Privacy Policy & Data Safeguards
At Denial Journal, protecting your digital privacy is fundamental. This policy details how we collect, process, and safeguard user information across our healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) educational platform.
1. Overview & Scope
This Privacy Policy governs the collection, use, and maintenance of user data by Denial Journal ("we," "our," or "us") operating at denialjournal.com and its staging environments. By accessing our articles, code directories, claim appeal templates, or RCM guides, you agree to the information practices described in this statement.
Denial Journal is an educational publication for medical coders and billing professionals. We DO NOT collect, request, process, or store Protected Health Information (PHI) or Personally Identifiable Information (PII) belonging to patients.
Please do NOT submit medical charts, patient names, Social Security numbers, or active insurance claim records through our contact forms, comments, or email channels. Any inadvertently received PHI is immediately purged in accordance with HIPAA data handling principles.
2. Information We Collect
We collect limited information to optimize site performance, ensure technical security, and respond to user inquiries:
A. Information Provided Voluntarily
- Contact Inquiries: When you email our editorial team (editor@denialjournal.com) or submit a guest contribution pitch, we collect your name, email address, and message content.
- Newsletter Subscriptions: If you sign up for CMS compliance alerts, we store your work email address to deliver periodic updates.
B. Automated Data Collection & Analytics
- Log Files: Like standard web servers, our system logs internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser types, internet service providers (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamps, and click patterns.
- Cookies & Web Beacons: Small data files stored on your device that enable user preference recognition and anonymized traffic analysis.
3. How Information Is Used
We process collected data exclusively for legitimate operational and compliance purposes:
- Platform Optimization: Improving the user experience, search functionality, and client-side filtering speed across our ICD-10, CPT, and NCCI directories.
- Editorial Response: Responding to user feedback, correction requests, or guest article proposals.
- Security Audit: Protecting our web infrastructure against automated spam, unauthorized access, and malicious DDOS attempts.
4. Third-Party Services & Links
To provide authoritative regulatory context, Denial Journal links to official government and healthcare agency registries, including:
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS.gov)
- CDC National Center for Health Statistics (CDC.gov)
- American Medical Association (AMA-assn.org)
- Gravatar Profile System (e.g., editorial profile verification at https://gravatar.com/laimwill)
Please note that we do not exercise administrative control over third-party websites. Review their respective privacy policies when leaving our portal.
5. Cookies & Advertising Preferences
You can manage or disable cookie tracking directly within your web browser settings. Disabling essential cookies may slightly alter your site experience when saving temporary search parameters across our coding directories.
6. Data Protection Rights & Inquiries
Under applicable privacy frameworks (including GDPR and CCPA), you reserve the right to:
- Request access to or deletion of any personal data voluntarily provided to us (e.g., removing your email from newsletter subscription lists).
- Request correction of any inaccurate information.