Privacy Policy

This is the privacy policy for all American Hospital Association websites.


Effective June 22, 2023.


This Privacy Policy describes the practices of the American Hospital Association, its subsidiaries and affiliates (referred to as a group as “AHA”) regarding past and ongoing collection and use of information from visitors to our websites and users of our other Internet services and mobile applications (each an “AHA website”).

Before you use an AHA website, you should review this Privacy Policy and the related Terms of Use. Only submit information and use an AHA website if you accept this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. For California residents, there is a “Privacy Notice for California Residents” attached to this Privacy Policy.

1. Information We Collect and How We Use It

AHA collects information from several sources that enables AHA to identify or contact you (“Personal Information”). An AHA website collects Personal Information in a variety of manners and the types of Personal Information we may collect from you will depend on the products and services you choose.

Our Web server automatically collects the domain name and Internet Protocol (“IP”) address for each visitor to our websites. We collect information about the usage of our websites. In addition, we may request or require you to provide Personal Information and/or create an account in order to access certain services or engage in certain activities on an AHA website. The information collected depends on how you choose to use our services and our websites, as detailed below.

The types of Personal Information we collect includes, but is not limited to:

  • General information (e.g., your name, date of birth, home and business address, email address, phone number, and other types of demographic information)
  • Professional information (e.g., occupation, place of employment, professional history)
  • Financial information (e.g., credit card information, billing information)
  • IP addresses
  • Individual responses to surveys
  • Topical areas of interest
  • Website usage (e.g., search terms, referring/exit pages, time on a website, number of clicks)

AHA also collects information that is about you individually, but that does not directly identify you as you interact with an AHA website (“Non-Personal Information”). The types of Non-Personal Information we collect includes, but is not limited to:

  • Products and services viewed
  • Internet service provider
  • Geolocation data

a. Commonly Accepted Practices

Personal Information collected may be used for commonly accepted practices, including:

  1. Product service fulfillment, such as the use of addresses for shipping and credit card information for payment;
  2. Sending electronic publications to online subscribers;
  3. Administration of our websites and monitoring usage of our websites;
  4. Internal operations, such as the use of identity-verification technologies, and the review of server logs;
  5. Legal compliance and public purposes, such as subpoena compliance and credit reporting;
  6. Registration and participation in AHA products, services, and communities; and
  7. Marketing of products and services to you by AHA, such as the recommendation of products or the delivery of coupons based upon prior purchases.

We use Non-Personal Information to improve the usability of our websites and for other business reasons. We or other third party companies also use the Non-Personal Information to provide advertisements and targeted advertisements to you based on the Non-Personal Information.

b. Information Collected to Create an Account

There are times when AHA may request or require you to create an account with us in order to obtain certain services. In such cases we may collect user name or ID and password information from you. We use this information to verify users’ identities in order to prevent unauthorized access to users’ personal information. AHA allows account holders to elect to have the AHA website remember their login information between visits so they do not have to log in each time. This is done by checking a box labeled “remember me” on the login page. This feature requires the placement of a small text file called a cookie (see next section) on the user’s hard drive. The cookie tells the site that the user has logged in before. As part of registering for some of AHA’s products and affiliates, we may collect contact and demographic information such as your name, address, email address, etc. We may also collect information regarding your personal and professional history, interests, activities, experiences and interests in health care products and services. Certain information may be required in order to complete the registration process.

c. Cookies

Several portions of the AHA websites use cookies. Cookies are small data files that are transferred to your computer through your Web browser. Cookies are used by most websites. We may use cookies, clear gifs, and log file information to: (i) store information so that you will not have to re-enter it during subsequent visits; (ii) provide personalized content on AHA.org and to provide targeted advertising on other sites; (iii) monitor effectiveness of marketing campaigns; (iv) record site analytics such as total number of visitors, pages viewed, etc.; and (v) track your entries, submissions and communications. Certain features of our website require cookies in order to function properly.

Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. Some AHA website features and services may not function properly if you set your browser to refuse cookies. If you view an AHA website without changing your cookie settings, you are indicating your consent to receive all cookies (that are not related to third party advertisers and analytics providers) from the AHA website. For more information on managing cookies operated by third party advertisers and analytics providers, please see Third Party Advertisers and Analytics below.

d. Email Addresses and Mailing Lists

AHA collects and uses the email addresses and mailing addresses of its members (see Section 2. Members’ Information, below) for purposes of providing membership benefits and services to members. In addition, AHA collects email and mailing addresses in connection with registration for and attendance at conferences, webinars and other events, subscriptions for publications, the purchase of products and services, and in other circumstances. We may use your email address or other Personal Information to send commercial or marketing messages to you regarding AHA’s products or services. In addition, we may also use your name, mailing address, e-mail address, or other Personal Information (i) to send commercial or marketing messages on behalf of our affiliated organizations or on behalf of unrelated third parties, and/or (ii) in a mailing list sold to third parties for the marketing of their products and services. For example, we may share contact information you provide when you register for a conference or webinar with conference exhibitors or webinar sponsors so that they may send you commercial messages. You may opt-out of any or all of such disclosures as provided below.

e. Surveys

Our online surveys may ask respondents for contact, demographic and other Personal Information. The ways in which such information may be used or disclosed will be described in the survey materials. We also may use contact information from our surveys to send the user information about products and services of AHA, our affiliated organizations and/or unrelated third parties.

f. Information from Other Sources

The information we collect is gathered from several sources. Such sources may include, but are not limited to: membership enrollment; conference, webinar, distance learning and other event registration; website visits; newsletter and magazine subscriptions; and product sales. We may combine the information you submit when using one of our services with information (i) collected from your use of other AHA services, (ii) collected by AHA affiliated organizations, or (iii) obtained from third parties. The combined information may be used in a similar manner to any other information we collect.

2. Members’ Information

The AHA and its affiliated organizations offer individuals and institutions the opportunity to become members of the AHA and its affiliates. As part of membership enrollment, we may require or ask you for Personal Information and/or organizational information. We will create a member profile for you using such information and other information collected as described in this Privacy Policy. We may share the information in the member profile created with respect to membership in one AHA organization with other AHA affiliated organizations. The information you submit as part of your membership may also be used to compile a member directory or a list of persons registered to attend an event (either hardcopy or electronic). Such directories and lists may be shared with other members within a group, other registrants or third parties for marketing of their products and services.

a. Public Profiles

Some or all of the information AHA collects from you as part of registrations of certain products and affiliates may be maintained in your account profile. This account profile will be visible to third parties accessing an AHA website except as set forth herein. We may make tools available for you in your account settings that will enable you to limit some of the data that will appear to third parties in your account profile.

3. Third Party Advertisers and Analytics

This Privacy Policy applies to AHA websites only. We may allow third party ad servers or ad networks to serve advertisements within AHA’s websites. These third party ad servers or ad networks use technology to send, directly to your browser, the advertisements and links that appear on the website. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. They may use other technologies such as cookies, scripting language or clear gifs to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and to personalize the advertising content you see.


These third parties may view, edit, or set their own cookies. They may also collect non-personal and personal information concerning your online activities over time and across different websites. The information they may collect includes the other sites you have visited or applications that you have downloaded to your mobile device, and other information about you or your device in order to help analyze and serve targeted advertising on the AHA website and elsewhere. For more information about third party ad servers and your ability to opt-out of targeted advertising from such third parties, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative and/or the Digital Advertising Alliance Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising.

We may use a data analytics firm, such as Google Analytics, Ping Identity and Marketo to track and analyze traffic on an AHA website. These companies use cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the AHA website and report on activities and trends. This service may also collect information regarding the use of other websites, apps, and online resources.

You can learn about Google’s privacy practices by reviewing their privacy terms, currently found at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and you can opt out of providing analytics by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

You can learn about Ping Identity privacy practices available at https://www.pingidentity.com/en/legal/privacy.html.


AHA does not provide any Personal Information to these third party ad servers or ad networks without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in or opt-out.

4. “Do Not Track” and Global Privacy Control Signals

Note that your browser settings may allow you to automatically transmit a “Do Not Track” signal to websites and online services you visit. When you choose to turn on the “Do Not Track” settings in your browser, your browser will send a signal to websites, analytics providers, advertisements networks, plug-in providers, and other web service providers you encounter while browsing to stop tracking your activity. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit www.allaboutdnt.com.

Global Privacy Control (“GPC”) is a technical specification in your browser settings that you can use to automatically inform websites of your privacy preferences with regard to third party online tracking. To find out more about and set up GPC, please visit https://globalprivacycontrol.org/#about.

5. Social Media Interactions and Third Party Links

AHA’s websites and publications contain many links to other websites. In addition, AHA and its affiliates may maintain a presence on third party sites such as Facebook® or LinkedIn®. These third party sites may send their own cookies to users, collect data or solicit personal information. AHA is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of these other sites. Please review each site’s privacy policy to learn about how they may collect or use information.

AHA websites may contain functionality that enables you to import profile information or contacts from third party services (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, etc.) (collectively, “Third Party Accounts”). If you choose to do this, you may have to log into the applicable Third Party Account, using such account’s user name and password. The copy of the information received by us shall be subject to this Privacy Policy. However, any data maintained by in Third Party Accounts and by such third party service and your use of that third party service will be subject to that third party’s separate terms of use and privacy policy.

6. Information Sharing

In addition to the information sharing described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, the AHA shares Personal Information with AHA affiliated organizations and other trusted businesses or persons to perform functions on our behalf. These third parties have access to Personal Information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes.


In the unlikely event that AHA or one of its affiliated organizations is acquired, or substantially all of the assets of AHA or one of its affiliated organizations are acquired, by a third party either in a sale, bankruptcy court proceeding or otherwise it is possible that Personal Information of website users and customers would be one of the assets transferred. In such an event, AHA would take reasonable steps to require the third party to maintain our privacy policies and practices.


In addition, AHA may disclose Personal Information to third parties, but only:

  1. to contractors we use to support our business, provided they only use the Personal Information for AHA purposes;
  2. to respond to law enforcement requests, where required by applicable laws, court orders, warrants, subpoenas (whether civil or criminal) or governmental regulations;
  3. in situations involving threats to the physical safety of any person;
  4. in connection with joint ventures with third parties; or
  5. as necessary to enforce our rights in connection with an AHA website.

7. Information Security

AHA implements commercially reasonable security measures to help protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure, or destruction of data. Please understand that no one can give an absolute assurance that information intended to be maintained as private, whether transmitted via the Internet or otherwise, cannot be accessed inappropriately or unlawfully by third parties. It is important for you to protect against unauthorized access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when finished using a computer.

8. Children’s Privacy

The AHA website is not intended for children under eighteen (18) years of age. AHA does not knowingly solicit or collect personal information from or about any such children, and AHA does not knowingly market its products or services to any such children. If AHA becomes aware that it has inadvertently received personal information from a User under the age of eighteen (18), it will delete such personal information from its records.

9. Consent to Transfer

AHA is based in the United States and the information we collect is governed by United States law. By accessing or using an AHA website or providing us with any information, you consent to the transfer, processing and storage of your information in and to the United States and other countries, jurisdictions in which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside and/or are a citizen.

10. Changes to Our Privacy Policy

AHA MAY MODIFY THIS PRIVACY POLICY AT ANY TIME, AND ANY CHANGE WILL BE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY UPON POSTING OF THE MODIFIED PRIVACY POLICY. YOU AGREE TO REVIEW THE PRIVACY POLICY PERIODICALLY TO BE AWARE OF SUCH MODIFICATIONS AND YOUR CONTINUED ACCESS OR USE OF THE SITE SHALL BE DEEMED YOUR CONCLUSIVE ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRIVACY POLICY, AS MODIFIED. THE EFFECTIVE DATE OF THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY WILL BE REFLECTED IN THE DATE LISTED ABOVE.

IF FOR ANY REASON AHA WOULD LIKE TO USE THE INFORMATION YOU HAVE SUBMITTED FOR SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT PURPOSES OTHER THAN THOSE OUTLINED AT THE TIME YOU ORIGINALLY SUBMITTED YOUR INFORMATION, AHA WILL AFFIRMATIVELY REQUEST PERMISSION FROM YOU TO USE SUCH DATA FOR THOSE SUBSTANTIALLY DIFFERENT PURPOSES PRIOR TO USING THE DATA.

11. Accessing and Updating Personal Information

You may request access to your Personal Information, corrections and/or deletions of the same by using the Contact Information set forth below. We will use reasonable, good faith efforts to promptly address your concerns, subject to legal retention obligations and legitimate business needs.

When making a request, individual users are asked to identify themselves and the information requested to be accessed, corrected or removed. Please note that there may be circumstances where we are not required to comply with your requests (e.g., if AHA has an ongoing requirement to retain your Personal Information for our own business or legal compliance purposes). We may decline to process requests that are unreasonably repetitive or systematic, require disproportionate technical effort, jeopardize the privacy of others, would be extremely impractical, or for which access is not otherwise required. Correcting or removing data is done free of charge to the user unless doing so requires a disproportionate effort. After deleting your information from active servers, copies may remain in our backup system.

Nevada provides its residents with a limited right to opt-out of certain Personal Information sales. Residents who wish to exercise this sale opt-out rights may submit a request to the AHA Compliance Officer at the contact information provided below in Section 13. However, please know AHA does not currently sell data triggering that statute’s opt-out requirements.

12. Marketing Emails and Mobile Messages

You may opt out of receiving marketing e-mails by following the opt-out instructions provided to you in those e-mails. Please note that we reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to your account or use of an AHA website or other AHA services, such as administrative and services announcements. These transactional account messages may be unaffected if you choose to opt out from marketing e-mails.

If you sign up to receive SMS or MMS messages from AHA, you may unsubscribe from any SMS or MMS messages received by replying “STOP”.

13. Contact Information and Opt-Out Requests

We welcome your comments, suggestions, and questions about our Privacy Policy and privacy practices. If you feel that AHA is not following this Privacy Policy, please contact us as follows.


Contact Information

By email at [email protected]
By phone at 312-422-3000
By mail at:

  • American Hospital Association
    c/o Compliance Officer
    155 N. Wacker Dr., Suite 400
    Chicago, IL 60606


We also welcome users’ requests not to receive certain forms of communication from AHA and third parties and not to have certain information shared with nonaffiliated third parties. If you prefer that we not disclose your Personal Information to nonaffiliated third parties, you may request us not to make those disclosures (except as required by law) by contacting us as described above. If you elect to opt out of certain disclosures, we may not be able to offer you certain services and products. Please note that Personal Information does not include publicly available information that is lawfully made available to the general public from federal, state or local government records, widely distributed media or disclosures to the general public required by law.

14. LISTSERV® Email Lists and Social Media Sites

AHA may offer opportunities to its members and others to share information and participate in social networking on AHA websites or AHA may participate in social media sites maintained by others. Please consult the privacy policy applicable to the particular website before participating in any social networking or content sharing activity.

15. Terms of Use

If you choose to visit one of AHA’s websites, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, resolution of disputes and application of the law of the State of Illinois.


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