Thank you for visiting our website. This policy details certain practices and policies of Louisiana Health Service & Indemnity Company dba Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana as well as our affiliates and subsidiaries HMO Louisiana and Southern National Life (collectively referenced here as BCBSLA). This Privacy Policy outlines what information about you we collect, how and when we collect that information, how we use that information, and with whom we may share that information.
This Privacy Policy also applies to various BCBSLA products, communications, and digital experiences including websites, online platforms, mobile applications, our personal interactions with you or third parties, whether this Privacy Policy is referenced or not (all such interactions referenced here are Services).
Your voluntary use of our Services, including but not limited to accessing or navigating any BCBSLA website, shall mean that you (i) acknowledge that you have read and understand this Privacy Policy; and (ii) agree that your access to and use of the Services are subject to this Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to change the Privacy Policy at any time so please make it a regular practice to both review the Privacy Policy and note any changes.
WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT
Through your use of BCBSLA websites and Services, we may collect personal information. Personal information generally refers to any information that can be linked to an identifiable person. Please note that while some information may not be identifiable by itself (e.g., your address) the information may become personally identifiable if combined with other information (e.g., address and age). Personal information also includes sensitive personal information that often receives additional protections and/or are subject to additional restrictions under applicable laws (for example HIPAA or the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act). Please click on our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices to learn more about how we collect, protect, and use your protected health information. Click here to review our privacy notice required by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
The Personal Information that we may collect or have collected about you varies with the Services you choose and use. Personal information collected about you includes but is not limited to:
Direct and Personal Identifiers: Information that identifies you including, but not limited to, your name, email, any username, and password that you may provide, your address, your tax identification number or social security number, unique identifiers (such as a mobile device ID) and your email and other personal contact information.
Demographic Information: Information regarding your gender, race, or other protected class of data.
Commercial Information: Information about products or Services you considered utilizing through mobile applications, application data, and pricing information. We collect information from you when you provide us with feedback, and we may collect information regarding your receipt and interaction with emails and other messages that you receive from us.
Payment or Banking Information: Credit card number, name on credit card, expiration date, security code, bank routing and account numbers, and billing address.
Electronic Network Activity: Information regarding your use of our websites and mobile applications including but not limited to Internet Protocol address information, information obtained through weblogs concerning your activity on our websites and applications, mobile device identifiers and other related metadata regarding use of our mobile applications. We may collect information, including your browser type, operating system, Internet Protocol (IP) address (a number that is automatically assigned or permanently assigned to a computer when the Internet is used), domain name, device ID, language preferences, referring website, the length of time you are visiting our website, and/or a date/time stamp from your visit. We may also collect such information in relation to monitoring potential malicious code on our systems, such as through the collection of metadata and traffic data, or portions or hashes (a file that has been converted into a numerical string by a mathematical algorithm) of any of the information listed here.
Geolocation Information: Information about the location from which you are accessing our mobile applications. For more information relating to the use of such tools, review our “Cookies” section below.
Audio, Visual or Other Information: Photographs or other images you provide that may identify you through certain of our mobile applications. If you visit one of our locations, or call our call center, we may record your image or voice.
Inferences: We may develop inferences about you using the data set forth above.
SOURCES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We collect your Personal Information in the following ways, pursuant to applicable law:
Directly From You, when you use our Services, register for an account, complete documents, or forms, contact us, respond to a survey, sign up to receive emails, text messages, and/or postal mailings.
Through Our Use of Cookies and Other Automatic Data Collection Technologies, when you visit our websites, use our mobile applications, open or click emails we send you, or interact with our advertisements or surveys. We or third parties we work with automatically collect certain information using technologies such as, but not limited to, cookies, web beacons, clear GIF, pixels, internet tags, web server logs, and other data collection tools. Our use of cookies is discussed in more detail below.
From Our Third-Party Partners, including from third parties that we have partnered with to provide you the Services that you have requested from us.
Other Sources, including data analytics providers or publicly available sources.
HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We use your Personal Information for the following business purposes (“Processing Purposes”) associated with our general business operations. We may collect your Personal Information:
Providing our Services
To provide you the Services, including health insurance products, wellness products or provider information.
To process your payments, claims, and send notifications to you related to your account.
To enable you to access and use our websites and mobile applications.
Communicating With You
To communicate with you and to respond to your requests, questions, comments, and other inquiries
To understand what partner resources you use, if any, and to connect you to additional resources at your request.
To send marketing and promotional materials, including information relating to our products, Services, sales, or promotions or those of a third party.
Analytics and Administration of Website
To administer, maintain, evaluate, and improve our websites, mobile applications, and Services, and to develop new products and services.
To conduct research and analytics related to our websites and Services, including combining any or all of the information that we collect or obtain.
Core Business Functions
To manage our business operations, perform our obligations and exercise our rights under any agreement that you or your organization has with us.
For other purposes with your consent, or as otherwise permitted or required by applicable law.
Data Aggregation
We may de-identify and aggregate your information, including sensitive personal information, to conduct analytics and improve our Services.
Legal Obligations
We use Personal Information to comply with our legal or regulatory obligations, to establish or exercise our rights, and to defend against a legal claim.
Security and Fraud Prevention
We use Personal Information to detect, investigate, prevent, or act regarding possible malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, including fraudulent transactions, attempts to manipulate or violate our policies, procedures, and terms and conditions, security incidents, and harm to the rights, property, or safety of BCBSLA and our users, customers, employees, or others.
COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES
Email and Direct Mail: We may send you email regarding products and Services. In addition, we may occasionally send you direct mail about products and services that we think may be of interest to you. Only BCBSLA (or agents working on our behalf) will send you emails and direct mailings. If you do not wish to receive such emails, you may opt out of future emails by following the directions at the bottom of each email to unsubscribe. If you do not wish to receive direct mailings, you may call the number on the back of your ID card or contact us using the information at the bottom of this Privacy Policy.
Text Messages: If we send you text messages, we may also collect the information you provide, including your telephone number(s), when you read a text message, and information relevant to any request you make. You may opt out or stop receiving Text Messages, by replying STOP.
In some cases, we are required by law to mail information to you, so even if you request not to be contacted by mail, you will still receive some information by mail from BCBSLA.
HOW WE SECURE YOUR INFORMATION
We use industry standard technology and best practices in an effort to keep your information confidential and secure. Your encrypted (encoded) sensitive information is protected using Transport Layer Security (TLS) as it passes between your browser and this website. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal Information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it.
No method of transmission over the internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. Only authorized persons are permitted to access your personal information, and it is our practice to ensure that such authorized people have access only to information needed for us to provide Services. All authorized persons must abide by security, privacy, and confidentiality agreements as well as receive annual training on information and security practices.
If you access a BCBSLA website or internet portal, whether by laptop, tablet, mobile device, or other means of access to the internet, we may use COOKIES and your continued use of our Services, including use of our websites, shall be consent for such use. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. For purposes of this Privacy Policy, cookies also include similar technologies, such as pixels, web beacons, and social network plugins (collectively “cookies”). Cookies help the website remember information about your visit, which can make it easier to visit the website again and make the site more useful to you. Some cookies are deleted once you close your browser (session cookies), while other cookies are retained even after you close your browser so that you can be recognized when you return to a website (persistent cookies). We use cookies to identify and track visitors, their usage of our websites, and their website access preferences across multiple requests and visits. We may link the information we store in cookies to your personally identifiable information in our possession. In the event that we wish to collect more detailed information regarding your use of our website and applications, we will obtain your further consent as applicable.
Additionally for website users, BCBSLA routinely gathers data on website usage including but not limited to how many people visit the site, the sections they visit, what time they visit, or how long they stay. We collect and store at least the following information: the name of the domain from which you access the Internet [for example, yahoo.com if you are connecting from a Yahoo account]; the browser version from which you access our site; the date and time you access our site; any text you entered on the website; your email address and phone number; and the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our site. We use this information for many purposes, for example to measure the number of visitors to different sections of our site and to help us make our site more useful to visitors.
We utilize Google Analytics in relation to personal information and websites. You can learn how Google collects and processes data by visiting “How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services” located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.
We utilize Adobe Experience Cloud to collect data for analytics and to identify the best version of our website to show to you. You can learn how Adobe collects and processes data by visiting “Adobe Experience Cloud privacy” located at Adobe Experience Cloud privacy.
DATA RETENTION
We retain your personal information for the legally allowed and required period of time for the specific purposes for which we use it. BCBSLA will also keep your personal information for as long as you are a registered customer or user of our Services or for as long as we have a valid business purpose to do so and, thereafter, for no longer than is required or permitted by law, as reflected in BCBSLA’s internal Records Retention Policy.
THIRD-PARTY SITES AND LINKS
You may encounter links to third-party websites to offer you additional information and services while consuming our using our Services. In some such instances, you may see our BCBSLA logo, name, or other references next to, on the same page as, or within the same document as the third party's logo. In such instances, you should confirm which entity’s privacy policy and collection practices are controlling. BCBSLA may not have control over a third party’s' use of your information. Please consult each site’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the policies or practices of third parties.
CHILD PRIVACY ISSUES
We understand the importance of protecting children's privacy, especially in an Internet environment. It is our policy never to knowingly collect information from children by way of our website.
PRIVACY POLICY UPDATES AND CHANGES
This Privacy Policy is effective as of August 2023 and was last updated August 2023. This Privacy Policy is not intended to and does not create any contractual or other legal rights with or on behalf of any party.
Evolving technology will continue to provide us with new and better ways to collect and use information so that we may better serve your health coverage needs. We may revise or update this BCBSLA Privacy Policy in the future to reflect these technological advances, and we encourage you to return to this page from time to time for any updates. You will be able to determine if you are reading the latest revision from this section as it will note both the date that this policy was effective as well as the date any subsequent changes were made.
If you do not agree with the changes, then you must stop using our website and Services and notify us that you do not want your personal information used in accordance with the changes.
CONTACT US
This website is maintained by BCBSLA, 5525 Reitz Avenue, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70809. Questions concerning this website can be directed to Customer Service by calling the phone number on the back of your member identification card.
You may also contact us by:
Emailing us at Privacy.Office@bcbsla.com; or
Calling us at (225) 298-1751 or 1 (855) 258-3746
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE PRIOR TO USING THIS WEBSITE
This website is owned and operated by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, incorporated as Louisiana Health Service & Indemnity Company. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana (BCBSLA) and its subsidiaries, HMO Louisiana, Inc., Vantage Health Plan, Inc. and Southern National Life Insurance Company, Inc., are independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Our insurance products and services are offered by BCBSLA or one or more of its subsidiaries. Medical and dental coverage is provided by BCBSLA and HMO Louisiana, Inc. Life insurance coverage is provided by Southern National Life Insurance Company, Inc.
All website users (“you”, “your” and “they”) represent and warrant that they are at least 18 years of age and that they possess the legal right and ability to agree to these Terms and Conditions of Use and to use this website in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. Use of this BCBSLA website is conditioned on the acceptance, without modification, of all Terms and Conditions of this Agreement (defined as the Terms and Conditions). By using this website, you represent that you have read and understand the Terms and Conditions and that you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions as set forth below.
BCBSLA reserves the right at its discretion to modify the Terms and Conditions under which this website is offered. Use of this website after the posting of any such modification constitutes your agreement to be bound by the Terms and Conditions as modified.
All material (“Materials”) displayed or transmitted on this website, including but not limited to text, photographs, images, illustrations, video clips, audio clips, and graphics are owned by BCBSLA or by third parties with their permission, and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademarks, service marks, and other proprietary rights, and various state and federal laws.
Except as provided in this Agreement, you may not copy, reproduce, publish, transmit, transfer, sell, rent, modify, create derivative works from, distribute, repost, perform, display, or in any way commercially exploit the Materials carried on this Web site, nor may you infringe upon any of the copyrights or other intellectual property rights contained in the Materials. You may not remove or alter, nor cause to be removed or altered, any copyright, trademark, or other proprietary notices or visual marks and logos from the Materials.
You acquire no rights or license whatsoever in the Materials other than the limited rights to use the website in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. Any of the Materials accessed or downloaded from this website must be accessed or downloaded in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of use specified in this Agreement. BCBSLA reserves any rights not expressly granted under these Terms and Conditions of use.
BCBSLA reserves the right to modify, update, suspend, discontinue, or restrict the use of or access to this website or any portion of this website, at any time and without notice or liability.
You are liable to BCBSLA for any and all claims, actions, losses, damages, costs and expenses (including attorney fees) if you upload anything to this website that belongs to anyone else, is copyrighted, trademarked or infringes upon another party’s intellectual property rights.
You are not authorized to link to this website without the specific written permission of BCBSLA. Further, No portion of this website may be “included into” or “framed into” another website or online presence without the express, written permission of BCBSLA.
Any unauthorized use of the information on this website is prohibited. Modification of the BCBSLA content or use of the content for any unauthorized purpose is a violation of BCBSLA copyright, service marks and other proprietary rights.
If you do not agree with the Terms and Conditions of this website, detailed both above and below, and do not wish to be bound by them, please do not use this website or download any Materials from this website.
NOT MEDICAL ADVICE:
The content of this website is provided as general information only and is not medical, legal, or health plan purchasing advice. The information on this website is not designed to replace health care or medical advice from a health care professional. All questions about individual care and treatment should be referred to your health care provider.
BCBSLA has designed this website to provide information to you regarding our products and services in general. Nothing contained on this website should be construed as medical advice, medical opinion, diagnosis or treatment.
LEGAL/JURISDICTION:
BCBSLA primarily serves individuals residing in Louisiana and employers whose principal place of business is in Louisiana. Through its association with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, BCBSLA also serves the Louisiana employees of non-Louisiana based employers.
BCBSLA and its subsidiaries licensed by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association are licensed to underwrite health, dental and life coverage in the state of Louisiana only and do not engage in the business of insurance outside Louisiana except as may be permitted by law. Except as described otherwise, all materials in the BCBSLA website are made available only to provide information about BCBSLA. BCBSLA controls and operates this website from its headquarters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and makes no representation that these materials are appropriate or available for use in other locations. The descriptions of products and services on this website are not intended to constitute offers to sell or solicitations in connection with any product or services, and not all products and services are available in all areas to all persons. Services and products are subject to applicable laws and regulations. If you are interested in a particular product or service, you should contact Customer Service to obtain additional information about a product or service, or to speak with an agent.
By accessing, transmitting, using, or viewing any information on this website, you irrevocably agree to be subject to personal jurisdiction in the state of Louisiana. Any claim or dispute arising out of accessing, transmitting, using, or viewing any information on this website shall be exclusively venued in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, and shall be exclusively governed by the laws of the state of Louisiana, without regards to any conflicts of law.
If any of the provisions of these Terms and Condition of Use are held to be not enforceable by a court or other tribunal of competent jurisdiction, then such provisions shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that this Agreement shall otherwise remain in full force and effect.
BCBSLA’s failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others of these Terms and Conditions of Use does not waive BCBSLA’s right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. These Terms and Conditions of Use, specified above and below, set forth the entire understanding and Agreement between BCBSLA and you with respect to the website, its uses and services.
DISCLAIMER:
Use of this website is at your own risk. BCBSLA disclaims all warranties, express and implied.
Information contained on this website is furnished free of charge and for informational purposes only. Although we may update the content of this website from time to time, information changes rapidly. BCBSLA has no obligation to update the information.
Therefore, some of the information and graphics on this website may contain inaccuracies, typographical errors or out-of-date information. Your use of this website and the information and graphics contained on this website are at your own risk. BCBSLA does NOT warrant, represent or guarantee the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of this website or any of the information or graphics contained on this website. BCBSLA ASSUMES NO RESPONSBILITY FOR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN THE INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE OR OTHER DOCUMENTS THAT ARE REFERENCED BY OR LINKED TO THIS WEBSITE. BCBSLA will not be liable to you or anyone else for any decision made or action taken by you or anyone else in reliance on materials or information obtained or downloaded from this website, or any direct, indirect, consequential, incidental, special, or similar damages even if BCBSLA is advised of the possibility of such damages.
BCBSLA does not guarantee continuous, uninterrupted service to this website. Operation of this website may be interfered with by numerous factors outside BCBSLA’s control.
This website and all materials contained on this site, including but not limited to information, graphics, audio, video, software and other data, if any, are provided "as is" without express or implied warranties or guarantees of any kind, including but not limited to any warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY:
In no event will BCBSLA be liable, whether in tort or contract or under any other legal liability (including strict liability and negligence) for lost profits or revenues, loss or interruption of use, lost or damaged data or security, damages, costs, expenses, or for any economic loss, any indirect, exemplary, special, incidential, consequential or similar damages arising from or relating to viewing, using or accessing this website, even if BCBSLA had been advised of the possibility of such damages. By viewing, using or accessing this website, you agree that the total aggregrate liability of BCBSLA and its subsidiaries arising from use or related to use or viewing of this website shall not exceed one hundred ($100.00) dollars.
LINKS:
Please note that once you leave this website, either by using a link we have provided for your convenience, or by specifying your own destination, BCBSLA accepts no responsibility for the content, products and/or services provided at non-BCBSLA locations. BCBSLA does not regularly review the content of other websites. The links contained on this website do not imply any endorsement or sponsorship of any other website or any of the products or services that may be offered on any other website. BCBSLA does not control, endorse, promote, or have any affiliation with any other website unless expressly stated on this website.
BCBSLA expressly disclaims any responsibility for any third-party websites, which are provided for your convenience on an “as is” basis without warranties of any kind, express or implied.
If you have any questions or comments regarding our Terms and Conditions of Use please contact:
Legal Affairs Department
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
P.O. Box 84656
Baton Rouge, LA 70884-4656
Telephone: 225-295-2294
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