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“Personal Information” is information about an identifiable person. This may include factual information including, for example, name, age, Social Insurance Number, income, credit records and medical records or subjective information such as opinions and evaluations (including as contained in an employment file). Information such as your business address, phone number and title is not Personal Information, nor is any information that is open or available to the public.

Doctors Manitoba collects, uses, retains and may disclose Personal Information about its members, as well as some Personal Information about their family. The specific information included may vary depending on the applicable benefit, product or service being sought.

In addition, Doctors Manitoba staff, including legal counsel, may obtain information from you and other sources with respect to contractual and billing disputes, negotiations and arbitrations.

The vast majority of Personal Information provided to Doctors Manitoba comes directly from members when they complete or renew their Doctors Manitoba Membership Application Form, or when they complete an application for one or more of the Doctors Manitoba benefit programs, or apply for insurance sponsored by Doctors Manitoba.

In addition, Doctors Manitoba collects Personal Information directly from the Province of Manitoba (Department of Health, Department of Justice, etc.), departments within the Government of Canada, the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Medical Protective Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, the Workers Compensation Board, Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation, the University of Manitoba, the Regional Health Authorities and other government agencies.

Doctors Manitoba will collect, use, retain and may disclose Personal Information about members in order to achieve the following purposes:

• To determine membership status in the Doctors Manitoba/​CMA and maintain personal and professional contact information in Doctors Manitoba and CMA databases.
• To determine eligibility for, and communicate with members (by mail, email, fax or phone) about, compensation and Doctors Manitoba or CMA benefit programs, products and services including the Professional Liability Insurance Fund (CMPA Rebate Program), Physician Retention Fund, Continuing Medical Education Fund, Maternity/​Parental Benefits Program, New Car Program, insurance and other affinity programs.
• To develop and market Doctors Manitoba or CMA benefit programs, products and services tailored to the interests of physicians, residents/​interns, medical students and other eligible purchasers (e.g. family members).
• To represent individual physician’s interest, financial, contractual and otherwise, through advocacy, negotiation and arbitration.
• To represent the professional interests, financial, contractual and otherwise, of physicians through advocacy, negotiation and arbitration.
• To communicate with physicians (via mail, email, fax or phone) about advocacy, negotiations and arbitration.

Doctors Manitoba may also collect Personal Information about a physician’s family for insurance purposes or about other individuals who are eligible to participate in Doctors Manitoba programs.

Doctors Manitoba does not sell Personal Information. Doctors Manitoba only discloses Personal Information to an outside organization for the specific, applicable purpose as approved by the member.

For physicians who join the CMA, Doctors Manitoba shares contact and demographic information in accordance with the CMA’s ​“Corporate Privacy Policy“.

Doctors Manitoba and other provincial/​territorial medical associations may share information for the purposes of representing the interests of physicians through advocacy, negotiations and/​or arbitration.

Personal Information is shared only amongst staff at Doctors Manitoba on a strictly need-to-know basis. For instance, information that you might have submitted with respect to an application for insurance coverage or a claim will not be known within Doctors Manitoba except to our insurance representatives and/​or those staff members within the insurance department who are required to know this information.

Doctors Manitoba does not provide Personal Information to another party unless the member has consented and that outside party agrees to maintain the confidentiality of the information and to use the information only for the intended purpose.

The reason Doctors Manitoba may obtain your Personal Information is to serve you better and provide you with, in some instances, substantial financial benefit.

You are not required to provide any Personal Information to Doctors Manitoba but failing to do so may mean that you are ineligible for substantial membership or negotiated benefits.

You may, at any time, subject to restrictions required by law, withdraw your consent to the further collection, use, retention or disclosure of your Personal Information by Doctors Manitoba for some or all of the purposes identified. In order to do so, please contact: Privacy Officer, 20 Desjardins Drive, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3X 0E8.

Please note, however, that your objection to the collection, use, retention or disclosure of some or all Personal Information may mean that Doctors Manitoba is unable to continue to provide you with some products, services or benefits to which you may otherwise be entitled.

Doctors Manitoba makes every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy and currency of your Personal Information. Your personal information is subject to change so please advise us of such changes so that we can better meet your needs.

You are entitled to view your Personal Information collected and retained by Doctors Manitoba. To do so, please write to: Privacy Officer, 20 Desjardins Drive, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3X 0E8. Within a reasonable time frame, the Privacy Officer will advise you in writing whether it has any of your Personal Information unless doing so would breach the privacy rights of another or the release of such information is legally prohibited.

You may challenge the accuracy and completeness of the Personal Information and Doctors Manitoba may amend it accordingly.

Doctors Manitoba makes every reasonable effort to protect Personal Information by implementing security safeguards against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.

For instance, only a limited number of staff have access to sensitive information related to an insurance application or claim. Few staff can actually change the database information for updating purposes. Moreover, all staff, Board members and outside consultants/​contractors are required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement.

Doctors Manitoba also uses physical, organizational and technological measures as methods of protection. Information is kept in secured paper files and/​or a computerized database. Staff have access only to those segments of the documents or database that pertain to their specific tasks.

Doctors Manitoba only keeps Personal Information as long as it is needed to fulfill the purposes identified above. When the Personal Information is no longer required to fulfill the identified purposes, it will be safely and securely destroyed. Moreover, Doctors Manitoba will retain Personal Information that is the subject of an access-to-information request for as long as is necessary to allow an individual to exhaust any legal remedy that is provided for in applicable federal or provincial privacy legislation.

You may address any questions or concerns relating to the Doctors Manitoba Privacy Policy or privacy practices to the Privacy Officer, 20 Desjardins Drive, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3X 0E8.

You may also contact the federal Privacy Commissioner.

Adopted December 3, 2003 by Doctors Manitoba Board of Directors

Updated September 15, 2010 by Doctors Manitoba Board of Directors

Updated January 15, 2014 by Doctors Manitoba Board of Directors