the fine print
terms and conditions:
Physicians in Telemedicine providers via the pillarMD telemedicine platform are independent practitioners and are not employees of pillarMD. Physicians in Telemedicine is an affiliated network of physicians who contract with pillarMD. All physicians are diplomates of the American Board of Obesity Medicine.
The purpose of this form is to obtain your consent for telemedicine consultation with a physician. The purpose of this consultation is to assist in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of obesity and weight related medical conditions.
nature of telemedicine conference:
Telemedicine involves the use of audio, video, or other electronic communications to interact with you, consult with your healthcare provider and/or review your medical information for the purpose of diagnosis, prevention, therapy, follow-up and/or education. During your telemedicine consultation, details of your medical history and personal health information may be discussed with other health professionals through the use of interactive video, audio, and telecommunications technology. Additionally, a physical examination of you may take place and video, audio, and/or photo recordings may be taken.
risks, benefits and alternatives:
The benefits of telemedicine include having access to medical specialists and additional medical information and education without having to travel outside of your local health care community. A potential risk of telemedicine is that because of your specific medical condition, or due to technical problems, an in-person consultation still may be necessary after the telemedicine appointment. Due to the nature of the telehealth platform, a full physical exam cannot be completed which could limit diagnostic ability. Treatment methods will be limited given the limitations of telehealth. Additionally, in rare circumstances, security protocols could fail causing a breach of patient privacy or information transmitted may not be sufficient (e.g. poor resolution of images) to allow for appropriate medical decision making by the physician. Delays in medical evaluation and treatment could occur due to deficiencies or failures of the equipment and lack of access to complete medical records may result in adverse drug interactions or allergic reaction or other judgement error. The alternative to telemedicine consultation is an in-person visit with a physician.
"off label" medications:
"Off label" medication use is very common and still is considered standard of care. "Off-label" means that the medication being prescribed is an FDA approved medication, but it may be used for a different indication or dosage. An explanation of the drug risks and benefits will be provided to the patient prior to starting medication use. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.
medical information and records:
All laws concerning patient access to medical records and copies of medical records apply to telemedicine. Dissemination of any patient identifiable images of information from the telemedicine consultation to researchers or other entities shall not occur without your consent.
confidentiality:
All existing confidentiality protections under federal and state law apply to information used or disclosed during your telemedicine consultation. Electronic systems used will incorporate network and software security protocols to protect the confidentiality of patient identification and imaging data and will include measures to safeguard the data and to ensure its integrity against intentional or unintentional corruption.
rights:
You may withhold or withdraw your consent to a telemedicine consultation at any time before and/or during the consultation without loss or withdrawal of treatment. If sudden cessation of medical treatment could lead to a medical emergency, your telemedicine physician may decide to provide care for an additional week after the physician-patient relationship has been terminated.
user information:
You must be at least 18 years of age (or the age of legal majority where you live) to use this site. You agree not to provide inaccurate or false demographic information, identification, or medical history. You will notify your Physicians in Telemedicine provide immediately if you move either temporarily or permanently to another state in order to ensure that you are treated by a provider licensed in the state that you reside at all times. Care cannot be provided internationally. You agree to avoid the use of harassing, abusive, threatening, or hateful communication and understand that violation of this will result in immediate termination of the physician-provider relationship. PillarMD is NOT an emergency service. In the event of an emergency, I will call 911 and/or other appropriate emergency contact.
insurance:
pillarMD and Physicians in Telemedicine do not accept insurance and are not involved in the business of insurance. Your subscription for telemedicine includes medical care by a Physicians in Telemedicine provider, but does not include the cost of any diagnostic tests, prescription medications, or medical devices. If you have medical insurance, the cost of diagnostic tests, prescription medications, or medical devices may be covered, but this is not guaranteed and is not managed by your telemedicine physician. In addition, Physicians in Telemedicine do not treat patients with U.S. Government health insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid.
indemnification and limitation of liability:
You agree to defend, indemnify and hold pillarMD and Physicians in Telemedicine, its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, affiliates, third-party contractors, agents, licensors and suppliers, harmless from and against any claims, actions or demands, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, expenses and settlements (including without limitation reasonable attorney and accounting fees), resulting from or alleged to result from, directly or indirectly, your (a) violation of these Terms and Conditions; (b) access to or use of the platform and websites; and (c) provision of other disclosure to pillarMD and Physicians in Telemedicine of any other information or data and the use of same by pillarMD and Physicians in Telemedicine.
blog policy:
This blog provides general information and discussions about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this blog, website or in any linked materials are not intended and should not be considered, or used as a substitute for, medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
links to third-party websites:
The blog may contain links to third-party websites. These links are provided for your convenience. pillarMD is not affiliated with and does not endorse any third-party website or its contents, information, opinions, services or products. Further, pillarMD does not control or make any representations regarding the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of the contents of any third-party website. By clicking a link to a third-party website, you are subject to the policies and terms of such site, including but not limited to its terms of use and privacy policies. If you decide to access a linked website, you do so at your own risk.
privacy policy:
pillarMD on its own behalf and on behalf of its affiliates and/or wholly owned subsidiaries owns and operates the website www.pillarmd.com and www.pillar.md and various mobile applications. Through these websites we offer various online services that enable visitors to the websites to receive access to various types of healthcare information and information about our services
This Web and Mobile Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy") describes what information PillarMD collects about Visitors on the publicly available portions of the Websites and how that information is used.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected from Visitors who register and log-in ("Members") to the password protected and secure portions of our websites and mobile applications ("Secure Platforms"). These Secure Platforms allow Members to perform certain transactions and use our Services. All information stored and collected by pillarMD or added by our Members into such Secure Platforms is identifiable, protected health information (PHI) and therefore governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ("HIPAA"). pillarMD will not use or disclose information received from HealthKit for advertising, marketing, or other used based data mining purposes and will not combine it with other data and sell it.