We know health care costs are always on your mind. And that’s why we’re sharing good news. virtuwell can save organizations and employees time and money.
A 2011 analysis of medical and pharmacy claims for HealthPartners’ members* revealed an average $88 lower cost per episode for virtuwell-treated cases versus those treated elsewhere.
Acute sinusitis................. $78.90 lower
Urinary tract infection.... $127.61 lower
Pink eye........................... $69.00 lower
Convenience clinics .................... $20-$30 lower
Office visits .............................. $80-$142 lower
Urgent care ............................. $82-$124 lower
Emergency room..................... $159-$469 lower
virtuwell is a 24/7 online clinic for you and your employees. It’s quick, convenient and safe. So share the news at your organization and help everyone get better faster.
*Based on HealthPartners analysis of claims between May 1, 2009 and April 30, 2012 for commercially insured members.
This notice describes how we manage, use and protect your personal information. This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.
This notice is divided into three sections:
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your personal information and to provide and abide by the terms of this notice. We reserve the right to change the terms of this notice and make the changes effective for all the information we maintain. If you are a patient, a current notice will be prominently displayed at our care delivery sites and given to you if you ask. If we materially change our notice and you are a health plan member, you will receive a new notice within 60 days of the change. Our privacy notice is also available at healthpartners.com.
We use and disclose your personal information to help with your treatment, payment for your treatment and our health care operations, and in other ways permitted or required by law. When the law requires us to get your permission before we release your information to another organization or person, we do so as described in the more detailed portions of this notice.
You have other rights related to your privacy. Those rights, and how you may exercise them, are described in the more detailed portions of this notice.
This portion of our privacy notice describes how we, as health care providers and care facilities, manage and protect patients' personal information. It also describes how you, as a patient, may exercise your rights with regard to your personal information.
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The HealthPartners family ("we" or "us") includes these affiliate organizations: |
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This list of affiliates may change from time to time. |
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"Personal information" is information that identifies you and that relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health, healthcare services and payment for those services. Personal information includes health information (such as diagnosis and treatment plans) as well as demographic information (such as your name, address, phone number, patient ID, social security or other identification number and date of birth).
We use and disclose your personal information only as needed to conduct or support treatment, payment or related health care operations, or as otherwise authorized by you or by law. Examples include:
We may also use your information to contact you about appointments and let you know about other health services, treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.
In some cases we participate in an organized health care arrangement. Providers that participate in an organized health care arrangement will use and share your personal information as necessary to carry out your treatment, payment or for its health care operations. An example of an organized health care arrangement is a hospital and doctors on that hospital's medical staff. The hospital and these doctors work together to provide you care. This notice covers the medical staff members who provide care to you in the hospital (unless they give you their own notice of privacy practices).
In some situations, we may be required by State law to obtain your written consent in order to share your personal information with nonaffiliated people or organizations for treatment, payment or health care operations. If so, we may ask you to give us this consent every year or more frequently. If you do not give us this consent, then we may be unable to bill your payor for your services and may need to bill you personally instead.
There may also be times when we use or disclose your personal information in a way that is not considered treatment, payment or health care operations, and is not otherwise required or permitted by law, as described in this notice. In those situations, we are required to get your specific written authorization. If you do not wish to give your authorization, you may refuse without fear of reprisal. You may revoke your authorization in writing at any time, except if we have already relied upon it.
Sharing when Required or Permitted by Law. In some situations we may be required or permitted to use or disclose your personal information without your permission. Examples of these kinds of uses and disclosures include:
Health Research. Sometimes our providers do health research in conjunction with the HealthPartners Research Foundation and nonaffiliated research organizations. In order for your personal information to be used or disclosed for research purposes, you generally must give us your permission. Only in certain circumstances may your personal information be used or disclosed without your authorization. For more information on the HealthPartners Research Foundation, visit the Research Foundation website at www.hprf.org.
Health Information Exchanges and Interoperability. We may participate in health information exchanges, record locator services and other similar activities designed to enable us and other providers to ågive you safer and more efficient care. We will get your permission to share your personal information for these purposes if required by law.
Facility Directories. In some of our inpatient facilities, we may create and maintain a facility directory. Facility directories allow switchboard and other staff to tell people that you are a patient and what room you are in. Unless you object, we may include the following personal information in the facility directory: (i) your name; (ii) your location in the facility (iii) your general condition; and (iv) your religious affiliation (for clergy visits).
Persons Involved in Your Care . Unless you object, we may disclose your personal information to your family members, to close personal friends, or to any other person identified by you, if the information is directly relevant to that person's involvement with your care or payment related to your care. If you do not want us to disclose your personal information in these situations, you must let your caregivers know. We may also use or disclose your personal information to notify, identify or locate a member of your family. We will use our best judgment and experience in allowing people to pick up, on your behalf, filled prescriptions, medical supplies, x-rays or other forms of personal information. In some cases, we may require the person to show proper ID, and we may also require a signed authorization from you.
Fundraising Activities. We may contact you to raise money to support our mission. We may share limited information about you with our foundations so that the foundations can contact you about fundraising activities. If we or our foundations contact you to encourage a donation, you will be given the chance to tell us not to contact you about future donations.
State and federal laws give patients several rights that relate to the privacy of their personal information. Each of these rights is described below. Any request by you to exercise these rights must be received by us in writing. If you would like more information on these rights, you may inquire using the Contact Information below.
We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions about this Notice of Privacy Practices or your privacy rights.
If you are a hospital or transitional care patient, please contact:
If you are a clinic patient, please contact the manager at your clinic.
If you are a home care or hospice patient, please contact your case manager.
Any patient is also welcome to contact our Privacy Office at 1-866-444-3493.
A description of our health plan privacy practices and the privacy rights of our health plan members can be obtained by contacting HealthPartners Member Services at 952-967-5000, toll free at 1-800-883-2177 or 952-883-5127 (TTY). You can also find a copy of our health plan notice at www.healthpartners.com.
These Terms of Use govern your use of the web site located at www.virtuwell.com (the "Site"), which is operated by virtuwell™, a division of HealthPartners, Inc. These Terms of Use apply to all users of the Site, whether visitors who merely browse the Site or users who register as patients or caregivers to receive services from the Site.
The Site provides an on-line healthcare service that allows users to submit a clinical history and symptoms for the list of common minor conditions supported within our service menu. Based on the information you provide, licensed medical practitioners will provide a diagnosis and treatment plan. THE SITE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN A MEDICAL EMERGENCY OR IN CASE OF AN URGENT HEALTHCARE NEED. If appropriate, you may be referred to an alternative setting to receive care. You are charged a fee by virtuwell™ only if a diagnosis and treatment plan are provided to you.
If you register to receive services from virtuwell™ as a patient or caregiver, we will rely on you to provide accurate and complete information throughout both the clinical interview and the registration process, in order to provide appropriate care to you. You may access the Site’s services for yourself, or for your minor children as permitted by the rules of the Site. In addition, you must provide a phone number that can be used by us to contact you with any questions after completing the interview in order to provide a diagnosis and treatment plan via the Site. You also must notify us as soon as you become aware of any critical change to your information that could impact an active treatment plan provided through the Site.
We reserve the right to revise and update these Terms of Use. Any such revisions will be effective on the date of posting to the Site. Your use of the Site following any such revisions will be deemed your acceptance of such revisions. You should periodically visit the Site to review the current terms to which you are bound.
Fee-for-service Medicare and Medical Assistance do not cover the $40 cost of the virtuwell™ services. Some Medicare managed care plans, including most HealthPartners Freedom plans, and Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare managed care plans may cover virtuwell services. You should contact your managed care plan to find out whether the services will be covered for you. If you are a member of a Government Healthcare Program that does not cover virtuwell™ services, you understand and agree that you are personally financially responsible for the full cost of the virtuwell™ service, because it is not a covered service under the program.
In order to receive treatment services, users provide personal contact information as part of the registration/checkout process for patients requesting treatment. Our privacy practices and your rights as a patient of virtuwell™ are explained in the Notice of Privacy Practices, which may be updated by us from time to time.
To learn what areas of our site are most popular, we collect anonymous, non-personal data about the pages you go to through the use of small files called "cookies" and "web beacons" or "pixels tags," which may be sent by your web browser to us and stored on your computers hard drive. For example, we may use cookies to enable you to use certain website features, store your preferences or recognize you when you return to our site. We may use web beacons (also called pixel tags) on email communication with you (in the form of small graphic images) or on our site to analyze your online behavior and measure the effectiveness of our site and the services we provide to you. Each cookie is automatically deleted after a period of time or when you close your web browser. We use both cookies and web beacons to help us enhance your expexperience on our site, improve navigation and site design and learn more about your preferences.
You are able to limit the computer data we collect from you by setting your web browser to not accept cookies. If you limit the data we collect, some features on our site may not work properly for you and we may not be able to provide certain services to you through our site.
As part of the registration process for patients or caregivers, the Site requires that you create a unique personal login ID and password. You are solely responsible for maintaining the safety and security of your login ID and password. You should change your password if you believe that confidentiality has been compromised.
The content of the Site, including, without limitation, text, graphics, images and other material, including software developed and licensed by us, which permits the access and use of the Site (collectively the "Content"), is protected by intellectual property laws, including copyright laws. All right, title and interest in and to the Content remains vested in us and shall not pass to you or any other user.
You may view or download copies of the material on the Site for your own personal, noncommercial use. You may not, and may not knowingly allow any third party to, (a) reverse-engineer, disassemble, decompile, reproduce, transcribe, translate into any language or computer language, re-transmit in any form by any means, resell, or redistribute the Content without our prior written consent, (b) reverse engineer or attempt to discover any underlying ideas, source code, processes, techniques, technology, design, formula, engineering, or algorithms of the Site, or (c) use the Site for commercial purposes or otherwise use or allow others to use the Site for the benefit of any third party.
The trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, and slogans contained in the Site are the trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos and slogans of HealthPartners and/or its subsidiaries and affiliates (each a "Mark" and collectively the "Marks"). You are not authorized to use any Mark in any advertisement, publicity or in any other commercial manner without our prior written consent. The trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos and slogans contained in the Site that are not our Marks are the trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos and slogans of their respective owners. References that we make to any specific trade name, trademark, service mark, product, service or process of a third party do not necessarily constitute or imply our endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation of the third party trade name, trademark, service mark, product, service or process, unless otherwise explicitly provided.
virtuwell™, utilizes several third party applications and vendors to provide services, including an electronic prescribing vendor and insurance billing company. As part of the service, virtuwell™ may have access to your prescription history if provided to our e-prescribing vendor by your health plan.
The Site and Content may contain links to web sites operated by third parties. These links are provided solely for convenience and reference purposes only. The inclusion of any such link does not imply that we endorse the content of any web site to which the Site provides a link, nor are we liable for your reliance on or use of any information or materials contained in them.
You may be asked to provider feedback on your virtuwell experience. This feedback is always optional and your choice. This feedback may be hosted and stored at a third party site. You agree to not provide any personally identifiable information such as name or insurance ID as described on the feedback screen.
In no event shall we be liable to anyone for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions with respect to the Site or the transmission or delivery of all or any part of the services, for any damage arising thereof, or any results obtained from the use of the Site.
The existence of the Site is not intended and should not be construed to mean that we are conducting business in all states of the United States of America, or that we consent to submit to the personal jurisdiction of the state or federal courts in any state in the United States, except the State of Minnesota. Any claim or action arising directly or indirectly from the use of the Site be brought in Minnesota state court in Hennepin County, Minnesota or in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota and shall be construed in all respects under the laws of the State of Minnesota, exclusive of its choice of law or conflict of laws provisions.