SMS Program Terms

The program is named Ultradoc. It is operated by Ultradoc Technologies LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, which is also the sender of every message in it. Messages about your care are sent by Ultradoc on behalf of the healthcare practice you are a patient of; your practice, not Ultradoc, is your healthcare provider.

The program sends from a single phone number, and every message identifies Ultradoc by name so that you always know who is texting you. Messages are sent to two groups of people and to no one else: patients of practices that use Ultradoc, and members of those practices' staff.

The program sends four kinds of message, and only these four:

§ 2.01 Appointment notifications.

Confirmations when an appointment is booked, and notices when an appointment is rescheduled or cancelled by you or by your practice.

§ 2.02 Reminders.

A reminder that a message from your care team is waiting for you in the Ultradoc app, or that your practice has asked you to book a follow-up visit.

§ 2.03 Task notifications for practice staff.

Notices to members of a practice's staff about work assigned to them in Ultradoc. These are sent only to staff who have turned text notifications on in their own Ultradoc account.

§ 2.04 Sign-in verification codes.

One-time codes sent when you sign in to Ultradoc or verify a phone number. A verification code is sent only in response to an action you just took.

The program sends no marketing or promotional content. You will not receive advertising, offers, promotions, or news about Ultradoc products through it. Messages are kept brief and are written so that the substance of your health information is not exposed on your lock screen; the details live behind sign-in, in the Ultradoc app. Article III states exactly what a message carries and what it never carries.

A message about an appointment carries three pieces of information, and only these three:

§ 3.01 The name of your practice.

The practice the appointment is with, identified the way that practice has chosen to be identified in text messages.

§ 3.02 The date and time of the appointment.

When the appointment is, or for a cancellation, when it was to have been.

§ 3.03 Your first name.

Your first name alone, so that a message landing on a handset a household shares reaches the person it was meant for. It is withheld for adolescent patients, whose messages carry no name at all.

No clinical information is ever included. Not the kind of visit, not the provider you are seeing or their specialty, not the reason you are being seen, and nothing else about your care.

Text messages are not encrypted. No text message can be: it crosses your carrier's network as plain text and rests unlocked on the handset it reaches, where anyone with access to that phone can read it. This is why the disclosure a patient is shown at the point of care says so in as many words (Article V), and why the program is confined to the three values above.

If those three are still more than you want arriving on your phone, there are two ways to have less, and your practice can arrange either:

1. (i)Ask your practice to text under a neutral name. A practice whose own name says something about the kind of care it provides can send under a neutral display name instead, which then applies to every message that practice sends.
2. (ii)Ask to be reached through the app alone. Your practice can mark your record so that no text message is sent to you at all, and every notification waits for you behind sign-in in the Ultradoc app.

Message frequency varies. The program is driven by what happens in your care and in your account, not by a schedule: a week with two appointments and a sign-in produces several messages, and a quiet month may produce none at all.

Message and data rates may apply. Ultradoc charges you nothing for these messages, but your mobile carrier may charge you for sending or receiving them under your plan. Check with your carrier if you are unsure what your plan includes.

Ultradoc never sends a message to a number that has no recorded consent behind it. Consent reaches the program by one of three paths:

§ 5.01 Patients — at the point of care.

You give your mobile number to your healthcare practice and agree to receive text messages from Ultradoc at that number. Your practice records that consent in Ultradoc against your record. No message is ever sent to a number that does not have a recorded consent behind it.

§ 5.02 Practice staff — in their Ultradoc account.

Text notifications are off by default for every staff account. A staff member turns them on themselves in their account settings and then verifies the phone number with a one-time code sent to it, which confirms both the consent and the number.

§ 5.03 Website contact form.

The contact form at ultradoc.net/contact carries an optional consent checkbox, unchecked by default and never required in order to submit the form. Checking it records your consent to receive these messages at the mobile number you provide.

At the point of care, beside the field where a mobile number is recorded, a patient is shown this exact disclosure:

By providing a mobile phone number, the patient agrees to receive appointment and account text messages from Ultradoc at that number. Text messages are not encrypted and can be read by anyone with access to the phone. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help. Consent is not a condition of treatment.

Consent to receive text messages is never a condition of treatment, and declining costs you nothing but the convenience: your appointments, messages, and balances remain fully available to you in the Ultradoc app and from your practice directly.

Reply to any message from Ultradoc with one of these words. Case does not matter, and no other text is needed:

STOP Stop all messages.

Reply STOP to any message and the number is unsubscribed immediately. You will receive one final message confirming that you have been unsubscribed, and after that no further messages are sent to that number. END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, QUIT, and STOPALL do the same thing.

START Start receiving messages again.

Reply START — or UNSTOP — from the number you unsubscribed to resume messages. You can also ask your practice to re-enroll the number.

HELP Get help.

Reply HELP — or INFO — to any message and you will receive a reply identifying the program and how to reach us. You can also email help@ultradoc.net at any time.

Opting out stops the text messages and nothing else. Your Ultradoc account, your appointments, and your relationship with your practice are unaffected, and you can still be reached the way you always could — by your practice, and through the Ultradoc app.

Practice staff can also turn their own text notifications off at any time in their Ultradoc account settings, which has the same effect as replying STOP.

For help with the text message program — including questions about a message you received, a number you did not expect to be texted at, or an opt-out that did not take effect — reply HELP to any message, or reach us here:

Questions about a specific appointment, message, or balance are best answered by your practice, which holds your medical record. Ultradoc provides the technology; your practice provides your care.

1. (i)Message and data rates may apply. Any charge for sending or receiving a message is set by your mobile carrier and billed by your carrier, not by Ultradoc.
2. (ii)Mobile carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Delivery depends on your carrier's network and on your handset, neither of which Ultradoc controls.
3. (iii)Text messages are not a substitute for the secure messaging inside the Ultradoc app, and they are not for emergencies. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
4. (iv)Keep your number current with your practice. If you change or give up your mobile number, tell your practice so that messages intended for you are not sent to whoever holds the number next.

Your mobile number and your consent to be texted are handled under the Ultradoc Privacy Policy. Text messaging opt-in data and consent status are never sold, rented, or shared with any third party for marketing purposes — they are used to run this program and for nothing else.

Information about your care that travels through the program is Protected Health Information under HIPAA, which Ultradoc processes solely as a business associate of your practice. Our safeguards are published in our Statement of HIPAA Compliance.

Use of the Ultradoc patient app is governed by the Ultradoc Terms of Service, of which these program terms form a part. Where these terms and the Terms of Service address the same subject, these terms control as to the text message program.