Privacy Policy
Why Do We Collect Your Information?
Dealing with your confidential personal information is essential to our operations at Canadian HealthCare Administrators Inc (CHCA). As is the nature of our business, we collect and store information about you and your health claim. We need this for four reasons:
- to ensure you are eligible for coverage,
- to adjudicate your claims in accordance with the Income Tax Act,
- to record the financial details of the transactions, and
- to retain any tax-related information for reporting purposes.
What Do We Collect?
We limit the information we collect to what we need for the provision of our services. We use it only for that purpose. We obtain most of our information about you directly from you. We obtain some information about you from your employer; the plan holder of the Private Health Services Plan (PHSP). We do not collect additional personal information about you from any third parties. We do not monitor or record your telephone conversations with our representatives with a temporary exception of optional voicemail messages you may choose to leave.
What Do We Share?
We do not share your personal information with any third parties, except for Government of Canada regulatory bodies where we are required to do so by law. We will never sell your information to a third party or let any third party make use of your information.
How Do We Store And Handle Your Information?
As we require original paper copies of all health expenses, we store your information in paper-format file storage with appropriate physical safeguards and security measures in our central office. We do not scan or store your health receipt information in an electronic form. We retain certain portions of your personal and financial information in an electronic format for the plan holder’s year-end tax reporting purposes only. All of your electronic personal information is stored on a separate computer system that is totally independent of our corporate network. Your personal and financial information is not physically accessible from the Internet.
We will retain your paper health information only for tax inquiries. We will only store it for as long as is legally necessary, which currently is seven (7) years, which may extend beyond the time you are a customer of Canadian HealthCare Administrators Inc. At that point; your information is securely shredded and destroyed. Similarly, your electronic personal information is retained only as long as you remain a customer of CHCA and for (7) years after your last active health claim. At that time, your electronic records will be purged from our computer system. All employees and functionaries of Canadian HealthCare Administrators Inc. are familiar with this policy and follow procedures to safeguard your privacy.
E-mail
E-mail sent over the Internet is not encrypted and can be intercepted. Canadian HealthCare Administrators Inc. will not request that you transmit confidential information to us regarding your Private Health Services Plan over the Internet. When filling out a claim, we require you to print the form and submit it via Canada Post, courier or personal delivery. We recommend caution when sending us e-mail messages to ensure you do not include confidential information in those messages.
We use your e-mail address to acknowledge your message and reply to your questions. We will store your communication and our replies, in case we need further correspondence. We will not sell your e-mail address to anyone. We will use your e-mail to send you reminder notices. If you do not want us to contact you by e-mail, you may tell us so at any time.
