Privacy and SMS Policies

NOTICE OF PRIVACY POLICY

This notice describes how personal and health information may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. The policy is applicable to all families that are engaged with the mission of the milk bank including milk donors, the children of milk donors, milk recipients, and/or the parents/guardians of recipients.

The following is the privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) of Three Rivers Mothers’ Milk Bank (“TRMMB”) dba Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank (MAMMB) as described in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly known as HIPAA. HIPAA requires MAMMB, by law, to maintain the privacy of your personal health information and to provide you with notice of MAMMB’s legal duties and privacy policies with respect to your personal health information. We are required by law to abide by the terms of this Privacy Notice. HIPAA requires us to:

Keep medical information that identifies you private
Give you this Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to medical information about you and your child
Follow the terms of this notice

Your Personal Health Information

We collect personal health information from the application and enrollment process, healthcare providers, blood and tissue laboratories, and through other means, as applicable. The law specifically protects health information; oral, written or recorded, that contains information such as your name, address, social security number, dates, telephone/fax numbers, email addresses, demographic data, etc., that could be used to identify you as the individual donor who is associated with that health information.

Protected health information may be used in connection with our service to you, payment of your account, or health care operations. It is expected that any organization with which we share information is also HIPAA compliant, therefore ensuring the security of your information.

Specifically, we may use or disclose medical information about you in the following ways:

Providing necessary information about you to healthcare providers. For example, your prenatal care provider may request verification of your birth date before releasing your prenatal blood work or your baby’s pediatrician may request information on how much milk has been supplied to your baby.
Discussing your medical information with your health insurer to verify eligibility for benefits, obtain prior authorization, or to bill and receive payment for the services you receive from us.
Providing information to certifying, licensing, or accrediting bodies to verify our operation and compliance with various standards.
Contacting you regarding necessary activities as part of the donation of receipt of donor milk such as checking on paperwork or seeing how your baby is doing with donor milk. If we try to contact you by telephone and you are not available, we may leave a message with a family member or on your answering machine.
Displaying photos that you send to us on our office bulletin board, website, or social media. This will be done without any identifying information, unless we specifically ask your permission.
Providing medical information to our business associates (hospitals, medical practices, etc) so that they can perform certain functions or services on our behalf.
Disclosing medical information about you if required to do so by federal, state, or local law.
Disclosing medical information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or that of another person or the public.
Disclosing information about you for public health activities such as the prevention or control of disease, reporting of donor milk recipients, or reporting laboratory results.
Providing de-identified information from donors who have separately consented to having some milk deferred to research activities through MAMMB’s affiliated Human milk Science Institute and Biobank.

We keep your personal health information private by:

Keeping documents that contain personal health information stored securely. Personnel access electronic records only through our HIPAA compliant system.
All staff and volunteers who have access to files are trained in issues of confidentiality and privacy.
Vendors that perform work that may expose them to personal health information have a business agreement in place that addresses privacy and HIPAA compliance. Such vendors include office cleaners, IT services, and other services necessary for the operations of the milk bank.
Publications coming from the MAMMB office will contain no personal health information.
If someone requests information from your medical record for a legitimate reason, as described in the previous section, this will be documented in your milk bank chart.

If we are made aware that a serious breach of your privacy has occurred, every effort will be made to contact you as soon as possible after the breach is made known.

Your Rights Under This Notice

You have the right to (a) request inspection or copying of your record, (b) amend the information contained in your record, (c) request an accounting of all disclosures of health information and (d) request restrictions of access to your records. This should be in writing sent to the address below. You may issue a complaint, without risk of retaliation, to our office. If you would like to issue a complaint or have any questions you may call or write to:

Denise O’Connor, Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank
3127 Penn Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15201
doconnor@midatlanticmilkbank.org / 412-281-4400

You may also issue a complaint to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (hhs.gov).

Last updated: February 15, 2025

For Milk Donors and the parents/guardians of Donor Milk Recipients that choose to receive messages through texting, please read the following:

TEXT (SMS) PRIVACY POLICY

This Text (SMS) Privacy Policy describes the policies and procedures of Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank (MAMMB) regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your information when you participate in the mission of the organization including being a milk donor or milk recipient. It will also include information about your privacy rights and how relevant laws protect you.

MAMMB uses your personal data to provide and improve its work of collecting, processing, and distributing donor milk. By participating in the mission of MAMMB you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

MAMMB maintains strict privacy policies, ensuring that personal information and mobile information of our users and members is not sold, shared, rented, released, or traded to third parties for marketing/promotional purposes.

Texts are only sent to individuals who have agreed to this method of communication. If you are receiving text messages from MAMMB and would like to stop receiving them, reply “STOP” to the number from which you received the message. You will then receive a message asking you to confirm you desire to unsubscribe (reply “YES” to confirm or “NO”). If you reply “YES” to the confirmation message you will no longer receive further text messages from us.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

While engaging with MAMMB, we may ask you to provide certain information that can be used to contact or identify you. This information, which is collected through online forms, verbally, or via email, may include but is not limited to:

Name
Address
Email
Phone number

MAMMB may use your personal data for the following purposes:

Contacting you regarding steps in the milk donor screening and donation process
Contacting you regarding the process of receiving donor milk for your child
Other activities to support the mission of MAMMB including events and fundraising

Other data, including personal health information is collected as needed to support the collection and distribution of donor milk. Please refer to MAMMB’s Notice of Privacy Policy for details regarding PHI, when it is disclosed, and the steps taken to protect that data.

Retention of Your Personal Data

MAMMB will retain your personal data for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Text (SMS) Privacy Policy. MAMMB will retain and use you personal data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, compliance with applicable laws and accreditation requirements), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies. MAMMB will also retain usage data for internal analysis purposes. Usage data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the operations of the organization, or where legally necessary.

Security of Your Personal Data

Personal information is only shared as required for the purposes outlined in this Text (SMS) Privacy Policy. MAMMB takes many precautions to secure your data:

Keeping documents that contain personal health information stored securely. Personnel access electronic records only through our HIPAA compliant system.
All staff and volunteers that have access to personal data receive specific training on confidentiality and privacy.
All vendors that perform work that may expose them to personal information have a business agreement in place that addresses privacy and HIPAA compliance. Such vendors include office cleaners, IT services, and other services necessary for the operations of the milk bank.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

MAMMB may update its Text (SMS) Privacy Policy periodically. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new policy on midatlanticmilkbank.org. We will also let you know via email prior to the change becoming effective.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Text (SMS) Privacy Policy contact us at:

Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank
3127 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15201
info@midatlanticmilkbank.org
phone: 412-281-4400

SMS Terms and Conditions

MAMMB will reach out to you as “Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank”
The information that is communicated via SMS include reminders for scheduled phone interviews and other components of the donor screening process, co-ordination of milk drop-offs, shipments, or pickups, information about milk bank events, or other activities related to the mission of MAMMB. Health related information will not be communicated. Users are asked to not include any health, medical, or personal information in replies to messages received from MAMMB.
You can cancel the SMS (texting) service at any time. Text “STOP” to the number from which you received the message. You will then receive a message asking you to confirm you desire to unsubscribe (reply “YES” to conform or “NO”). If you reply “YES” to the confirmation message you will no longer receive further text messages from us.
If you experience issues with the messaging program, reply “HELP” for more assistance or reach out to us by email (info@midatlanticmilkbank.org) or phone (412-281-4400).
Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
As always, message and data rates may apply for messages sent to you by MAMMB and to MAMMB from you. Message frequency varies. For questions about or text or data plan, contact your wireless provider.
For privacy related information, please also refer to Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank’s Privacy Policy.