Credit Bureau Associates

The CBHC has always and will continue to protect privacy of the consumer as it relates to the use of non-public personal information. The CBHC is governed by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Public Law 95-109 -15 U.S.C. Sections 1692(a) through 1692(o), as well as, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. Sections 1681-1681(u). In addition, when working with a Healthcare Provider and receiving protected health information (PHI), the regulations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA) will apply.

The information collected by CBHC may include information provided by the consumer, submitted through clients of CBHC, through whom the consumer has sought to do business or has had past transactions; additional information provided by the consumer to verify identity for the consumer's protection; information provided by credit reporting agencies; or information collected from public record sources.

The CBHC does not sell non-public information regarding the consumer to organizations for the purpose of contacting them about their services or products. Information collected may be sold only as permitted by law while conducting the business of supplying clients of CBHC with national credit reports. Information may be used for internal business intent, such as billing, customer service or fraud prevention.

The CBHC may disclose information about a consumer to persons or organizations to fulfill a transaction requested by the consumer, such as an application for credit resulting in an order for a national credit history report. Location information may be disclosed in limited fashion as allowed by FDCPA Section 804. Third party contact practices, governed by FDCPA, Section 805b, allow communication with a debtor's spouse, attorney, a consumer reporting agency, the creditor or creditor's attorney and the attorney of the debt collector. Disclosure may be made to governmental authority or to an auditor in response to an inquiry or an audit.

The CBHC is concerned with the protection of non-public information and protected health information of the consumer. In order to comply with HIPPA, a contract agreement is made and entered into with each Healthcare Provider client. Physical, electronic and procedural safeguards have been established to protect customer information and insure that information is disclosed only for authorized or permitted purposes. In regard to credit reporting, reasonable precautions are taken to inform clients, to whom information is disclosed, of fair information principles and of their responsibility to treat such disclosure in like manner. In addition, employees who have access to protected information to fulfill and service customer's needs are educated regarding disclosure of protected information.