General Terms and Conditions (GTC) for supply partners

General terms and conditions for the use of care management by Ambulanzpartner Soziotechnologie APST GmbH and the use of the Ambulanzpartner care portal

Published on 1 January 2018

For the sake of readability, we have refrained from using both masculine and feminine forms. However, all personal pronouns refer to both genders.

People with chronic illnesses can have high and complex outpatient medication needs. A critical aspect of outpatient treatment is the coordination of necessary care and the coordination of the partners involved. Ambulanzpartner addresses these needs and embodies digitally supported care management. The Ambulanzpartner concept (hereinafter „AP concept“) combines coordinative services with the digital management platform „Ambulanzpartner Care Portal“ (hereinafter „APVP“).

Ambulanzpartner Soziotechnologie APST GmbH (hereinafter „APST“) offers care management services that improve coordination, communication, and networking between patients (and their families), medical partners (doctors, nursing services), drug therapy providers (pharmacies, manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices), and providers of medical and assistive devices. The APVP online platform is the communication and management platform that digitally supports care coordination. It links an electronic care record with digital process control for the purposes of care management and health services research.

In providing the APVP internet portal and related services, APST collaborates with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (hereinafter „Charité“). APST and Charité cooperate on hosting the APVP, including data protection and data security, as well as for the purposes of health services research.

1. Scope

1.1 These General Terms and Conditions of Use (GTC) apply to the use of APST services and the use of the APVP internet platform by supply partners.

1.2 APST’s care partners are providers, manufacturers, or suppliers of care services or medical devices, including medical aids, remedies, or pharmaceuticals (hereinafter referred to as „providers“ or „customers“). They are authorized as customers of the platform and receive individual user accounts. The legal basis for this arises from the individual agreements concluded upon conclusion of the contract and these General Terms and Conditions. The use of the APVP software product by patients and medical partners (relatives, physicians, social services), as well as other trusted persons authorized by the patient, is also permitted and is regulated in separate General Terms and Conditions for Medical Partners.

1.3 By registering with APST, the customer agrees to the General Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy. APST reserves the right to amend these General Terms and Conditions as necessary – particularly for factual and/or legal reasons – by stating these reasons. The amended terms and conditions will be sent to the customer by email one month before they come into effect, to the email address last known to APST. If the customer does not object within 14 days of receiving the email, the amended terms and conditions are deemed accepted and govern the future contractual relationship between the customer and APST. If the customer objects, the contract will terminate in accordance with the provisions of Section 4.2.

1.4 The contracting parties may not transfer the rights and obligations arising from this agreement. Any assignment of rights is excluded.

2. Subject matter and services

2.1 APST provides services for care coordination, data and document management, and networking between providers and medical partners. These services are collectively referred to as „care management.“ APST’s care management services are offered in modules. These can be used together or individually. A detailed description of the service modules offered, including terms of use and fees, can be found in the service descriptions available for the following care management modules:

• Aids provision
• Medicines supply
• Medication supply
• Food supply
• Respiratory care

The service modules consist of individual service components, which are described in detail in the service descriptions. The following service components of supply management can be distinguished:

• Care coordination
• Data management
• Document management
• Complaint management
• Network management
• Patient reviews

2.2 APST provides the APVP internet platform for providers to use. APVP is a structured database with an associated internet portal that allows for the electronic capture, storage, and processing of patient- and care-related data, as well as digital support of care processes. Access to the portal ( https://www.ambulanzpartner.de ) is via a personal username and password combination. The features of the digital platform, the data collected, user roles and authorizations, as well as the terms of use and fees, can be found in the service descriptions.

2.3 APST supports customers and other users in using the APVP and, if necessary, handles the entry, administration, and storage of data (see „Data Management“ service). APST offers a free telephone introduction prior to using the portal and, if necessary, additional free training sessions, which are agreed upon individually.

2.4 With the patient’s written consent, the provider will be granted access to the patient’s data for inspection, processing, and use. The patient is free to revoke an initially given consent at any time, without giving reasons, with immediate effect. APST ensures that the corresponding consent form complies with all legal requirements, particularly those relating to data protection.

2.5 The Internet connection and the web browser are not part of the contractual relationship between the supplier and APST.

3. Conclusion of contract

3.1 The use of the services mentioned in 2.1 and the APVP software requires the conclusion of a user agreement. This contractual relationship is established upon the customer’s completed registration.

3.2 By concluding the contract, the customer declares his agreement to these General Terms and Conditions, the Privacy Policy (Section 8.3) and the service description, including the terms of use and fees.

3.3 The customer warrants that the information provided during the contract conclusion is complete and correct. In the event of a breach, APST is entitled to immediately block the customer’s user account.

4. Term and termination of the contract

4.1 The contractual relationship is concluded for an indefinite period.

4.2 Either party may terminate the contract at any time with four weeks‘ notice to the end of a month. Termination must be declared in writing or in text form. Irrespective of termination of the contract, ongoing care orders may be concluded using the APVP software, subject to a different declaration by the patient in the event of termination or revocation at any time in accordance with Section 2.4.

4.3 Both parties are entitled to extraordinary termination for good cause, in particular in the event of a material breach of contract in which the continuation of the contract becomes unreasonable for one of the parties.

4.4 The customer undertakes not to post any illegal content on the APVP or to make it accessible to third parties, for example, through forums, chat rooms, email, or spam. Violations of the contractual usage restrictions entitle APST to take appropriate remedial measures, up to and including blocking the user account. In this case, the customer will be informed immediately of the type, duration, reason, and scope of the blocking.

5. Customer responsibility, safety recommendation

5.1 The customer is obligated to protect their access data (user name, password) carefully and as if it were valuables, from unauthorized access by third parties. The customer is expressly recommended to use antivirus, antispyware, and firewall software, as well as current browser versions. If the customer uses outdated browser versions, the correct display of the APVP software may be limited. In this case, the customer can obtain information about suitable browsers and their versions from APST.

5.2 The accuracy of the data entered by the customer influences the value of the contractual services. The customer therefore expressly indemnifies APST against any claims for compensation from third parties who have relied on the accuracy of the data and information.

6. Costs of using APST services and software

6.1 The use of the services described in the service description and the use of the APVP software is free of charge for patients and medical partners.

6.2 The use of the services described in the service description and the use of the APVP software by suppliers is subject to a fee.

6.3 The amount of the fees for services provided (service fee) and the use of the APVP software (license for use) can be found in the service descriptions referred to in 2.1.

7. Customer’s obligations

7.1 To ensure the full provision of APST services and the collection of necessary patient- and care-related data for the purposes of care management and health services research, customers are obligated – subject to a patient confidentiality and data protection agreement – ​​to comply with guidelines and implementing regulations that are previously agreed upon with the providers and provided by APST. Upon request, APST offers customers free telephone or in-person training on the guidelines for care coordination (case management) and document and data management.

7.2 To ensure the quality of the services provided and the data collection on the APVP platform, APST may conduct spot checks to ensure compliance with the implementing provisions listed under 7.1. This includes APST contacting patients to verify the completeness and accuracy of data collection by the care partners. In the event of incomplete or incorrect data collection, APST will offer the customer consultation to ensure correct data collection by the customer.

8. Data security, consent to data processing, protection of patient data

8.1 APST is subject to the data protection regulations of the Federal Republic of Germany. Based on these regulations, APST is obligated to protect the data of the customer and other parties involved.

8.2 APST takes all organizational and technical precautions required by current standards to comply with data protection requirements, in particular to protect patient data against unauthorized access by third parties. The transmission of stored data via the World Wide Web (www) from the server to the customer’s computer and vice versa is carried out using the SSL encryption standard. The data is stored in encrypted form.

8.3 The customer expressly consents to the collection, processing and use of his data by APST, the patients, the medical partners and the care partners within the scope of the contractually agreed purposes and in accordance with a separate data protection declaration.

8.4 The customer is obligated not to use patient data in a manner that conflicts with the contractually agreed purposes. A breach of these obligations constitutes grounds for extraordinary termination by APST (Section 4.3). APST’s further claims remain unaffected.

9. Liability

9.1 In the event of intent or gross negligence, the contracting parties shall be liable without limitation for all damages caused by the contracting parties, their legal representatives and/or vicarious agents.

9.2 In the event of slight negligence, the contracting parties shall be liable without limitation for injuries to life, body or health caused by the contracting parties and their legal representatives and/or vicarious agents.

9.3 Liability under the Product Liability Act remains unaffected.

10. Rights of use

10.1 APST grants the Customer a simple (non-sublicensable and non-transferable) right of use for the APVP software for the use of the APVP Internet portal and the associated data, limited to the term of the contract.

10.2 The customer is only authorized to use the APVP internet portal in accordance with the contractual provisions. The software is not transferred to the customer.

10.3 The customer is not entitled to make the contractual service available to third parties for use. The customer is therefore expressly prohibited from subletting the APVP internet portal subject to this contract.

11. Evaluation of the provider’s services

11.1 The APST provides patients and their relatives with evaluation software for rating providers on the APVP. The evaluation is conducted using established scores without a textual comment function. The evaluation results are published in aggregate form and without naming the patients on the APVP homepage or subpages. The provider hereby consents to this in accordance with the following regulations.

11.2 The APST ensures that patients can only rate care they have actually received. Each patient can rate a care partner a maximum of once per care session.

11.3 Reviews must be objective and must not contain any infringing content. APST is not liable for the accuracy, quality, or completeness of reviews. APST will remove inappropriate or infringing reviews upon reasonable notification from the affected supplier.

12. Severability Clause

Should any provision of this contract be or become invalid or void, this shall not affect the validity of all other provisions. The invalid or void provision shall be replaced by a valid one that comes as close as legally possible to the purpose pursued by the invalid or void provision. This also applies to any gaps in the contract.

13. Miscellaneous

13.1 Unless otherwise provided in these Terms and Conditions, all amendments or additions to the contract must be made in writing. This also applies to any waiver of the written form requirement.

13.2 The laws of the Federal Republic of Germany apply. If the customer is a merchant, a legal entity under public law, or a special fund under public law, the registered office of APST shall be the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contractual relationship.