Privacy Policy

This policy explains how BioLyfe handles your personal information and your health information. It covers what we collect, why we collect it, who sees it, where it is kept, and what you can do about it.

Health information is some of the most sensitive information a person has. We treat it that way.

We follow the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). We are a health service provider in New South Wales, so we also follow the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) and the Health Privacy Principles in it. You can read the APPs on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner website at www.oaic.gov.au.

Who we are

BioLyfe is a private health practice based in Balmain East, Sydney. We consult by telehealth. We are the organisation responsible for the information described in this policy.

• Practice name: BioLyfe
• Legal entity: [CONFIRM: registered legal entity name]
• ABN: [CONFIRM: ABN]
• Postal address: 19/9 Nicholson Street, Balmain East NSW 2041
• Email: [CONFIRM: business email address]
• Phone: [CONFIRM: business phone number]

Send privacy questions and privacy complaints to the email address above, or post them to the postal address above. Put "Privacy" in the subject line or on the envelope.

What we collect

We collect two kinds of information. Personal information identifies you. Health information is about your health and your care. Health information is a type of sensitive information under the Privacy Act, so it carries a higher level of protection.

The personal information we collect includes:

• your name, date of birth and gender
• your address, email address and phone number
• your emergency contact and next of kin
• your payment details and our billing records
• your Medicare number and your private health fund membership number [CONFIRM: does Medicare or health fund claiming apply? If not, this section must be removed]
• your concession card or Department of Veterans' Affairs number, if you have one [CONFIRM: does Medicare or health fund claiming apply? If not, this section must be removed]
• what you tell us in an enquiry form, and how you found the practice

What counts as health information

Health information means much more than a diagnosis. For us it includes:

• the concerns you bring to us and the symptoms you describe
• your medical history, surgical history and family history
• diagnoses, suspected diagnoses and a practitioner's clinical impressions
• the notes a practitioner writes during and after your consultation
• medicines you take, doses, allergies and any adverse reactions
• pathology and imaging requests we write, and the results that come back
• referrals we send, and reports and letters we receive from other practitioners
• care plans, review dates and follow-up arrangements
• consultation metadata: the date, time, length and format of each consultation, whether it went ahead, who was present, and the appointments you booked, changed or missed
• your Medicare claims and private health fund claims, including the items claimed and the amounts [CONFIRM: does Medicare or health fund claiming apply? If not, this section must be removed]
• lifestyle information where it is relevant to your care, such as sleep, diet, exercise, alcohol and other substances
• your consent records: what you agreed to, and when

How we collect it

We collect most of this from you directly. That happens in a consultation, on a form, by phone, by email, or through this website.

We also collect information about you from other people, with your consent. That can include your GP, a pathology or imaging provider, a hospital, a pharmacist, another practitioner involved in your care, or Medicare. We do this when we need it to look after you safely.

If someone books on your behalf, we collect their details as well as yours.

Anonymity and pseudonyms

APP 2 gives people the option of dealing with an organisation anonymously or under a pseudonym. That option does not work for clinical care.

Due to the nature of the health services we provide, it is generally impracticable for us to deal with individuals who have not identified themselves. Accurate identification is required to ensure the safety and continuity of clinical care, to comply with our legal and professional obligations under applicable health legislation, and to meet the requirements of Medicare and private health insurance billing.

You can still ask us a general question about how the practice works without giving us your name.

Information we did not ask for

From time to time, we may receive personal or health information that we did not solicit. Where we receive unsolicited personal information, we will promptly assess whether that information is of a kind we could have collected under our standard collection practices.

If it is, we handle it under this policy. If it is not, we destroy it or de-identify it, as long as doing so is lawful and reasonable. A clinical report about a patient of ours is usually information we could have collected, so it goes into that patient's file.

Why we use your information

The main reason is to provide your care. In practice we use it to:

• assess the concerns you bring to us
• decide what testing your clinical question needs, and interpret the results
• write referrals and letters to your GP or another practitioner, with your consent
• arrange follow-up and reviews
• bill you, take payment, and make Medicare or health fund claims where they apply to you [CONFIRM: does Medicare or health fund claiming apply? If not, this section must be removed]
• answer your enquiries and send appointment reminders
• meet our legal, professional, insurance and record-keeping obligations
• look at how the practice runs and improve it

We use your health information for anything else only in limited cases: where the purpose is directly related to your care and you would reasonably expect it, where you have consented, or where the law requires it.

Who we share it with

We share your information only where there is a reason to:

• other practitioners involved in your care, such as your GP, a physiotherapist or a hospital, with your consent
• pathology and imaging providers, so that testing can be done and reported back
• a pharmacist, where a prescription is written and you choose where to have it filled
• our booking, practice management, secure messaging and file storage providers, who hold records on our behalf under contract
• our payment processor, our accountant and our auditor
• our insurer or our lawyer, where we need advice about a claim or a complaint
• the Therapeutic Goods Administration or a medicine sponsor, where an adverse event has to be reported
• the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, a court, a tribunal or another body, where the law requires it
• a person responsible for you, where you cannot consent yourself and the information is needed for your care

We may also disclose information where there is a serious threat to someone's life, health or safety, or where a law obliges us to report something. Our Terms and Conditions set out those limits in more detail.

We do not sell your information. We do not pass it to data brokers or advertisers.

Sending information overseas

Some of the software that runs a practice is operated by companies based outside Australia, or stores data on servers outside Australia. That can include email, video consultation software, website hosting and website analytics.

A full list of our software providers, and the countries where each stores data, is available on request.

Our clinical records are held on servers in Australia. [CONFIRM: is this correct for the practice management system that is chosen?]

Before we disclose your information to an overseas recipient, APP 8 requires us to take reasonable steps to make sure they handle it in a way consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles. We do that through the contracts we sign with them.

We ask for your consent before we send your health information overseas for any purpose beyond running the systems described above. If a practitioner outside Australia is treating you and needs your records, we come to you first.

Medicare and other identifiers

[CONFIRM: does Medicare or health fund claiming apply? If not, this section must be removed]

We collect government identifiers where we need them. That includes your Medicare number, your Individual Healthcare Identifier (IHI), a Department of Veterans' Affairs number and a concession card number.

APP 9 limits what we can do with them:

• we use an identifier only for the purpose it was issued for, such as making a claim, matching you correctly across the health system, or sending a referral
• we do not use a government identifier as our own patient file number
• we do not disclose one unless the law requires it, or your care needs it and you have consented

Our own patient file number is generated by us. It is not built from any government number.

My Health Record

My Health Record is a national online summary of a person's health information. It is run by the Australian Digital Health Agency under the My Health Records Act 2012 (Cth).

Where we are connected to it, these rules apply:

• we look at your record only where it is relevant to the care we are providing
• we tell you when we upload something, such as a report or a summary
• you can ask us not to view your record or not to upload to it, and we follow that
• every view and every upload is logged, and you can see that log yourself

The record is yours to control. Through myGov you can set access codes, remove documents, view the audit log or cancel the record. The My Health Record helpline is 1800 723 471.

Privacy in a telehealth consultation

A telehealth consultation is a health consultation. The same privacy rules apply, plus a few practical ones.

We confirm who you are

At the start of the consultation we check your identity. We ask for your full name, your date of birth and your address, and sometimes photo ID. This stops someone else obtaining your records or a prescription in your name.

We tell you who else is there

If anyone is with your practitioner, we tell you who they are and why they are there. We also ask who is with you. If you want a family member, carer or interpreter present, say so at the start. You can ask them to step out at any point.

We do not record you

We do not record video or audio of your consultation unless you agree to it first. Please do not record us without asking. The record we keep is the written note in your file.

Your end of the call

Use a private space and a connection you control if you can. We cannot control the privacy of the room you are in or the device you use.

If telehealth is not suitable

Telehealth is not suitable for all health concerns. Your practitioner may recommend in person assessment, urgent care, GP review, a referral to another doctor, further investigation or no treatment depending on your circumstances. Where that happens, we pass on only the information the next provider needs, with your consent, unless it is an emergency.

Software and automated tools

We use software to run the practice. That covers booking, scheduling, secure messaging, payments and note taking. Some of these tools use artificial intelligence. A transcription tool that drafts a consultation note is one example.

A current list of any such tools is available on request.

Whatever the tool, three things hold:

• one of our practitioners reads and approves anything a tool drafts before it goes into your file
• no automated system makes a final decision about your care, and no prescribing decision is made without a practitioner reviewing it
• we ask for your consent before we use a tool that listens to your consultation, and you can decline without it affecting your care

We do not permit our software providers to use your information to train their own models. We look for that term in every contract we sign.

Marketing and email

We send marketing email only to people who have asked for it. You opt in with a separate tick box. Agreeing to this policy or booking a consultation does not sign you up.

Every marketing message carries an unsubscribe link. It works, and we action it promptly. You can also email us and ask to come off the list. This is what APP 7 and the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) require of us.

We do not use your health information to target marketing. Your diagnosis, your medicines, your test results and the area of care you booked never decide what we send you, and we do not upload patient lists to advertising platforms.

Appointment reminders, test results and messages about your care are not marketing. You keep receiving those while you are a patient.

Cookies and website tracking

This website does not run analytics, advertising or tracking tools. It does not build a profile of you and it does not follow you to other websites.

It stores two small pieces of information in your own browser, and only where they are needed:

• a short record of enquiries sent from your device, which stops the same form being submitted over and over
• the campaign details carried in the link you arrived on, if there were any, so we know how you found us when you send an enquiry

Both stay on your device. You can clear them in your browser settings at any time, and the site still works.

There is no cookie banner on this site, because we set nothing you would need to consent to. Health browsing is sensitive, and the pages you read here can reveal a health concern you have. We do not use the pages you view to target health advertising at you, and we do not link website activity to your patient file.

If we add analytics or advertising tools later, we will update this policy first, and we will ask for your consent before setting any non-essential cookie.

How we protect your information

We hold electronic records in access-controlled systems. Any paper record is kept locked away.

The steps we take include:

• individual logins, strong passwords and multi-factor authentication
• access limited to what your care or the running of the practice requires
• encryption of records in transit and at rest
• backups, and checks that we can recover from them
• confidentiality agreements with anyone who works with us
• secure destruction of records we no longer have to keep

No system is completely secure. If something goes wrong, we tell you. The next section explains how.

If there is a data breach

The Notifiable Data Breaches scheme sits in Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), at sections 26WA to 26WR. It applies to us.

If we suspect a breach, we begin an assessment straight away and complete it within 30 days.

Where personal or health information is lost, or accessed or disclosed without permission, and the breach is likely to result in serious harm to you, we must do two things:

• notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as soon as practicable
• notify you directly, or publish a notice where we cannot reach you

The notice tells you what happened, what information was involved, and what you should do to protect yourself. We also tell you what we are doing about it.

If we contain a breach quickly enough that serious harm is no longer likely, notification is not required. We still record what happened and review how it happened.

How long we keep your records

Health records are kept rather than deleted on request. That is a legal obligation, and it protects you.

In New South Wales, section 25 of the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) sets the minimum:

• for an adult, at least 7 years from the date of the last entry in the record, which is the last time we provided a health service to you
• where the person was under 18 at the date of the last entry, until they turn 25

Note the wording. The clock runs from the last entry, not from your first visit. It starts again every time we add something to your file.

We often keep records for longer, for example where a claim could still be made, or where another law requires it.

Other information has a shorter life. An enquiry that never became a consultation is kept only while we need it, then destroyed or de-identified.

Access and correction

You can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you. Ask us in writing, using the email or postal address in "Who we are". We check your identity before we release anything.

We aim to respond within 30 days. We may charge a reasonable fee for copying or for a long record. We tell you the fee before we do the work.

The Privacy Act and the HRIP Act allow us to refuse access in limited situations. The main one is where giving you access would pose a serious threat to the life, health or safety of you or someone else. If we refuse, we tell you why in writing, and we look for another way to get you what you need, such as a summary or access through your GP.

If something we hold is wrong, tell us and we will correct it. Clinical notes work a little differently. We do not delete a note that was made at the time. We add your correction to the file so the record shows both versions, and you can ask us to attach a statement in your own words.

Complaints

If you think we have mishandled your information, tell us first. Email us at [CONFIRM: business email address], or post your complaint to the address in "Who we are". Put "Privacy complaint" in the subject line or on the envelope.

We acknowledge a complaint as soon as we receive it, and we aim to give you an answer within 30 days. We tell you what we found and what we have changed.

You can also take a complaint to:

• the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, on 1300 363 992 or at www.oaic.gov.au
• the Information and Privacy Commission NSW, on 1800 472 679 or at www.ipc.nsw.gov.au
• the Health Care Complaints Commission, on 1800 043 159 or at www.hccc.nsw.gov.au, for a complaint about clinical care
• the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, on 1300 419 495 or at www.ahpra.gov.au, for a complaint about a practitioner

You do not have to come to us first. You can go straight to any of these bodies.

Changes to this policy

We update this policy when the practice changes or when the law does. The current version is always on this page. The date shown above tells you when we last changed it.

If a change materially affects how we handle your health information, we tell patients directly rather than leaving it on the page. This policy sits alongside our Terms and Conditions.