Terms of Use

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF USE (THE "CONDITIONS") CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION

This Web site, www.HMSA.com, (hereinafter referred to as "Site" except where clarified otherwise) are products of, and provided by, 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 and Conditions set forth below.

By entering and using the Site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood such Terms and Conditions 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.

Health information provided on the Site is intended to be informational not to replace consultation with a physician. 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.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

HMSA may revise and update these terms and conditions at any time. Please periodically review the terms and conditions posted at the Site because your continued usage of the Site will mean that you accept those changes.

Section 1. 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 PROVIDER WITH ANY QUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE REGARDING A MEDICAL CONDITION. NEITHER THE CONTENT NOR ANY OTHER SERVICE OFFERED BY OR THROUGH THE SITE IS INTENDED TO BE RELIED ON FOR MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT. NEVER DISREGARD MEDICAL ADVICE OR DELAY IN SEEKING IT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU HAVE READ ON THE SITE! IN AN EMERGENCY, CALL 911 OR YOUR LOCAL EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE NUMBER.

Section 2. General Information About the Site

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 this 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 our Site.

Our Business Associates. HMSA has agreements with various entities, which we call our "business associates" to provide services in connection with our health care program. Our relationships with business associates are based on the type of service they are to provide.

Your Information. 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 Rule, 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.

HMSA shall have the right to use any questions, comments, or other information submitted by users – without individual identifiers – in books, article, commentaries, research or similar ways.

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 the HMSA Customer Service Department if you are uncertain regarding the accuracy or timeliness of benefits or other information displayed on, or received from, this site.

Information from Others. The Site may include or provide links to other web sites on the Internet including, but not limited to, links to our business associates’ Web pages. These other web sites may provide opinions, recommendations or other information from various individuals, organizations or companies.

IN PROVIDING SUCH LINKS, HMSA DOES NOT INVESTIGATE THE CONTENT OF SUCH INFORMATION. HMSA DOES NOT ENDORSE, GUARANTEE OR WARRANT THE ACCURACY OF SUCH INFORMATION OR NECESSARILY SUBSCRIBE TO ANY SUCH OPINIONS OR RECOMMENDATIONS. FURTHER, TO THE EXTENT THAT YOU MAKE USE OF ANY LINK TO ANY OTHER WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET, THE DISCLOSURE, REPRODUCTION, SALE OR DISTRIBUTION OF INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREON MAY BE PROHIBITED. YOUR USE OF THIRD-PARTY WEB SITES IS SUBJECT TO THE TERMS OF USE FOR SUCH SITES. IF YOU DECIDE TO ACCESS THIRD-PARTY WEB SITES THAT ARE LINKED TO THIS SITE, YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

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 3. Restrictions on the 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 right, title and interest in and to the Content, all copies thereof, and all copyrights and other proprietary rights therein.

Upon acceptance of these Conditions, 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.

Links to Other Sites. The Site contains links to third-party Web sites. These links are provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement or recommendation by HMSA of the content on such third-party Web sites or as an indication of any affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement of or by such third-party Web sites. 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 Web sites. Your use of third-party Web sites is subject to the terms of use for such sites. If you decide to access linked third-party Web sites, you do so at your own risk.

Although HMSA endeavors to warn users when they click on a link to a third-party Web site that they are leaving www.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 Web sites associated with HMSA and its affiliated products and companies endeavor to warn users when they click on a link to another HMSA-affiliated Web site or to third-party sites. HMSA does not guarantee that you will receive such an alert.

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/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.

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 Conditions and/or applicable law.

Section 4. HMSA Privacy Policy

Privacy Practices. HMSA believes the privacy of individually identifiable information is important, and we use and disclose individually identifiable information in accordance with the HMSA’S NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES and HMSA.COM PRIVACY STATEMENT.

Encryption Technology. The Web site www.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 www.HMSA.com.

Links to Other Sites. Users will find other content on the Site that enables linking to the sites of our Sponsors and other third parties. These third-party sites may have their own privacy policies or no policy at all. The HMSA ONLINE PRIVACY STATEMENT and 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.

Questions regarding HMSA’s privacy practices should be directed to: webmaster@hmsa.com.

Section 5. 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 WEB SITES 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 concerning 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.

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.

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.

Unless otherwise specified otherwise, 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.

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 the United States District Court for the District of 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 effecting the provisions of these Terms and Conditions.

YOU HEREBY ACKNOWLEDGE 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.