Privacy Statement

Employee Benefit Specialists (EBS), Inc. provides the following information regarding privacy. We value the opportunity to service each client and participant account and take privacy issues very seriously. We share a commitment with all employers, insurance carriers, and like service vendors, to protect your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal information.

As providers of employee benefit services and products that require us to compile personal information, we want you to know that protecting confidential information will continue to be a top priority. Obviously, the information we collect and the extent to which we use it varies depending on the services or products provided on your behalf. Our actions are established considering the basic principles of trust, ethics and integrity.

EBS employs physical, electronic and organizational safeguards to protect client and participant information. These systems are monitored and updated consistently to help us ensure the safety of this information.

Our Privacy Principles

• We collect only the information necessary to deliver the product or service for which we have been contracted to provide.
• We continue to evaluate and update internal processes to safeguard information security.
• We do not sell customer information.
• We do not use personal information for marketing purposes within our organization.
• We do not provide customer information to persons or organizations outside of EBS for their own marketing purposes.
• We do not share any medical information (provided to EBS on an application, enrollment form, employer report, or claim form) with any person or organization outside EBS, for marketing purposes.
• We require all insurance carriers, persons or organizations providing products or services to EBS clients or benefit plan participants, to protect the confidentiality our client/participant information in a manner compliant with our high standards.

Information We May Collect and How We Gather It:

EBS collects and uses information to administer the benefit accounts for which we have been contracted to service. We may collect and maintain several types of customer information needed for these purposes including names, addresses, SSNs, and other information specific to identifying clients and participants and maintaining your account. We may collect this information from the following sources:

• From a participant: on enrollment forms, claim forms, insurance applications
• From an employer: information needed for the enrollment or maintenance of a benefit which may be included in an electronic file or hard copy report and/or information needed for discrimination testing for plan compliance purposes.

How We Use the Information About Clients and Participants:

EBS uses customer information to enroll and maintain benefit accounts including processing insurance applications and benefit enrollment forms, updating account information, processing claims, providing payment to a contracted vendor or insurance carrier for an employer sponsored benefit program, or providing disbursements to properly service a client's account as contracted.

Type of Information Sharing:

There are ways in which EBS shares information to enroll and maintain benefits. We do not however, share any information with persons or organizations who are providing a service to EBS for their own marketing purposes. (Such organizations may include software vendors or programmers servicing our account and affording EBS the ability to provide services to our clients.) We do not sell customer information in any form. We provide only the information necessary to enroll or maintain benefits per our contract to do so.

What Information We Share:

• As permitted by federal and state laws, EBS may share or exchange information with companies engaged to work with us such as insurance carriers, third party administrators or vendors hired to effect, administer or enforce a transaction that was requested or authorized by our contract with your sponsoring employer. EBS does not share information with any entity for any purpose outside of enrolling or maintaining a benefit account that we were contracted to service.
• No claims history known to EBS is provided to anyone other than the account holder (participant) or other covered member (such as a spouse).
• Client (employer) information is not shared for any reason other than the maintenance of a plan with an insurance carrier or the IRS on form 5500 tax filings at the request of the client.
• As the record keeper of a flex, transit, retiree reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, dental reimbursement, vision reimbursement or like benefit account, participant account activity such as deposits to date, claims payments to date, and an account balance will be shared with the sponsoring employer to ensure that the benefit is maintained in accordance with the employer's activities such as HR or payroll (as applicable). No specific medical or claims information is shared other than the amount of a disbursement so that the employer can subsidize/record that benefit payment.
• As the record keeper of a COBRA account, billing, payment history and receipts will be shared with the sponsoring employer and insurance carrier as applicable to maintain the benefit. No specific medical information is collected by EBS or shared with any other entity. As the record keeper of an invoice reconciliation account, information regarding premiums received and remitted will be shared with the sponsoring employer and insurance carrier as applicable to maintain the benefit.
• Account balance and activity may be shared with an account holder (participant) via phone calls with an EBS representative, e-mail, interactive voice response, and on-line account balance resource as available and as applicable. EBS maintains these systems with the security of the participant, and their personal information, a priority.