Privacy Policy
Terms and Conditions of Use of LVHN.org, Lehigh Valley Health Network’s official Facebook pages and related websites, applications or services owned by Lehigh Valley Health Network or its affiliates can be found at the following link - Learn about Terms and Conditions of Use. Specific details about how we protect health information that may identify you as an individual can be found here.
Types and Uses of Information Collected
When you request information from Lehigh Valley Health Network, you will be asked to provide personal information including your first name, last name and your email address. A request for information may include, but not be limited to, filling out a form on LVHN.org to request information about one of our services, registering to attend an event or class held by Lehigh Valley Health Network or its affiliates, submitting a question through one of Lehigh Valley Health Network’s official Facebook pages or registering for an account on LVHN.org. The information that you provide will be used to follow-up with you on your request. In order to follow-up appropriately, more information may be requested including, but not be limited to, your postal address, telephone number and contact preferences. It is our practice to not collect information that would personally identify you unless you provide it.
When you purchase Lehigh Valley Health Network services, and in some cases register to attend events or classes held by Lehigh Valley Health Network, you will be asked to provide billing information in accordance with our standard billing procedures.
When you submit information digitally to Lehigh Valley Health Network, such as through online forms on LVHN.org or technical information, such as your browser type or IP address, may be collected to ensure technical functionality or to address any inappropriate use of our website. An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer when you access the Internet, therefore it is not personally identifiable information because many different individuals can access the Internet via the same computer. We use this information in aggregate form to understand how our websites, online advertisements and other digital content are being used and how to better adjust them to serve our visitors.
When you use the Find a Doctor feature on LVHN.org or use other websites, applications or services involving the request of care relative to your location, information about your location, including city, state, or zip code, may be collected in order to provide you with this information or complete your registration.
Storage and Access of Information Collected
Lehigh Valley Health Network may access collected customer information for the purposes of providing requested and related services, preventing or addressing service or technical problems, preventing or addressing customer support matters, or as may be required by law. The personal information provided to our network is securely stored and is only accessible by staff members with a business need to access and use that information. Your information will be retained for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Use of Information Collected by 3rd Parties
Lehigh Valley Health Network may share information collected with other companies that work on Lehigh Valley Health Network’s behalf in order to further the purpose for which you provide the information, such as fulfilling information requests, forwarding complaints, or if release is required by law or is pertinent to judicial or governmental investigations or proceedings. Lehigh Valley Health Network does not share, sell, rent, or trade personally identifiable information with third parties for their promotional purposes.
Information collected may be matched or merged with general market data, such as that licensed for business use by Experian, Inc. or collected through claims, in order to build segmented profiles of customers for marketing and market research purposes. These segments do not identify personally identify customers. More information regarding how our network protects private health information (“PHI”) is described below.
Cookies, Online Advertising and Other Tracking Technology
Lehigh Valley Health Network uses common Internet technologies, such as cookies, website statistics tracking through Google Analytics, display and pay-per-click advertising (including remarketing) through Google AdWords and customer relationship management (CRM) marketing tools to keep track of interactions with our network. These technologies may be in place and active on LVHN.org, Lehigh Valley Health Network’s official Facebook pages and related websites, applications or services owned by Lehigh Valley Health Network or its affiliates.
Cookies, web beacons/pixel tags, log files and other technologies may be used to collect information about visitors to our website, use of our online services, and interactions with our emails, advertisements and other marketing content. Collected information may include, but not be limited to, browser type, operating system and IP address. This data may be merged with your behavior and interaction data, such as what pages you viewed or links you clicked. Collecting this information, and at times linking it with personally identifiable information that you have provided to us, helps customize our websites, applications and services to suit your needs.
Statistics that show the daily number of visitors to our sites, the daily requests we receive for particular files on our websites, and what countries those requests come from are compiled on a frequent basis for the purposes of improving our websites, applications and services. These aggregated statistics are used internally and may also be provided to others. These statistics do not contain personally identifiable information and cannot be used to gather such information.
Third party advertising networks may be used in our marketing activities. These advertisers and ad networks may use technology, such as cookies and web beacons/pixel tags, in order to track the effectiveness of our advertisements. These technologies will also send these advertisers and ad networks information including your IP address, ISP, browser type, and whether you have Flash installed. These advertisers and ad networks also may use anonymous demographic and preference data received from third parties to assist in the delivery of advertisements to you. Relevant advertisements may be shown to you by these providers based on your online behavior, search activities and demographic information.
Your Communication and Tracking Preferences
Changing or updating your personal information
You may change or update your personal information and/or health-related personal information at any time using the following options:
- Accessing your personal profile on MyLVHN.org and changing it there.
- Contacting us using the methods outlined here.
Removing or deleting your personal information
You may remove previously provided personal and/or health-related personal information at any time using the following option:
- Contacting us using the methods outlined here.
Please be aware that it may not be technically possible to remove or delete all of the information that you have provided to us. We take frequent back-ups of our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss. This means a copy of your personal information may exist in a non-erasable form that may be difficult or impossible to locate. Upon receiving your request, we will try to remove or delete all personal information and/or health-related personal information stored in the databases that we use for research and daily business activities. We will not intentionally disclose any personal information stored in a non-erasable format after receiving your request for removal, except as required by law.
Additionally, there may be restrictions on your ability to correct, update or remove the information that you have entered into your personal and/or health-related personal record. If your doctor or another health care professional has access to add information to your record, your personal record could be considered an official medical record for legal purposes. In this case, information cannot be deleted or removed, only updated or annotated.
SMS Terms and Conditions
Promotional Email and SMS Communications
When you register with our site, you are given the option of receiving e-mail and text messages (SMS) with information that we think you might find useful including, but not limited to, promotions, announcements of new services or events, and products and newsletters on particular health topics. These are considered types of marketing communications that may come from Lehigh Valley Health Network. Every one of these emails contains instructions on how to opt out of receiving further marketing emails from our network.
Message and data rates may apply for any messages sent to you from us and to us from you. Message frequency may vary.
Please note that by disabling or opting-out from the use of these communications or technologies, you may not be able to take full advantage of the features and information from websites, applications or services owned by Lehigh Valley Health Network.
Other Email and SMS Communications
You may also participate in e-mail or text message (SMS) reminder systems that allow you to send messages to remind you of certain health-related activities. When you sign up for text messages for health-related activities, you are signing up to receive text messages regarding your relationship with Lehigh Valley Health Network, including updates related to your visits, MyLVHN account, one-time passcode, billing notifications, prescription reminders, and/or care management. Information gathered in the SMS campaign will not be shared for marketing purposes. However, in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, communications to our patients that describe our health-related products or services, such as the arrival of a new specialty group, are not considered marketing.
You can opt-out of SMS messages by texting STOP to the respective short code. Your opt-out request will generate one final message confirming that you have been unsubscribed. You will no longer receive SMS messages from the short code you opted out from. If you want to join again, sign up using MyLVHN or text HELP to the short code for instructions.
If you are experiencing issues with the messaging program you can reply with the keyword HELP for more assistance, or you can get help directly at 888-402-5846 (LVHN).
Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
Message and data rates may apply for any messages sent to you from us and to us from you. Message frequency may vary.
Please note that by disabling or opting-out from the use of these communications or technologies, you may not be able to take full advantage of the features and information from websites, applications or services owned by Lehigh Valley Health Network.
Opting out from Tracking Technologies
You can set your Internet browser settings to stop accepting new cookies, to receive notice when you receive a new cookie, to disable existing cookies, and to omit images (which will disable pixel and other invisible tracking tags that may be in use.) These settings will vary depending on your browser. Note that the opt-out will apply only to the browser that you are using when you adjust your tracking settings or cookie preferences. If you switch from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome browser, for example, the tracking may be put back in place. Additionally, our system may not respond to Do Not Track requests or headers from some or all browsers.
Please note that by disabling or opting-out from the use of these communications or technologies, you may not be able to take full advantage of the features and information from websites, applications or services owned by Lehigh Valley Health Network.
Protected Health Information (“PHI”)
We understand that your medical information is personal. As a hospital network, we are committed to the protection of health information that may identify you as an individual, which we call Protected Health Information (“PHI”) and treat differently than other forms of personal information that you provide.
Our network has created a HEALTH INFORMATION PRIVACY NOTICE to describe how we use and disclose your PHI respective to the services offered through Lehigh Valley Health Network. This Notice includes information about:
- How we may use and disclose your PHI
- When we may disclose your PHI to others
- Your privacy rights and how to use them
- Our privacy duties
- Who to contact for more information or with a complaint
To download a complete copy of our HEALTH INFORMATION PRIVACY NOTICE, please click here.
Updates to Our Privacy Policy
This policy was last updated in November 2023.
Lehigh Valley Health Network reserves the right to modify our policy at any time by making updates to this page. Any modifications made to this page and the policy outlined shall be effective immediately upon being posted. Your continued use of any websites, applications or services owned by Lehigh Valley Health Network following the posting of the updated policy will mean that you agree to the modified policy for the use of these resources.