Information contained in this system is subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a, as amended). Only authorized persons in the conduct of official business may use personal information contained in this system. Any unauthorized disclosure or misuse of personal information may result in criminal and/or civil penalties. Any official or employee may be found guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not more than $5,000.00 if he or she willfully discloses personal information to anyone not entitled to receive such information. Any individual may file a civil action against a Department of Defense (DoD) component or its employees if the aggrieved individual feels that certain provisions of the Privacy Act have been violated. An aggrieved individual may obtain the payment of damage, court costs, and attorney fees in some cases.

TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal is a web site of the Military Health System (MHS). The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Health Affairs (HA) and the Defense Health Agency (DHA) provides it as a public service. Information presented on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied unless otherwise indicated. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested.

For site management, information is collected for statistical purposes. This government computer system uses software programs to create summary metrics, which are used for such purposes as assessing what information is of most and least interest to users, determining technical design specifications, and identifying system performance or problem areas. For site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, this government computer system employs software programs to monitor network traffic to identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes and are scheduled for regular destruction in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration General Schedule 20. Unauthorized attempts to upload information or change information on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (Pub. L. 99-474, Oct. 16, 1986, 100 Stat. 1213).

TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal is a Department of Defense (DoD) computer system. This computer system, including all related equipment, networks, and network devices (specifically including Internet access) are provided only for authorized U.S. government use. DoD computer systems may be monitored for all lawful purposes, including: ensuring that their use is authorized, for management of the system, to facilitate protection against unauthorized access, and to verify security procedures, survivability, and operational security. Monitoring includes active attacks by authorized DoD entities to test or verify the security of this system. During monitoring, information may be examined, recorded, copied and used for authorized purposes. Authorized DoD personnel may monitor all information, including personal information, placed or sent over this system. Use of this DoD computer system, authorized or unauthorized, constitutes consent to monitoring of this system. Unauthorized use may subject you to criminal prosecution. Evidence of unauthorized use collected during monitoring may be used for administrative, criminal, or civil action.

At all times, security maintenance and administration is an essential element of web site operation and maintenance. TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal employs several levels of security to protect the personal identifiable information (PII) of registered users. In addition, these security levels are anticipated to be in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) (Pub. L. 104-191, Aug 21, 1996,110 Stat. 1936).

• Eligibility Verification - In order to achieve the appropriate levels of security, the account creation process uses security software that receives the user's demographic data (i.e., date of birth, Social Security Number, and name) from the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) during the authentication process. DEERS determines the user's eligibility for using certain features of the TOL Patient Portal by ensuring the user is an eligible TRICARE beneficiary.
  
  
• Secured Socket Layer (SSL) - A security protocol, which provides a transmission level of encryption between the user's browser and TOL server machines. SSL is a method for protecting a TOL Patient Portal user's identification and password.

Some states have restrictions on disclosure of health information to family members to protect the privacy of certain minors and dependent adult family members. These restrictions on disclosure of information may include accessing personal health and medical information through electronic or Internet based services. If you have questions regarding this matter, please contact your local Military Treatment Facility (MTF) or Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) Support Office for more information about disclosure of health information and applicable privacy laws within the state or jurisdiction that you and your family receive care.

TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal requires users to log in to access services including, but not limited to, making an appointment for you or your family members, refilling a prescription for you or your authorized family members, viewing your personal health data, or communicating electronically with your health care provider. When you use these services, TOL Patient Portal will clearly disclose what information is required and what information is optional. The information you provide is subject to the security and privacy measures described in this policy.

You should remember to log out when you are finished accessing password protected TOL Patient Portal services. This prevents someone else from accessing your personal information if you leave, share, or use a public computer (e.g., library, kiosk, or Internet cafe) and your session hasn't automatically "timed out" or shut down.

Cookies may be categorized as Session or Persistent, which describes the length of time that they stay on your system. The following are detailed descriptions of how we use these cookies:

A session cookie is a small piece of textual information that a server temporarily places on your browser during the time your browser is open. The cookies are erased once you close all browsers. We use session cookies in the following manners:

• Logon and logoff administration - When you log on to TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal, session cookies help with the logon and logoff process. The cookies enable us to recognize your logon identification when you log on so that we do not need to establish your identity for every request.
  
  
• Transactions and site usability - We use session cookies to improve how you navigate through the TOL Patient Portal and conduct transactions. As examples, session cookies are used to maintain your online session as you browse over several pages; to store and prepopulate information so that you do not have to reenter the same information twice.

A persistent cookie is a small piece of text stored on your computer's hard drive for a defined period of time, after which the cookie is erased. TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal does not use persistent cookies.

TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal has links to many other federal agencies' websites. In a few cases we link to private organizations with their permission. When one site links to another site, the original site is subject to the privacy and security policy of the new site. When TOL Patient Portal links to an external Internet site(s), it does so by opening a new window (or browser) on your screen. Any information in these secondary windows (browsers) should be considered external to the TOL Patient Portal website. The TOL Patient Portal and the DoD are not responsible for its content.

To improve the quality of our service, TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal may use surveys and questionnaires to facilitate feedback from our end users. When you respond to surveys and questionnaires, we may ask you for demographic information such as your age or gender. This information is collected only as anonymous, aggregated information and is used for statistical purposes. Otherwise, we do not collect or store your personal responses.

Note: TOL Patient Portal only utilizes the DoD Interactive Customer Evaluation (ICE) web-based tool to collect user provided feedback on services provided by TOL.

This privacy and security policy may be revised periodically. When we make a significant change that affects our collection and use of your personal information or our security and privacy policy, we will post a notice on the TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal home page for thirty (30) days. The most recent changes to the security and or privacy policy will be highlighted in a different color within the policy. We recommend that you read the policy whenever you visit the TOL Patient Portal in case you missed our notice or have not previously registered for a TOL service or feature.

TOL Patient Portal partners with select third parties to provide you with quality health information and a personalized medical record. We recommend that you read privacy and security policies of these third party partners before using their tools and services.

TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal is a web-based health information and communication service provided by the Department of Defense (DoD) and contains information from various content providers. As used in the TOL Medical Disclaimer and Agreement ("Agreement"), "We", "Us", or "Our" refers to TOL Patient Portal. "You" or "User(s)" refers to TOL Patient Portal users.

Below is the TOL Patient Portal end-user medical disclaimer and agreement. Here, you will find important information regarding TOL, the terms of user account creation, and use of the TOL Patient Portal.

The terms and conditions of this medical disclaimer and agreement may change from time to time. Such modifications will take effect immediately upon posting on the website. You are advised to review this agreement periodically for changes and modifications.

The information provided by TOL Patient Portal is based on current medical literature and on physician review; however, the information is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Nothing on TOL Patient Portal is intended to be used for or replace the advice of your doctor, medical diagnosis, or treatment. As always, seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider before starting new treatment or when you have questions regarding a medical condition or disease. The information provided by TOL Patient Portal is intended to help people make better health care decisions and take greater responsibility for their own health.

BY LOGGING INTO THIS SITE, YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT NEITHER WE NOR OUR SUPPLIERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RESULTS OF YOUR DECISIONS RESULTING FROM THE USE OF TOL INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, YOUR CHOOSING TO SEEK OR NOT TO SEEK PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL CARE, OR YOUR CHOOSING OR NOT CHOOSING A SPECIFIC TREATMENT BASED ON THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THIS ONLINE SERVICE.

NOTICE: The use of this application constitutes acceptance of the following terms and conditions.

The use of the TRICARE Online (TOL) Patient Portal Health Record application on personally owned or publicly accessible, non-government furnished equipment, is at the discretion of the individual user. The DoD assumes no liability in the event of loss or compromise of personally identifiable data, resulting from the use of this application on non-government furnished equipment.

Your Health Record data contains protected health information (PHI) from your electronic health record (EHR). Your PHI is not distributed or shared with other users. All Medical Disclaimer and Policy conditions listed above apply. If you need to review these terms and conditions, you may do so through the available links at the bottom of this page.

The TOL Patient Portal Health Record application incorporates security safeguards to ensure the privacy of your PHI. It is your responsibility to keep your PHI safe. Only you have access to your PHI and as such, you must consider carefully, and take full responsibility for, disclosure of your account information or contents to other individuals.

Changes to this agreement will be distributed to TOL Patient Portal Health Record users as the information is updated. When you first access the Health Record, you will be asked to acknowledge that you understand the terms and conditions of use for the TOL Patient Portal Health Record application.

All Disclaimers listed on the TOL Patient Portal website apply. If you need to review these Disclaimers, you may do so through the available links at the bottom of this page.

Changes to this agreement will be distributed to TOL Patient Portal Health Record users as the agreement is updated.

You may request text and email message reminders for either your booked or cancelled appointments or for your authorized family members. The reminder message will include appointment information, such as you or your family member's name, the date and time of the appointment, and the clinic where the appointment is scheduled.

Appointment reminders are optional. You can elect to receive or decline appointment reminders within your TOL profile. By electing to receive appointment reminders, you confirm understanding that the use of any text and or email communications are not secure and that such information could be intercepted during transmission by a third party. If you wish to receive appointment reminders, then the appointment information will be sent to the mobile phone number or email address you specify. TOL does not assume responsibility for any related messaging charges.