Privacy Policy

As Registered Massage Therapists (RMTs) we, at Century Health, must collect a certain amount of personal information from you in order to provide you with our services in a safe manner. We are required by the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario (CMTO) to make sure that any personal and health information collected from you is done so responsibly. This means that we may collect, use and disclose personal information of yours for the services we provide, only when reasonably necessary. Our privacy policy below details your rights as a client and how your personal health information is protected.

Your Health Information and PHIPA

On November 1, 2004, the Ontario government enacted the Personal Health Information Prote ction Act (PHIPA). This act establishes rules for the collection, use and disclosure of personal health information.

Under this act your rights are:

To see any personal information collected about you.
A business must inform you of what information is collected, why it is being collected, used or disclosed, who will be able to see it, and have your consent to collect it.
You have the right to request a correction to any of your personal health information, or withdraw your consent for some of the uses and disclosures (subject to legal exceptions).
There is a complaints process available to you through the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario if our response is not satisfactory.

What is Personal Information?

Personal information is information about identifiable individuals. Personal information includes information that relates to:

An individual’s personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address or telephone number, ethnic background, family status);
Health (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services received by them);
Activities and views (e.g., opinions expressed by an individual, an opinion or evaluation of an individual).

Personal information is different from business information (e.g. an individual’s business address and telephone number). This is not protected by privacy legislation.

Who We Are

Century Health is a team of self employed Massage Therapists located in Peterborough, Ontario. We provide Massage Therapy services to the general public and we are all Registered Massage Therapists with the CMTO.

We Collect Personal Information: Primary Purposes

Like all health care practitioners, we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to serve our clients. The primary purpose for collecting personal information is to provide Massage Therapy treatment. For example, we collect information about a client’s health history, including their family history, physical condition, function and social situation in order to help us assess what their health needs are, to advise them of their options and then to provide the health care they choose to have. A second primary purpose is to obtain a baseline of health and social information so that in providing ongoing health services we can identify changes that occur over time.

We Collect Personal Information: Related and Secondary Purposes

Like most organizations, we also collect, use and disclose information for purposes related to or secondary to our primary purposes. The most common examples of our related and secondary purposes are as follows:

To invoice clients for goods or services that was not paid for at the time, or to collect unpaid accounts.
To advise clients of appointments.
Registered Massage Therapists are regulated by the College of Massage Therapists of Ontario (CMTO). The CMTO may inspect our records and interview our staff as a part of their regulatory activities in the public interest. In addition, as professionals, we will report serious misconduct, incompetence or incapacity of other practitioners, whether they belong to other organizations or our own. External regulators have their own strict privacy obligations. Sometimes these reports include personal information about our clients, or other individuals, to support the concern (e.g., Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, Information and Privacy Commissioner, Human Rights Commission, etc.) have the authority to review our files and interview our staff as a part of their mandates. In these circumstances, we may consult with professionals (e.g., Lawyers, Accountants) who will investigate the matter and report back to us.
The cost of services provided by the organization to clients is often paid for by third parties (e.g., motor vehicle accident insurance, private insurance). These third party payers often have the client’s consent or legislative authority to direct us to collect and disclose to them certain information in order to demonstrate client entitlement to this funding.
Clients or other individuals we deal with may have questions about our goods or services after they have been received. We retain our client information for a mandatory minimum of ten years after the last contact to enable us to respond to those questions and provide these services.
On our website, we only collect the personal information you provide, and only use that information for the purpose you gave it to us (e.g., to respond to your email).

Who Can See Your Health Information?

When you request our services, we assume that we have your permission to collect, use and share that information with your other health care providers. This is limited only to those providers who you have actually seen for health care; other providers are not entitled to your information, except in the cases that are listed below:

If you do not want us to use, share or give out some or all of your personal health information to other people who provide you with health care, please inform us as soon as possible.
Other agencies or companies may need to see part of your health care information, such as your employer or your insurance company. However, we cannot share information with these companies without your express permission.
You may also have family or friends to whom you would like us to give more detailed information about your health (e.g., your treatment progression, or what kind of care you will need at home). You can let us know if we can discuss your health with family and friends. We must have your consent in order to do so.

When Your Consent is Not Required

We are allowed or may be required to use and/or give out some of your personal

health information without consent in the following situations:

To report certain information, such as to report certain diseases to public health authorities.
When we suspect certain types of abuse.
To reduce a significant risk of serious bodily harm to a person or the public.
To assist health researchers for research, as long as strict privacy requirements are met.
To improve or maintain the quality of care or any related program or service.
To transfer or sell the professional practice to another person and to allow that person to access the practice, so long as he or she signs an agreement to keep the information confidential and secure.
To assess a person’s ability to make health care and other important decisions.
For administration or enforcement of laws about the practices of health care providers, such as when our regulatory College (the CMTO) does a peer assessment with any of us.
For the purpose of a legal proceeding or complying with a court order, or other legal requirement.

Marketing and Personal Information

Your personal information will never be provided or sold to third parties for marketing purposes.

Protecting Your Personal Information

We understand the importance of protecting your personal information. For that reason, we have taken the following steps:

Paper information is either under supervision or secured in a locked cabinet.
Computers are under supervision and are password protected.
Electronic information is transmitted either through a direct line, or has identifiers removed, or is encrypted.
Paper information is transmitted through sealed addressed envelopes or boxes by reputable companies.
External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us.

Retention and Destruction of your Personal Information

We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any question our clients may have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies (CMTO).

We keep our clients files for ten years, as required by the CMTO according to our College regulations.

We destroy paper files containing personal information by shredding. We destroy electronic information by deleting it and, when the hardware is discarded, we ensure that the hard drive is physically destroyed.

You Can Look at Your Information

With only a few exceptions, you have the right to see what personal information we hold about you. We can help you identify what records we might have about you. We will also try to help you understand any information you do not understand (e.g., short forms, technical language, etc.). We will need to confirm your identity, if we do not know you, before providing you with this access. We reserve the right to charge a nominal fee for such requests.

Some exceptions may apply. For example, when the information relates to law enforcement, legal proceedings or another individual, you may not get to see the record.

If there is a problem we may ask you to put your request in writing. If we cannot give you access, we will contact you as soon as possible and within 30 days, to tell you the reason, as best we can.

If you believe there is a mistake in the information, you have the right to ask for it to be corrected. This applies to factual information and not to any professional opinions we may have formed. We may ask you to provide documentation that our files are wrong. Where we agree that we made a mistake, we will make the correction and notify anyone to whom we sent this information. If we do not agree that we have made a mistake, we will still agree to include in our file a brief statement from you on the point and we will forward that statement to anyone else who received the earlier information. Do note that we cannot correct a record that was created by someone else as we do not know enough about the record to change it. Also, we cannot correct details where, for example, the opinions or observations in the record were made in good faith. You are entitled to be told the reasons for not making a correction and of your right to have a statement of disagreement attached to your records.

Questions?

If you would like further information, you can contact your therapist at the clinic. If you do not have a therapist please contact the clinic and we would be happy to discuss any questions or concerns you may have.

Century Health

291 Charlotte Street

Peterborough, ON K9J 8M6

Phone: (705) 749-3337

www.centuryhealth.ca

As well, if you have a formal complaint to make concerning our privacy practices, you should contact us in writing and address the issue to your therapist. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint and respond to your concerns promptly. If after discussing the issue with us, we are still not able to resolve/satisfy your complaint or concern, you are entitled to make a formal complaint to our regulatory body:

College of Massage Therapy of Ontario

1867 Yonge Street, Suite 810

Toronto, ON M4S 1Y5

1-800-465-1933

Phone: (416) 489-2626

Fax: (416) 489-2625

www.cmto.com

For more general inquiries, please contact the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. If you are making a formal complaint to the privacy commissioner, this must be done within one year of the matter you are complaining about. Their office can be reached at:

Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

2 Bloor Street East, Suite 1400,

Toronto, ON M4W 1A8

1-800-387-0073

Phone: (416) 326-3333

Fax: (416) 325-9195

TTY: (416) 325-7539

www.ipc.on.ca

info@ipc.on.ca

Information and Privacy Commissioner of Canada

112 Kent Street

Ottawa, ON K1A 1H3