Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains the privacy practices of USA Spine Care, LLC and certain of its affiliates identified in the section “Affiliates” below, (collectively “USASC”, “we”, “us”, “our”) for personal information collected when you visit our website, https://www.usaspinecare.com/USASCWP, (the “Site”) and when you communicate with us in other ways.

This Privacy Policy covers:

1. The personal information collected from you through the Site, how it is used and with whom it may be shared;
2. The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information;
3. What choices are available to you regarding the use of your personal information; and
4. How to correct any inaccuracies or learn more about the personal information we have collected.

Information We Collect and How We Use It

Personal Information Collected on the Site

The term “personal information” as used in this Privacy Policy refers to (1) information that identifies you directly such as your name, street address, or email address, and (2) other information, such as your IP address, device ID, and data from cookie and similar technologies, that may be identified with you.

If you request information or chat with us using our Site, we may ask for your name, telephone number, email address, mailing address and, in certain Site features, insurance and medical information. Also, we and our authorized marketing partners may use cookies and other technologies to collect data about our Site visitors including IP address and Site usage, as described below under “Automatic Collection Using Cookies and Other Technologies.”

Our separate Notice of Privacy Practices explains how we collect, handle, store, and share protected health information protected by the U.S. Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”). If you choose to participate in any of the features of our Site that involve submitting your medical and or insurance information, USASC will handle your protected health information as described in our Notice of Privacy Practices. We do not share protected health information with third parties except as permitted under HIPAA and described in the Notice of Privacy Practices.

We may create de-identified data from personal information by electronically removing data components (such as your name, email address, or linkable tracking ID) that make the data identifiable to a particular individual. Our use of de-identified data is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

Information from Other Sources

We obtain personal information from our direct email and other communications with you and may obtain demographic information (age, sex, household income, employment) from marketing and data analytics resources. The personal information you give us and information about you collected from our Site and other points of contact may be combined with other personal information available from our records and third party sources.

Purposes of Information Collection

We use the information that you provide for the following purposes:

• responding to your requests for information regarding our services;
• evaluating whether you are a candidate for our services;
• communicating with you in order to schedule, perform, bill, administer, and otherwise fulfill the services we will provide you;
• reviewing live agent chats created when using the “Chat Now” feature for training purposes;
• evaluating health insurance payment options;
• providing marketing information and updates about our programs and services that may be of interest to you; and
• asking you to participate in surveys and other activities that help us to evaluate our services.

If you do not want us to use your contact information to provide marketing and promotional materials, you should let us know as explained under the section titled “How to Opt-out of Promotional E-mails and Personalized Advertising” below.

Automatic Collection Using Cookies and Other Technologies

Our Site also collects data using “cookies” and other internet technologies as you browse. Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser (unless you disallow) that enable the Site or our service provider to recognize your browser and capture and store your personal setting and other information. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity and compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction that are used to analyze visitor demographics and improve the Site.

The types of information collected using these technologies include:

• Identification – date and time of your visits to our Site, and history of visits;
• Device – IP address, internet domain name, browser type, operating system, mobile network, device telephone number;
• Usage – previous website, history of Site pages viewed, time spent viewing each page, number and duration of visits, and other internet activities that reflect your interests.

In addition to the above, we may collect general geographic location determined by your IP address and more specific location from mobile device use (unless blocked).

You can set your computer to warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser (e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Apple Safari) settings. Each browser is different - your browser’s “Help” menu can provide the correct way to modify the way it handles cookies. If you turn cookies off, you may not have access to features that make your Site experience more efficient and some of the Site’s services may not function properly.

Note that your internet service provider and mobile device manufacturer also may collect information about you or your activities via the Site. The data they collect generally are not available to USASC.

Why and With Whom We Share Information

Important Note about Protected Health Information. We do not share the protected health information you submit to us on our Site with third parties except as permitted under HIPAA. The information in this section of our Privacy Policy explains why and with whom we may share other types of information (for example, contact information and usage data collected by cookies) with third parties or allow third parties to have access to those types of information.

Service providers. We share information with our service providers (including payment processors, cloud storage and other service providers, email servicing providers, e-commerce content management system providers,) who perform administrative and technology functions on our behalf. In addition to these partners, we may, upon receiving your written consent, share your information with third-party financing partners that can assist in covering the costs for your care. We seek to select service providers who demonstrate their commitment to protecting the personal information we entrust to them.

Data analytics. While you use the Site, information is passively collected about you and your online activities by data analytics companies including Google Analytics and other companies we authorize. These third parties provide reports to us about our Site usage and visitor demographics. They also use the information collected on our Site for their own business purposes. Google represents to us that it processes data for Site usage and other analytics purposes without revealing any information that identifies you individually. You can learn about how Google collects and processes data from websites for advertising and data analytics purposes at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. You can learn about the controls Google offers to manage the collection and use of your personal information at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

In addition to Google Analytics, we sometimes forward the information you submit to us (via online questionnaires or in subsequent telephone conversations) to third-party analytics firms, which aggregate the information you submit with other publicly available information, which allows us to better tailor our service offerings to you both now and in the future.

These third parties do not have access to any protected health information.

Marketing. Unless you instruct us not to, we will use your contact information to send you e-mails and other communications about our products and services. We may also exchange certain contact information, including but not limited to your name and email address, with third parties for marketing purposes. We do not sell, exchange or disclose your protected health information for marketing purposes. See “How to Opt-out of Promotional E-mails and Personalized Advertising” below.

Advertising. Using the information you provide us, we may send you informational emails about services that we believe may interest you. Additionally, we partner with third parties, such as Google Ads or similar vendors, to manage our advertising on other websites. Google Ads and similar vendors use cookies and other internet technologies to gather information about your activities on our Site and other websites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. You may contact us to opt out of informational emails regarding our services and may opt out of third-party, internet-based ads with the specific third parties. See “How You Can Control Information Collection —Opting Out of Direct Marketing and Personalized Advertising” below.

Legal Process and Site Protection. We may disclose your personal information to third parties without notice to you in order to comply with applicable law, law enforcement agencies, enforce our Site policies, protect our rights, or protect the rights of other users of the Site. We may disclose information to companies assisting in fraud protection or investigation.

Business Transactions. In order to prepare for or undertake a business transaction, such as a financing, reorganization, or business sale or transfer, where we have a legitimate interest in disclosing personal information, subject to appropriate confidentiality protections, we may share personal information with transaction parties and their advisors; and retain a copy of the information following the transaction.

How We Secure Personal Information

We use commercially reasonable organizational and physical safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of your personal information and to meet the standards of this Privacy Policy, and require third parties who can access your information to do the same. We limit access to personal information to our staff and service providers who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information to provide services to you or do their jobs. When you enter sensitive information, we encrypt that information in transit. Still, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, use, or alteration. There is always a risk inherent in the electronic transmission and storage of information (including without limitation the risks of unauthorized entry or use, telecommunication issues, hardware or software failure, and other factors).

Social Media Activities and Third-Party Links

This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by our Site. In an attempt to provide you with useful information, we may include third-party links on our Site. These linked sites have separate and independent privacy policies. If you connect with any of the social media activities available on our Site, such as the Facebook “Like” button, the social media platform controls these activities, not USASC. These other websites may send their own cookies to you, independently collect your personal information including your IP address and the page you are visiting on our Site, and may set a cookie to enable the activity to perform.

We have no control over the privacy practices, or content of the applications and websites to which we provide access from our Site. USASC does not endorse, approve, or certify these third-party websites, applications or other materials provided therein, and we do not guarantee their accuracy, completeness, legality, or any other aspect. We therefore have no responsibility or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.

How You Can Control Information Collection

How You Can Control Information Usage

You can control how technologies are used to track and log your online activities in several ways, including:

1. Managing the preference settings on your browser and device.
2. Communicating directly with Google as explained at: https://policies.google.com/privacy.
3. Purchasing a utility from an independent software provider that you install on your computer browsers to restrict tracking of your browsing activity.

Opting out of Direct Marketing and Personalized Advertising

At any time, you can tell us to stop sending you e-mail and other direct marketing or personalized internet advertising or to otherwise change your communications preferences by:

1. Clicking “unsubscribe” in an email you receive from us;
2. Emailing us at with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject line; or
3. Calling our general switchboard at or any of our individual practice locations.

How You Can Make Requests About Your Personal Information

If you contact us for any of the reasons listed below, we will make a prompt and commercially reasonable effort to honor your request:

1. To opt out of direct marketing communications;
2. To ask us to limit how we use your personal information;
3. To ask us to correct personal information we have about you;
4. To find out what personal information we have about you or request a readable copy;
5. To object to our further use of your personal information;
6. To advise us about a complaint regarding how we handle your personal information; and
7. To ask us to delete the personal information we have about you.

To protect your privacy and security, we may take steps to verify your identity before taking action on your request.

Additional Privacy Rights for California Residents

Under California’s "Shine the Light" law, California residents who provide personal information in obtaining products or services for personal, family or household use are entitled to request and obtain from us, once per calendar year, information about the customer information we shared, if any, with other businesses for their own direct marketing uses. If applicable, this information would include the categories of customer information and the names and addresses of those businesses with which we shared customer information for the immediately prior calendar year (e.g. requests made in 2016 will receive information regarding 2015 sharing activities).

To obtain this information from us, please send an e-mail message to optout2@usaspinecare.com with "Request for California Privacy Information" on the subject line and in the body of your message. We will provide the requested information to you at your e-mail address in response. Not all information sharing is covered by the "Shine the Light" requirements and only information on covered sharing will be included in our response.

The Site does not respond to “do not track” requests.

CONSENT TO PROCESSING YOUR INFORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES

USASC provides services only in the United States. We are subject to the privacy and security laws covering healthcare information (“HIPAA”), as well as consumer protection laws and regulations of the United States and its individual states, as applicable. If you reside or are located in a different country, the data protection laws of that country may differ as to how your personal information is protected. We want you to understand that when you provide your personal information to us, or we obtain it through our website, by phone, or other means, you will be transferring your information to the United States. In doing that, you are giving us your consent to process your information in the United States, in accordance with United States law, for our legitimate business purposes as explained in this Privacy Policy. We will respond to requests you may have about your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

HOW TO CONTACT US

Please contact us if you have any requests about your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. And, we welcome your questions, comments, and concerns about this Privacy Policy and our Site.

By emailing us at

By letter at

Laser Spine Institue
Privacy Officer
5332 Avion Park Dr., Tampa, FL 33607

By phone at

We may need to confirm your identity in order to respond to some requests.

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

If we make substantive changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting the changes on the Site.

AFFILIATES

This Privacy Policy describes the usage of your data by the following entities, which are corporate affiliates of USA Spine Care, LLC:

1. USASC Management Company, LLC
2. Laser Spine Surgical Center, LLC
3. Laser Spine Surgery Center of Arizona, LLC
4. Laser Spine Surgery Center of Cincinnati, LLC
5. Laser Spine Surgery Center of St. Louis, LLC