LAST UPDATED: April 15th, 2020

Alpha Laboratories Inc. (“Alpha Labs”) is committed to collecting, using and disclosing your personal information, particularly your personal health information, responsibly and only as required to provide our services.

Our privacy policy is governed by all applicable federal, provincial and municipal laws (including the common law) which may be in effect or may later come into effect in connection to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information, including without limitation the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) in the province of Ontario and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) (collectively, the “Applicable Legislation”).

For all inquiries regarding our privacy policy, including the rights and obligations under Applicable Legislation, access to your records, correction of records, and complaints, please contact our privacy officer:

    Idelta Coelho
    1262 Don Mills Road, Toronto, Ontario M3B 2W7
    Tel: 416-449-2166
    Fax: 416-449-2543

Information Collected

Alpha Labs may collect, use and disclose your personal information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be deduced including without limitation your name, address, contact information, medical history, billing information, insurance particulars, OHIP information, charts, diagnostics/laboratory results and other health information. Please note this is not an exhaustive list.

Purpose Of Collection, Use And Disclosure

We collect and use personal information for the following purposes:

• to provide you with quality medical laboratory services
• to enable us to contact and maintain communication with you and schedule appointments for you
• to verify your identity when you register or access our services
• to determine and verify your eligibility to receive health care or related goods, services or benefits provided under an Act of Ontario or Canada, including without limitation, your OHIP eligibility
• to match specimens with your test results
• to manage your account and billing, and provide you with customer support
• to identify and to ensure continuous high quality service
• for any other purposes identified to you before or at the time the information is collected
• for any purpose as required or permitted by law

We will only collect and use information reasonably necessary to provide our services to you.

We disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• your ordering physician and members of your health care team who are copied on your requisition (referred to as members within your “circle of care”)
• to eliminate or reduce a significant risk of serious bodily harm to a person or group of persons
• when transferring records to the archives for conservation
• for the purpose of carrying out an inspection, investigation or similar procedure that is authorized by a warrant, PHIPA or any other applicable legislation
• for any purpose as required or permitted by law

Safeguards

Your personal information will be safeguarded from unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification, using all necessary tools available to us. These safeguards may include, but are not limited to, physical measures such as locked cabinets, technological tools such as firewalls, or organizational controls such as security clearances.

Retaining Your Information

We will retain your personal information for the period prescribed by Applicable Legislation from time to time. These vary depending on the type of information provided by you. After the expiry of these periods, we will destroy your information.

Access and Correction

While there is a general right to access your personal health information under PHIPA, please note that this right of access does not apply to personal health information that is in the custody or under the control of a laboratory in respect of a test, where an individual has the right of access to that information from the health care practitioner and the practitioner has not directed the laboratory to provide the information directly to the individual. A similar exception to the right of access exists under PIPEDA for sensitive medical information that may be made available through a medical practitioner.

You may request access to our records of your personal health information by making a written request at the contact information provided above. We reserve the right to charge a fee for providing access to such records.

If you believe that your personal health information in our records is incomplete or inaccurate, you may request the record to be corrected by making a written request to our privacy officer at the contact information provided above.

Complaints

While we are always committed to working with you to find a satisfactory resolution to any concerns you may have with our privacy policy and ask that you first contact our privacy officer at the contact information provided above, please note that you have the right to submit a written complaint to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC), pursuant to PHIPA. More information on the complaint process may be found at the IPC’s website at https://www.ipc.on.ca/privacy-individuals/filing-a-privacy-complaint/. Similarly, for concerns relating to PIPEDA, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC). More information may be found at the OPC’s website at https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/report-a-concern/.

Amendments To The Privacy Policy

Alpha Labs may amend its privacy policy from time to time with or without notice to you. You are advised to review our privacy policy each time prior to disclosing any personal information, including without limitation the date of “Last Updated” indicated on this document. If you do not agree with our privacy policy or any amendments thereto, you should stop your use of our services. Your continued use of our services will constitute a binding acceptance by you of Alpha Lab’s privacy policy, and any subsequent modifications thereto.

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