User Responsibility Agreement

This portal and the data contained herein are the property of Lehigh Valley Physician Hospital Organization, Inc./Valley Preferred (LVPHO). By registering and/or logging in to this portal, you as an authorized user, acknowledge understanding of and acceptance of the responsibilities outlined below (hereinafter identified as ‘the Agreement’).

The protected health information ("PHI") or electronic protected health information ("ePHI") made available on this portal is only to be used in connection with the patient care provided from your practice.

State and Federal laws as well as other requirements associated with your role and/or profession may impose obligations with respect to patient confidentiality and privacy that may limit your ability to transmit certain information to third parties. Most specifically, and at minimum, all use of this portal and the information made available must be in full compliance with §§ 261-264, Public Law 104-191 (42 U.S.C. §§ 1301 et seq.) (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA")), which includes the HIPAA Privacy Rule (Privacy Rule), 45 C.F.R. Parts 160 and 164, the HIPAA Security Rule (Security Rule), 45 C.F.R. Parts 160, 162 and 164, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). As an authorized user of this portal, you represent and warrant that you will at all times comply will all such laws directly or indirectly applicable to you that may now or hereafter govern the gathering, use, transmission, processing, receipt, reporting, disclosure, maintenance and storage of the patient information, and use your best efforts to cause all persons or entities under your direction or control to comply with such laws. You are at all times during and after acknowledgement of these terms and use of this portal solely responsible for securing and maintaining any patient consents or other legally required or appropriate consents to process, retrieve, transmit, disclose or view the patient information you receive, store or transmit in connection with the use of this portal and the information made available herein. We cannot and do not assume any responsibility for the use or misuse of patient or other information transmitted, monitored, stored or received using this portal. All information identified and made available on this portal is based on claims that were submitted for patients seen and/or cared for in your office/practice. The unauthorized disclosure of any patient information or LVPHO owned information to any third party is strictly prohibited.

Authorized users of the portal will only be provisioned with the minimum information necessary for their role. Furthermore, data made available on this portal is only to be used in connection with your defined role or job function as an authorized user designated by Valley Preferred / LVPHO, which simply means that re-disclosure is not permitted unless there is a justifiable business reason and/or it is permitted by law and/or contract.

As every request for access must be vetted and approved in accordance with defined protocols, you understand that all activity associated with the use of your account is tied to your name and that the act of sharing an account and/or password with any other individual is strictly prohibited and considered a breach of security.

If you no longer require access to this portal as a result of a role change or termination and/or you feel that there is an issue with your access, you agree to notify us via email at info@valleypreferred.com. Furthermore, you understand that any attempts to access your assigned portal account for any of the aforementioned events (role change or termination) prior to your access being terminated is considered a breach of security.

As a user of this portal, you may have the ability to print or download information available in various modules of the portal and understand that all information (contained on this portal) is extremely confidential. Therefore, prior to printing or downloading information, you must ensure that the appropriate protections are taken to ensure that these functions are performed in a secure area (accessible to you only) and that your corporate owned computer equipment is not connected to a public or unsecured network that may become vulnerable for re-disclosure. Most printers have the capability to store images of printed documents, therefore, when you print, you agree that you will only print on your corporate owned printer. Printing on personally owned or publicly available equipment is prohibited. Furthermore, when downloading data from the portal, you must agree to either only use an encrypted corporate owned computer device and/or to only save the data to a network controlled specified location while ensuring that no data is retained in any localized areas (Downloads, Desktop, C Drive, etc.).

By accessing this portal, you agree that you will immediately report, in writing, no later than five (5) business days, to Compliance Officer, Valley Preferred (1605 N. Cedar Crest Blvd, Suite 411, Allentown, PA 18104-2351) any actual or suspected privacy incident, breach of security, intrusion or other unauthorized use or disclosure of protected health information ("PHI") or electronic protected health information ("ePHI") not permitted by this Agreement and will fully cooperate with Lehigh Valley Physician Hospital Organization in the investigation of such incidents. Such report shall, to the best extent reasonably possible, include the identification of each individual whose PHI or ePHI has been, or is reasonably believed by you to have been accessed, acquired or disclosed in connection with an actual or suspected breach of privacy, security or HIPAA.

I understand that my acceptance of this Agreement confirms my understanding of my obligations and responsibilities as an authorized user of this portal. I also understand that any misuse of this portal or its data may result in legal liability.