Privacy Policy
Effective November 10, 2026
Did They Pay? is a public-service program operated by Enlightened Life Fellowship (ELF), a nonprofit organization, at didtheypay.org. This website is part of ELF’s own public-service work, not an outside site merely sponsored by ELF. ELF administers the platform, which lets patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals review private insurers, government healthcare programs and claims administrators. Reviews are submitted by visitors and are not independently verified by ELF. This policy describes how information is handled on this site. It does not replace the privacy practices of our hosting and technology providers.
Anonymous does not mean untraceable
Our public review and add-a-payer forms do not require a user account, legal name or email address. Reviews are publicly attributed to an anonymous patient or healthcare professional, based on the submitter’s self-selected role. We do not independently verify that role or the underlying experience. We cannot promise complete technical anonymity: website hosting, security, spam-prevention and analytics systems may process network identifiers and device information.
Information submitted and collected
- Public content: payer names, submitted website links, star ratings, claim-outcome categories, review narratives and the anonymous role label. Public posts may be indexed, quoted, archived or copied by others.
- Technical information: web servers and connected services may process IP addresses, browser or device details, user agents, page views, timestamps, cookies and other technical identifiers. The site uses short-lived, salted hashes derived from IP addresses for submission-rate limiting and temporary duplicate-review fingerprints.
- Reports and requests: if you use our content-reporting form, we process the review or page reference, reason, any explanation and any optional contact email you provide. Raw report submissions are not automatically made public, and the form is private intake. When legally appropriate, requests to change, challenge or remove reviews or listings may be covered, regardless of whether they are lawful or unlawful, in accurately prepared and appropriately redacted public transparency accounts, website articles, blog posts, newsletters or other ELF publications, as described in our Terms of Use. We do not intentionally disclose private follow-up contact information or patient-identifying information in transparency reports.
- Site administration: ordinary WordPress administration creates its own login, activity and security data for authorized administrators.
Private privacy/safety alerts: The separate urgent alert form on Report a Review or Privacy Concern accepts the affected site’s URL and one of four narrow categories: exposed patient or medical information, exposed personal identifying information, impersonation/identity safety risk, or credible threats/safety concerns. It deliberately offers no free-text medical narrative or attachment upload. Reports are stored privately with restricted administrator access and do not automatically change or remove published reviews. A temporary salted identifier may be used to limit repeated abuse, but is not added to the stored alert. This special safety channel is not governed by the ordinary complaint-form publication license and is not a mechanism for routine insurer suppression requests.
Why we process data
We use information to operate the payer directory, publish and organize reviews, calculate public ratings, prevent automated abuse, maintain site security, respond to privacy and legal concerns, and measure basic website performance. The site is not a secure medical-record submission service. Please do not submit patient names, birth dates, policy or claim numbers, medical records or identifying health details, even in a private report.
Technology providers and cookies
Our site runs on WordPress.com and uses GeoDirectory for directory listings, Jetpack for website functions, and Akismet for spam protection. Automattic and relevant service providers may handle technical and submitted data as described in their policies. Cookies and related technologies may be used for essential operation, security and analytics. Learn more in the Automattic visitor privacy notice and Automattic cookie policy.
Publication, retention and removal
Published reviews and listings ordinarily remain available while relevant to the directory and are not automatically deleted on a fixed schedule. Security and service-provider information may follow their own technical retention schedules. By affirmatively accepting the reporting form’s required terms and submitting a complaint, the submitter agrees that the copies of the initial complaint and all later correspondence from that submitter or their authorized representative about the same matter—whether received by form, email, mail, phone, voicemail, text, in person, or another channel—become ELF’s permanent correspondence records and property upon receipt. ELF may retain those copies, any lawful notes or recordings, related attachments, evidence of consent, and associated information indefinitely, potentially permanently, for accountability, public transparency, historical documentation, legal compliance, security, or dispute resolution, subject to applicable law and appropriate data minimization. There is no general 90-day deletion promise for complaint correspondence, subsequent related communications, or retained ELF correspondence records. Temporary operational logs or redundant technical copies may be deleted on different schedules without changing ELF’s retention policy for maintained records or any enforceable publication license. Raw complaint submissions are received privately and are not automatically displayed publicly. ELF may publish selected and appropriately reviewed transparency accounts indefinitely, potentially permanently, with necessary redactions or warranted corrections or removal. We do not intentionally publish patient-identifying information or private follow-up contact details. Recordings, confidential information, and legally privileged material remain subject to applicable protections. Deleting content from the site does not guarantee removal from external indexes, archives, or backups. We may restrict or remove material where required for privacy, legal duties, or the integrity of the platform.
Special handling for limited privacy/safety alerts: The separately submitted privacy alert contains only the affected page URL and the selected risk category; no name, email, medical narrative, medical-document upload, or publication-license agreement is requested. These alerts are privately stored for review and are not automatically published, used as material for the suppression-transparency archive, or treated as ordinary insurer removal demands. Temporary salted connection fingerprints may be used for spam or rate limiting without being retained as a persistent reviewer identity in the alert record. Alerts are held only as needed for appropriate review, security, and applicable legal responsibilities; there is no promise of real-time monitoring or automatic deletion on a specific date. Administrator notifications include an alert identifier and restricted administrative link rather than patient details. Legitimate privacy rights and legal obligations remain unaffected by ordinary complaint terms.
Your privacy requests
For ordinary correction, challenge, restriction, or removal requests about reviews, ratings, payer listings, or site reporting, use the designated complaint form and affirmatively accept its correspondence-rights terms. A narrow, separate privacy/safety alert form on that same page allows anyone to flag exposed patient information, identifying personal details, impersonation, or credible threats without agreeing to the ordinary complaint publication license. It does not provide an alternate method for insurers to demand removal of negative reviews or initiate ordinary complaints. Legally effective notices and statutory privacy rights are not conditioned on either form. See Legal Notices & Formal Process. Do not enter medical records or other identifiers. Applicable privacy rights and technical retention obligations vary by jurisdiction, and the site cannot verify the author of every anonymous review.
Changes
We may revise this Privacy Policy when website practices or legal requirements change. The effective date above identifies the current version. This page describes our present practices and is not a guarantee that automated systems catch every privacy risk.