Terms of Use
Welcome to HMSA’s website, HMSA.com (the "Site"). PLEASE READ
THESE TERMS OF USE AS WELL AS THE HMSA.COM PRIVACY STATEMENT
CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE. By entering and using the Site, you affirm that
you have read and understood these Terms of Use and the HMSA.com
Privacy Statement and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree
to abide by the Terms of Use and the HMSA.com Privacy Statement,
you may not enter, access, or otherwise use this Site.
Section 1. General Information About the Site
The Site is a product of, and provided by, the HAWAII MEDICAL SERVICE ASSOCIATION ("HMSA"),
an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association
of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. All use of the Site is subject
to the Terms of Use set forth here.
Health information provided on the Site is intended to be informative, not to replace
consultation with a health care provider. You should not use information from the
Site to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease. HMSA encourages you to consult
your health care provider with any questions or concerns you may have regarding
your condition.
HMSA and its affiliates and respective licensors retain all copyrights and other
proprietary rights in or relating to any content, including any software, provided
on the Site. Except for downloading and printing a small number of copies of the
content for your personal use only, you may not sell, transfer, reproduce, transmit,
distribute, perform, or display such content without the express consent of HMSA.
HMSA may revise and update these Terms of Use at any time. Please periodically review
the Terms of Use posted on the Site because your continued use of the Site will
mean that you accept those changes.
Section 2. Disclaimer: No Medical Advice
THE CONTENT ON THE SITE IS NOT INTENDED IN ANY WAY TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL
MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF YOUR PHYSICIAN OR OTHER QUALIFIED HEALTH
CARE PROVIDER WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE REGARDING A MEDICAL CONDITION. DO
NOT RELY ON THE CONTENT OF THE SITE OR ANY OTHER SERVICE OFFERED BY OR THROUGH THE
SITE FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT. NEVER DISREGARD MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY
SEEKING IT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ ON THE SITE. IN AN EMERGENCY, CALL
911 OR YOUR LOCAL EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE NUMBER.
Please do not send personal medical questions or any information other than requested
on the designed screens to HMSA via the Site. If you choose to do so, HMSA does
not guarantee that it will respond or act upon those messages.
Section 3. General Information About HMSA
Our Staff. The information you obtain from the Site should not substitute for or
be used instead of a relationship with a health care professional. All users are
encouraged to seek the advice of, and regularly consult with, physicians and other
health care professionals of their selection.
Our staff also may include other medical practitioners including, without limitation,
pharmacists, nutritionists, nurses, nurse practitioners, and other health care professionals.
None of these health care professionals will provide health care services to you
via the Site, and they should not be considered to be in a clinical or treatment
relationship with you.
We will not request or accept payment from you and will not bill any insurance company,
government payment program, or other source of health benefits for your use of the
Site.
The Site provides links to HMSA’s Online Care website, which does offer health
care services. These Terms of Use do NOT apply to HMSA’s Online Care website.
Please review the Terms of Use for HMSA’s Online Care website if you wish
to use those services.
Our Business Associates. HMSA has agreements with various entities, which we call
our "Business Associates," to provide services in connection HMSA’s
programs. Our relationships with Business Associates are based on the type of service
they are to provide.
Our Information. HMSA strives to be a valuable resource of timely information for
our users. We cannot ensure that information we provide is exhaustive or complete
or that it will necessarily include all of the most recent information available.
You should contact HMSA at the address provided below if you have any concerns
regarding the accuracy or timeliness of benefits or other information displayed
on, or received from, this Site.
Subsequent Acquisition. In the unlikely event that HMSA is acquired, our databases
(which may contain your protected health information) will be among the transferred
assets.
Section 4. Your Use of the Site
Copyright and Trademarks. The name "HMSA," "Blue Cross Blue Shield
of Hawaii," and associated logos are proprietary trademarks and service marks
of HMSA and/or the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
The contents of the Site, including but not limited to text, graphics, images, and
software ("Content"), are protected by copyright under both United States
and foreign laws, and HMSA retains all rights, titles, and interests in and to the Content;
all copies thereof; and all copyrights and other proprietary rights therein.
Upon acceptance of these Terms of Use, HMSA authorizes you to view, download, and
print a small number of copies of the material on the Site solely for your personal,
noncommercial use. You may not modify, sell, assign, or transfer the Content, or
reproduce, display, publicly perform, distribute, or otherwise use the Content in
any way for any public or commercial purpose or otherwise except as expressly permitted
herein. You may not reverse-engineer, disassemble, or decompile any software included
in the Content. Content is subject to change without notice at the editorial discretion
of HMSA.
HMSA shall have the right to use any questions, comments, or other information submitted
by users – without individual identifiers – in books, articles, commentaries, research,
or similar ways. Also, you agree that HMSA may use information that you supply through
the Site for the purpose of providing you personalized health information on the
Site and in connection with services provided to you by HMSA.
Children’s Information. No person under 18 years old is permitted to use the
Site. Adults should not assist minors in accessing the Site. When users enter personal
information on our Site, the user is representing to us that he or she is an adult
over 18 years old. We would be pleased to work with parents and guardians to deactivate
an online account that a child under the age of 18 might have improperly established.
Please contact us at webmaster@hmsa.com.
Electronic Records. You may agree to the use of electronic signatures, contracts,
and records, and electronic delivery of notices, policies, and records of your transactions
with HMSA, through the Site. You also have the option to have certain records of
your transaction provided or made available to you in paper or nonelectronic form.
If you would like to obtain a paper copy of an electronic record, please contact
HMSA and we will provide you with a copy. You also may withdraw your consent to
have records made available in an electronic form by contacting HMSA as set out
below and indicating your preference to receive records in paper form.
To access and retain your electronic records, you must have a computer
capable of reading text files, a modem or other means of accessing the Internet,
and a browser capable of accessing and displaying Web pages. If the requirements
change for the hardware or software you need to access or retain your electronic
records pertaining to your transactions with HMSA on the Site, we will provide you,
at the electronic contact you last provided to HMSA or by posting here in revised
Terms of Use, with a statement describing the revised requirements for access to
and retention of the electronic records. If these revised requirements are not acceptable
to you, you may withdraw your consent to receive electronic records without the
imposition of any fees for withdrawal or of any conditions or consequences not already
disclosed in this notice.
Section 5. Third Parties and External Links
The Site may include or provide links to other websites on the Internet including,
but not limited to, links to our Business Associates’ Web pages. These other
websites may provide opinions, recommendations, or other information from various
individuals, organizations, or companies.
Links to third-party websites are provided solely as a convenience to you and not
as an endorsement or recommendation by HMSA of the content on such third-party websites, or as an indication of any affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement of or
by such third-party websites. HMSA is not responsible for the content of linked
third-party sites and does not make any representations regarding the privacy practices
of, or the content or accuracy of materials on, such third-party websites. To the
extent that you make use of any link to any other website on the Internet, the
disclosure, reproduction, sale, or distribution of information contained on those
sites may be prohibited. Your use of third-party websites is subject to the terms
of use for such sites. If you decide to access third-party websites that are linked
to this site, you do so at your own risk.
Although HMSA endeavors to warn users when they click on a link to a third-party
website that they are leaving HMSA.com, we do not guarantee that you will receive
such an alert. It is your responsibility to determine when you have left this Site.
Only some of the websites associated with HMSA and its affiliated products and
companies endeavor to warn users when they click on a link to another HMSA-affiliated
website or to third-party sites. HMSA does not guarantee that you will receive
such an alert.
Section 6. HMSA’s Privacy Policy
Your Information. HMSA believes the privacy of individually identifiable information
is important, and we use and disclose individually identifiable information only
in accordance with HMSA’s Notice
of Privacy Practices and the HMSA.com Privacy Statement.
By entering and using the Site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood
these Terms of Use, HMSA’s Notice
of Privacy Practices, and the HMSA.com Privacy Statement,
and that you agree to abide by them. Also, you agree that HMSA may use information
that you supply through the Site for the purpose of providing you personalized health
information on the Site and in connection with services provided to you by HMSA.
Although you may provide individually identifiable health information on this Site,
the information is not a medical record, and is not, under the HIPAA Privacy Rules,
considered information we maintain in a designated record set. Such information,
however, will be treated as protected health information, as discussed in HMSA’s
Notice of Privacy Practices and the HMSA.com Privacy Statement.
While HMSA attempts to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing our files or
tampering with our Site, we cannot guarantee that these efforts will always be successful.
Encryption Technology. The website HMSA.com uses Secure Socket Layer ("SSL")
encryption technology to enhance data privacy and help prevent loss, misuse, or alteration
of the information under our control. This encryption technology, however, does
not absolutely guarantee or safeguard the total privacy of user information that
has been voluntarily disclosed to HMSA.com.
Privacy Policy of Other Sites. Users will find content on the Site that enables
linking to the sites of our Business Associates and other third parties. These third-party
sites may have their own privacy policies or no policy at all. The
HMSA.com Privacy Statement and HMSA’s
Notice of Privacy Practices do not apply to such other sites. HMSA has
no control over the content displayed on such sites, nor over the measures, if any,
that are taken by such sites to protect the privacy of user information.
Section 7. Disclaimers And Other Information
INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY HMSA IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AND NEITHER HMSA NOR
ANY OF ITS OWNERS, STAFF, BUSINESS ASSOCIATES, OR AGENTS MAKE ANY REPRESENTATION
OR WARRANTY WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTENTS OF THE SITE AND RELATED HMSA WEBSITES
OR INFORMATION FURNISHED BY THEM OR OUR AGENTS, EMPLOYEES, OR REPRESENTATIVES, AND
SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, CORRECTNESS, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR
USE, APPLICATION, OR PURPOSE.
BY ENTERING THE SITE, YOU HEREBY EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT HMSA AND ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS,
AGENTS, EMPLOYEES, AND BUSINESS ASSOCIATES SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIMS,
DEMANDS, CAUSES OF ACTION, OR DAMAGES, WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL,
CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, OR OTHERWISE, AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR ANY
INFORMATION YOU OBTAIN ON IT OR ANY OTHER INTERACTION WITH HMSA. IN DOING SO, YOU
AGREE THAT YOU ARE WAIVING VOLUNTARILY AND UNEQUIVOCALLY ANY LIABILITY OF HMSA.
HMSA does not make any representation or warranty that there will be no errors,
omissions, delays, or other defects in the information supplied to users, or that
its files are free of viruses, worms, Trojan horses, or other code that include
or manifest contaminating or destructive characteristics.
If any clause or provision set forth above is determined to be illegal, invalid,
or unenforceable under present or future law, then, in that event, the clause or
provision so determined to be illegal, invalid, or unenforceable shall be severable
without affecting the enforceability of all remaining clauses or provisions.
Notice to HMSA. Unless otherwise specified here, any notice to HMSA shall be given
in writing and sent by certified and registered mail to HMSA, P.O Box. 860, Honolulu,
HI 96808-0860, Attn: Legal Services Department.
Questions regarding HMSA’s privacy practices should be directed to
webmaster@hmsa.com.
Indemnification. You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold HMSA, its officers, directors,
employees, agents, licensors, business associates, and suppliers, harmless from
and against any claims, actions, or demands, liabilities, and settlements, including,
without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees resulting from or alleged
to result from your use of the Site in a manner that violates or is alleged to
violate these Terms of Use or applicable law.
Arbitration, Jurisdiction, and Choice of Laws. The application of these provisions,
disclosures, and disclaimers and all other matters arising from your use of this
Site or of any information you obtain from HMSA shall be governed by the laws of
the United States of America and the state of Hawaii. You agree that any claims,
disputes, or other controversies relating to or arising from these provisions, disclosures,
and disclaimers or from your use of this Site or any information you receive from
the Site shall be resolved by binding arbitration. Before arbitration actually starts,
both parties (you and HMSA) must agree on one arbitrator who will review the positions
of both parties and make the final decision to resolve the disagreement. If we both
cannot agree within thirty (30) calendar days of your request for arbitration, either
party may ask any court of competent jurisdiction in Honolulu, Hawaii, to appoint
an arbitrator. The arbitration hearing shall be in Honolulu, Hawaii. The arbitration
shall be conducted in accord with the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. 1 et seq.,
and such other arbitration rules as both parties agree upon. HMSA will pay the arbitrator’s
fees. You must pay your attorneys’ and witness’ fees, if you have any,
and HMSA must pay for ours. The arbitrator will decide who will pay all other costs
of the arbitration. The decision of the arbitrator shall be final and binding on
you and HMSA and no action may be brought in any court in connection with the decision
except as provided under the Federal Arbitration Act.
Relationship of Parties. You acknowledge that HMSA is an independent plan operating
under a license with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association
of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans ("Association") permitting
HMSA to use the Blue Cross and Blue Shield service mark in the state of Hawaii,
and that HMSA is not contracting as the agent of the Association. None of the provisions
of this Agreement are intended to create, nor shall be deemed as construed to create,
any relationship between the parties to this Agreement other than that of parties
contracting with each other solely for the purpose of affecting the provisions of
these Terms of Use.
YOU AFFIRM THAT THE PROVISIONS, DISCLOSURES, AND DISCLAIMERS SET FORTH ABOVE ARE
FAIR AND REASONABLE, AND THAT YOUR AGREEMENT TO FOLLOW AND BE BOUND TO THEM IS NOT
THE RESULT OF FRAUD, DURESS, OR UNDUE INFLUENCE EXERCISED UPON YOU BY ANY PERSON
OR ENTITY.
HMSA MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS, PROMISES, WARRANTIES, OR UNDERTAKINGS CONTRARY TO
THOSE SET FORTH ABOVE.
