Website privacy policy

About this policy

This policy explains how V-Care Family Practice & Urgent Care (“V-Care,” “we,” “our” or “us”) collects, uses and protects information when you visit v-carehealth.com or contact us through it.

This website is a simple information site. There are no accounts to create and nothing to sign in to.

How we use and protect your health information as a patient is explained in our Notice of Privacy Practices.

Information we collect

We collect what you choose to send us, plus basic technical information that every website receives.

• Contact details, such as your name, phone number and email address, when you fill in a form.
• Request details, such as the kind of visit you need, the times that suit you, or the prescription you want refilled.
• Insurance information, if you choose to give it.
• Health information, when a form asks for it, such as the health history on our new patient forms.
• Documents you upload, such as a photo of your insurance card, a photo ID for a records request, or a résumé.
• Messages you send us through a contact, call-back, feedback or employer form.
• Technical information, such as your IP address, browser type, device and the pages you view. Our hosting and security services process this to deliver pages and protect the site from abuse.

This website does not store medical records or other protected health information. Form submissions pass through it to the clinic’s systems, as described below.

How we use your information

We use the information you send us to:

• Answer your questions and respond to your requests
• Schedule and confirm appointments
• Prepare for your visit and provide your care
• Handle refill, records and insurance requests
• Contact you about your request by phone, by email or, if you agree, by text message
• Review job applications
• Keep the website working well, improve it and keep it secure
• Meet our legal obligations

Where your form information goes

When you submit a form, your information is sent over an encrypted connection to the clinic’s practice-management and customer-relationship systems. Our technology provider, Spell Solutions, runs these systems for V-Care under a HIPAA business associate agreement, which requires it to safeguard your information and use it only on our behalf.

Your submission isn’t stored on the website itself. Depending on the form, it goes to the clinic’s practice-management system or to its customer-relationship system.

Along with your answers, a form may record the page you sent it from, the time you sent it and, if you reached our site through a link with campaign tags (for example, a link in one of our emails), the name of that campaign. This helps us understand how people find us.

Your health information

Health information you share with us is protected by federal law, whether you share it through this website, by phone or in person. Our Notice of Privacy Practices explains how we may use and share it, and the rights you have. Where this policy and that notice differ about your health information, the notice applies.

Analytics

We may use Google Analytics on our general information pages, such as service descriptions and health articles, to see which pages people find useful and where the site could be clearer.

Analytics does not run on any page where you give us health information or send us a message: the appointment, registration, records, refill, insurance, feedback, contact, employer, referral and careers pages. The email sign-up box in the footer collects only a first name and an email address, and analytics is never told what you type into it. We look only at overall reports, such as how many people visited a page, and we don’t use analytics to identify you.

We don’t use advertising pixels on this website, and we don’t sell data collected here.

Cookies

Cookies are small files a website saves in your browser. This site has no accounts, so it doesn’t use cookies to remember who you are. We use cookies only as described on this page.

If we use Google Analytics, it sets its own cookies to count visits and to tell new visitors from returning ones. We don’t use cookies for advertising.

You can block or delete cookies in your browser’s settings. Google also offers a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics on every website. Blocking analytics cookies won’t stop you from using this site or its forms.

Text messages

If you agree to receive text messages, for example when you ask for a call back or fill in a patient form, we may text you about your request, your appointments, billing and your care.

• Message frequency varies with your requests and appointments.
• Message and data rates may apply, depending on your mobile plan.
• To stop texts, reply STOP to any message. We’ll send one message to confirm, and then no more.
• For help, reply HELP or call us at (281) 984-4550.

We don’t share mobile information with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Your text message opt-in and consent are never shared with third parties, except the service providers that send our messages for us.

If you opt out of texts, we can still reach you by phone or email about your care.

Health tips by email

If you sign up for our health tips, we use your email address only to send occasional health and seasonal reminders, such as flu season and back-to-school physicals. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any of these emails, or by contacting us.

When we share information

We don’t sell or rent your personal information. We share it only:

• With the companies that run our systems and host this website, such as Spell Solutions, which handle it on our behalf under agreements that require them to protect it
• When needed to respond to your request, for example to confirm your appointment
• When the law requires it, such as in response to a court order or a lawful request from law enforcement
• With our analytics provider, if we use one, to produce reports about how the site is used; we look only at overall reports

Health information is shared only as described in our Notice of Privacy Practices.

Children’s privacy

This website is meant for adults. We don’t knowingly collect personal information online directly from children under 13.

Parents and guardians can give us information about their children through our forms, such as the authorization to treat a minor. If you think a child has sent us information without a parent’s knowledge, contact us and we’ll review it and remove it where the law allows.

How we protect your information

We use industry-standard safeguards to protect the information you send us, including encrypted connections for this website and its forms. Still, no website or internet transmission is completely secure, so we can’t guarantee absolute security.

You can help. Share only the health details a form asks for. Regular email isn’t a secure way to send medical information, so please don’t email us test results or a detailed health history; call us or use the right form instead. Never use a form or email for an urgent or emergency need.

Links to other websites

Our site may link to websites we don’t run. We’re not responsible for their content or their privacy practices, so please read their privacy policies.

If you live in Texas

If you have a question about your privacy, or about how we handle information you’ve given us, contact us using the details below. We’re glad to explain what we collect and how we use it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example if we change how the website works. When we do, we’ll post the new version here and change the “last updated” date on this page.

Contact us

Questions about this policy or your information? Contact us:

• Phone: (281) 984-4550
• Email: contact@v-carehealth.com
• Mail: V-Care Family Practice & Urgent Care, 18311 Clay Rd, Ste A7, Houston, TX 77084