Privacy Policy

Who we are

Compassionate Arms is a home-care agency in Michigan. This policy covers the Compassionate Arms mobile app and the staff web portal at app.compassionatearms.com. Our employees and contracted caregivers use them to document the care they provide, and anyone can use the app to ask us about care for a loved one or about working with us.

Staff accounts are created by our office for people who work with us; there is no public sign-up. The care request and job application forms need no account.

Information the app collects from staff

Your account details: your name, email address, and sign-in credentials.

The care documentation you enter: visit times, services provided, notes, attestations, and signatures. This documentation can include health information about the clients you care for, which is protected health information handled under HIPAA.

Photos you choose to attach from your photo library — for example a picture of a CPR card or TB test for your own staff record. The app does not use your camera or microphone.

Your location at the moment you clock in or clock out of a visit that requires Electronic Visit Verification (EVV), which Michigan Medicaid requires for in-home services. The app uses location only while it is open, records it only at those two moments, and never tracks you in the background. The time and location of each clock-in and clock-out are kept with the visit and reported to the EVV system Michigan Medicaid uses.

Basic information about your phone and the app — phone model, operating system and app version, whether notifications are allowed, and whether visits are waiting to send — used to secure your sign-in and your device authorization and to help our office solve problems with the app. If you allow notifications, a notification token so we can send you work alerts.

The app contains no advertising and no third-party analytics or tracking.

Care requests and job applications

If you use Get care for a loved one or Join our team, we receive what you enter: your name, phone number, email address if you give one, and ZIP code; for a care request, the help wanted, who it is for, how it may be paid, and the best time to call; for a job application, your availability, experience, certifications, and languages; and any message you write. Please leave out medical details — we talk those through by phone.

We use this only to contact you about your request or application, by the call or text you agreed to, and only our office staff see it. The app keeps nothing about it on your phone except a random ID for this installation, which we use to stop repeated or automated submissions.

Face ID and Touch ID

If you turn on biometric unlock, the check is performed by your phone's operating system on your device. The app only learns whether the unlock succeeded. Your fingerprint or face data never leaves your device and is never sent to us.

How we use information

We use the information in the app to run the agency: delivering and documenting client care, scheduling, payroll, billing, quality review, answering care requests and job applications, and meeting our legal and regulatory obligations as a home-care provider.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for advertising or marketing.

Client health information (HIPAA)

Client information in the app is protected health information. We use and disclose it only as HIPAA permits — for treatment, payment, and health-care operations, or as required by law. Our service providers that store or process this data do so under business associate agreements.

Clients' privacy rights are described in our Notice of Privacy Practices, available from our office.

Storage and security

Data moves between the app and our systems over encrypted connections (TLS). Information the app keeps on your phone for offline use is encrypted at rest and expires automatically; it is removed when you sign out. The app locks itself after inactivity.

Access to client information is limited to what your role needs: caregivers see only their own assignments.

Retention

Care records are retained for as long as state and federal regulations require home-care agencies to keep them. Staff records are retained per our employment policies and applicable law. Care requests and job applications are kept as long as we need them to respond and for our business records.

Your choices

Location access is asked for the first time you clock in to an EVV visit, and you can change it any time in your phone's Settings; with it off, you can enter visit times by hand with a reason and the office reviews the visit. Photo library access is optional and used only when you attach a photo; you can revoke it any time in your phone's Settings. Notifications and biometric unlock are optional. Questions about your information, or requests to review or correct it, can be sent to the contact below.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update this page and the effective date. Material changes will be announced to staff in the app.

Contact

Compassionate Arms — contact@compassionatearms.com. We answer privacy questions from staff, clients, and their representatives.