CareSign App Privacy Policy

What this covers

This policy covers the CareSign apps for iPhone and Android and the portal at app.caresignhealth.com, provided by CareSign Inc to staff of practices and agencies that contract with us. Where the two apps work differently, this policy says so. Patients do not need an app account. They can sign on a staff member's device or through a secure link their practice sends. Our website privacy policy covers the public marketing website.

When a practice is covered by HIPAA, we act as its business associate under a Business Associate Agreement for the protected health information we handle. For other practices, we handle their records only as our customer agreement allows. The practice decides how its patient information is used and who may access it. Ask your practice about its own privacy practices and your rights concerning its records.

Information the app handles

Account and staff information. Your name, work email, sign-in credentials, role and practice memberships identify your account and control access. Staff records may also include contact details, professional credentials and documents you or your office upload.

Clinical and practice records. Staff enter and upload patient demographics and contacts, visits and visit notes, wound assessments and photos, forms, electronic signatures and their evidence records, orders, messages and attachments, information requests, scheduling information and mileage on the practice's behalf.

Location. With your permission, the iPhone and Android apps read your location at clock-in and clock-out, compare it with the patient's address and keep the location and verification result in the visit record. The iPhone app also reads your location when someone signs on the phone and keeps it with the signature record. Neither app tracks your location in the background. If you allow only approximate location on Android, the check uses that approximate position. Patient and office addresses and coordinates are also used for maps, routes and office-to-patient mileage. You can still use CareSign and clock in or out with location denied; location verification will be unavailable.

Camera and photo library. The camera captures wound photos. On iPhone, you can also choose images for message attachments, patient documents, credential uploads, a profile photo or a support report, and photos taken inside CareSign are not saved to your photo library. On Android, CareSign opens your phone's camera app for a wound photo and has it hand the photo straight back to CareSign's private storage. CareSign does not save it to your gallery and does not read your photos. Your camera app's settings decide whether it keeps its own copy.

Microphone and speech. In the iPhone app, with your permission, Apple's on-device speech recognition turns dictation into text on your phone. CareSign does not save an audio recording or upload dictation audio. Dictated text can be kept in a local draft and becomes part of the practice's record when you save it. The Android app does not use the microphone.

AI drafting. When your practice enables AI drafting and you choose to use it, transcript text and wound identifiers, numbers and labels are sent to CareSign's AI drafting service. It uses Google Gemini on Google Cloud to propose entries for you to review before filing. The service also receives the form fields needed to organize the draft. Text you dictate may contain patient information. Audio is not sent to the AI service. This service runs under CareSign's Business Associate Agreement with Google. The Android app does not offer AI drafting.

Ask CareSign. When you choose to ask a question, your question, recent questions and answers, role, screen and a summary of your practice's CareSign settings are sent to Google Gemini on Google Cloud to answer from the CareSign guide. The iPhone app asks for your permission before your first question. The assistant cannot read your charts, visits, photos or signatures. Anything you include in your question is sent, so leave patient names and details out. Voice dictation happens on your phone; audio is not sent to the AI service. CareSign does not store question or answer text on its servers. It keeps usage counts, categories and cited guide articles to manage limits and service reliability. Questions and answers are not used to train AI models. Ask CareSign provides help using the software, not clinical advice. Check the linked guide article before relying on an answer. Ask CareSign is not in the Android app.

Support reports. Support reports include the description and any screenshot you choose to submit. Avoid including patient information in help questions or support reports.

Tour progress. CareSign saves which guided tour steps you have finished or dismissed, linked to your account, so a tour picks up where you left off and does not repeat. It is used only to run the tours.

Device and signature evidence. We handle a push notification token to deliver notifications. In signature evidence, the iPhone app records the phone's vendor identifier and its network IP address. The Android app records a random identifier it creates on the phone, which changes if CareSign is reinstalled or its data is cleared. Signing through a web link, including a signing page opened inside the Android app, also records the IP address and browser information as evidence. We do not collect an advertising identifier.

Diagnostics. The apps and portal do not use analytics SDKs or advertising trackers. Automatic crash reporting in the iPhone and Android apps is disabled. The portal sends limited error reports, such as the error type, app version, feature area and code location, to help us fix problems. Those reports exclude patient record contents and account details. Our service also keeps operational and security logs. We will update this policy before enabling additional crash reporting.

How information is used

We use information to provide the service to your practice: charting, signatures and their evidence, audit records, notifications, scheduling, mileage, communications and support. We also use it to maintain reliability and security and to enforce access permissions.

We do not sell this information or use it for advertising.

Who processes information

Google Cloud and Firebase provide sign-in, data and file storage, server processing and operational diagnostics. Application data, files and server functions are hosted in United States regions. Amazon Web Services provides transactional email through SES and maps, geocoding and routing through Amazon Location Service. Google Gemini on Google Cloud provides AI drafting and the Ask CareSign help service. Apple and Firebase deliver push notifications. Apple also supplies the iPhone's map display. When a practice bills electronically, Stedi, our clearinghouse, exchanges claim and remittance information with payers.

Information is also shared with the recipients the practice selects for signing, messages or email. If you choose to open directions in another app, destination information is passed to that app and its privacy policy applies.

Service providers process information only to provide services to CareSign, under agreements that require them to protect it at least as well as this policy describes. CareSign has Business Associate Agreements with Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Stedi for the covered services used to handle protected health information.

Retention

Clinical records belong to the practice. They remain under its control and are kept for as long as its record-keeping obligations require. Account information is kept while your account is active and handled through the deletion process below when you ask to close it. Audit records have no automatic expiration date. They remain with the practice's records to preserve activity and authorship, including after an individual account is deleted.

Deleting an account does not immediately erase backup copies or prior versions of the practice's files. Database recovery history covers seven days, and scheduled database backups are kept for 98 days. Deleted files can be recovered for seven days from main storage, and a backup copy in a second US region keeps them for up to 98 days. Prior file versions can remain until they are removed under the practice's record-handling process. Support correspondence and security and operational records are kept as needed to resolve requests, protect the service and meet record-keeping obligations.

Your choices

On iPhone, you can change location, camera, microphone, speech recognition and notification permissions in iOS Settings, and you choose which images to share through the photo picker. On Android, you can change location and notification permissions in Android Settings, and a wound photo is taken only when you open the camera from CareSign. You can type instead of dictating and choose not to use AI drafting or Ask CareSign. Turning off a permission stops future use of that permission; it does not remove records already saved by your practice.

To request deletion of your CareSign account, use "Delete my account" in Settings in the iPhone or Android app, or email admin@caresignhealth.com. CareSign Inc deletes your account within 30 days of your request and emails you when it is done. After that you can no longer sign in. Clinical records the practice must keep stay in its control, with your name as their author, after your account is gone. Backup timing is described under Retention above. Contact the practice for questions or requests about those records.

Children

CareSign is for clinical and office staff and is not directed to anyone under 18. A practice may enter information about patients who are children as part of its care records.

Security

We use encryption in transit and cloud-provider encryption at rest, separate access by practice, role-based access controls and a server-side audit log. You can enable a Face ID or device-passcode lock on the iPhone. The Android app requires a screen lock on the phone, offers an app lock that opens with your biometrics or screen lock, and blocks screenshots of its screens. Read more about these safeguards on our security page.

Changes and contact

If we change this policy, we will update this page and its effective date. For questions about this policy or your account information, write to CareSign Inc, 2108 N St Ste N, Sacramento, CA 95816, or email admin@caresignhealth.com. Please do not include patient records in a privacy inquiry.