information we entrust to them.

• Data analytics. While you use the Site, information is passively collected about you and your online activities by data analytics companies including Google Analytics and other companies we authorize. These third parties provide reports to us about our Site usage and visitor demographics. They also use the information collected on our Site for their own business purposes. You can learn about how Google collects and processes data from websites for advertising and data analytics purposes at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. You can learn about the controls Google offers to manage the collection and use of your personal information at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

In addition to Google Analytics, we sometimes forward the information you submit to us (via online questionnaires or in subsequent telephone conversations) to third-party analytics firms, which aggregate the information you submit with other publicly available information, which allows us to better tailor our service offerings to you both now and in the future. These third parties do not have access to any protected health information.

• Marketing. Unless you instruct us not to, we will use your contact information to send you e-mails and other communications about our products and services. We may also exchange certain contact information, including but not limited to your name and email address, with third parties for marketing purposes. We do not sell, exchange or disclose your protected health information for marketing purposes. See “How to Opt-out of Promotional E-mails and Personalized Advertising” below.

 

• Advertising. Using the information you provide us, we may send you informational emails about services that we believe may interest you. Additionally, we partner with third parties, such as Google Ads or similar vendors, to manage our advertising on other websites. Google Ads and similar vendors use cookies and other internet technologies to gather information about your activities on our Site and other websites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. You may contact us to opt out of informational emails regarding our services and may opt out of third-party, internet-based ads with the specific third parties. See “How You Can Control Information Collection —Opting Out of Direct Marketing and Personalized Advertising” below.

 

• Legal Process and Site Protection. We may disclose your personal information to third parties without notice to you in order to comply with applicable law, law enforcement agencies, enforce our Site policies, protect our rights, or protect the rights of other users of the Site. We may disclose information to companies assisting in fraud protection or investigation.

 

• Business Transactions. In order to prepare for or undertake a business transaction, such as a financing, reorganization, or business sale or transfer, where we have a legitimate interest in disclosing personal information, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections, we may share personal information with transaction parties and their advisors; and retain a copy of the information following the transaction.

How We Secure Personal Information

We use commercially reasonable organizational, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of your personal information and to meet the standards of this Privacy Policy, and require third parties who can access your information to do the same. We limit access to personal information to our staff and service providers who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information to provide services to you or do their jobs. Still, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, use, or alteration. There is always a risk inherent in the electronic transmission and storage of information (including without limitation the risks of unauthorized entry or use, telecommunication issues, hardware or software failure, and other factors).

Social Media Activities and Third-Party Links

This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by our Site. In an attempt to provide you with useful information, we may include third-party links on our Site. These linked sites have separate and independent privacy policies. If you connect with any of the social media activities available on our Site, such as the Facebook “Like” button, the social media platform controls these activities, not BEST Health System. These other websites may send their own cookies to you, independently collect your personal information including your IP address and the page you are visiting on our Site, and may set a cookie to enable the activity to perform.

We have no control over the privacy practices, or content of the applications and websites to which we provide access from our Site. BEST Health System does not endorse, approve, or certify these third-party websites, applications or other materials provided therein, and we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness, legality, or any other aspect. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites. Because this Privacy Policy is not enforced on these third-party websites, we encourage you to read any posted privacy policy of the third-party website before using the service or website and providing any information.  

How You Can Control Information Collection

Opting out of Direct Marketing and Personalized Advertising

At any time, you can tell us to stop sending you e-mail and other direct marketing or personalized internet advertising or to otherwise change your communications preferences by:

• Clicking “unsubscribe” in an email you receive from us;
• Emailing us at with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line; or
• Calling our general switchboard at or any of our individual practice locations.

Transactional or service-oriented messages, such as delivery confirmation messages, are usually excluded from such preferences, as such messages are required to respond to your requests or to provide goods and services, and are not intended for the purposes of marketing. 

How You Can Make Requests About Your Personal Information

If you contact us for any of the reasons listed below, we will make a prompt and commercially reasonable effort to honor your request:

• To opt out of direct marketing communications;
• To ask us to limit how we use your personal information;
• To ask us to correct personal information we have about you;
• To find out what personal information we have about you or request a readable copy;
• To object to our further use of your personal information;
• To advise us about a complaint regarding how we handle your personal information; and
• To ask us to delete the personal information we have about you.

To protect your privacy and security, we may take steps to verify your identity before taking action on your request.

Additional Privacy Rights for California Residents

Under California’s “Shine the Light” law, California residents who provide personal information in obtaining products or services for personal, family or household use are entitled to request and obtain from us, once per calendar year, information about the customer information we shared, if any, with other businesses for their own direct marketing uses. If applicable, this information would include the categories of customer information and the names and addresses of those businesses with which we shared customer information for the immediately prior calendar year (e.g. requests made in 2016 will receive information regarding 2015 sharing activities).

To obtain this information from us, please send an e-mail message to optout2@BESTHealthSystem.com with “Request for California Privacy Information” on the subject line and in the body of your message. We will provide the requested information to you at your e-mail address in response. Not all information sharing is covered by the “Shine the Light” requirements and only information on covered sharing will be included in our response.

The Site does not respond to “do not track” requests.

TEXT MESSAGING AND PHONE CALLS

You may have the opportunity to receive SMS or “text” messages, pre-recorded voice messages or auto-dialed phone calls from us, our affiliates and related entities as well as third parties.  Such messaging may be used to authenticate your identity or mobile device, provide you informational updates about services or products you may have requested, and provide information regarding the treatments offered at BEST Health System.  In providing your mobile device number or cell phone number, you knowingly consent to such communications from us or for us to use your cell phone number or mobile device number in accordance with our Terms of Use.  In providing your number, you represent that you have the authority to agree to receive text messages and phone calls at the telephone number that you provide to us, or from which you sent the text message request to us.  You further acknowledge that no purchase is required to opt into this service, and you may opt out at any time by following the instructions provided in our communications to you.

Any such communications you receive from us will be administered in accordance with your preferences and this Privacy Policy.  

INFORMATION OF MINORS

We do not intentionally seek to gather information from individuals under the age of thirteen (18).  We do not target the Site to minors, and would not expect them to be engaging with our Site or services.  We encourage parents and guardians to provide adequate protection measures to prevent minors from providing information unwillingly on the internet.  If we are aware of any Personal Information that we have collected about minors, we will take steps to securely remove it from our systems.

CONSENT TO PROCESSING YOUR INFORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES

BEST Health System provides services only in the United States. If you reside or are located in a different country, the data protection laws of that country may differ as to how your personal information is protected. We want you to understand that when you provide your personal information to us, or we obtain it through our website, by phone, or other means, you will be transferring your information to the United States. In doing that, you are giving us your consent to process your information in the United States, in accordance with United States law, for our legitimate business purposes as explained in this Privacy Policy. We will respond to requests you may have about your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

HOW TO CONTACT US

Please contact us if you have any requests about your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. And, we welcome your questions, comments, and concerns about this Privacy Policy and our Site.

By emailing us at:
brendonl@smithdsc.com

By letter at:

Smith Medical Holdings
Privacy Officer
107 Palm Drive, Flagler Beach, FL 32136

We may need to confirm your identity in order to respond to some requests.

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

If we make substantive changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting the changes on the Site and updating the Last Revised block above.