Terms of service

On this page

1. Agreeing to these terms
2. Not for emergencies
3. How Arcus works
4. Who can use Arcus
5. Consent to telehealth
6. Your visits
7. Prescriptions
8. Lab tests
9. Insurance, costs and payment
10. Texts, emails and calls
11. Your account
12. Using Arcus responsibly
13. Health information on our website
14. Our content and yours
15. Other companies
16. Disclaimers
17. Limits on liability
18. If you break these terms
19. Disputes and arbitration
20. Closing your account
21. Changes to these terms
22. General terms
23. Contact us

Agreeing to these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Arcus (“Arcus,” “we” or “us”). By creating an account, starting a visit or using arcus.healthcare, you agree to these terms, to our Privacy policy and to the consent to telehealth below. If you don’t agree, please don’t use Arcus.

Please read Disputes and arbitration carefully. Unless you opt out, you and Arcus agree to resolve disputes through binding individual arbitration instead of in court, and you give up the right to a jury trial or a class action.

Not for emergencies

Arcus is for everyday, non-urgent care. If you think you’re having a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. If you’re thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Visits happen by text and replies aren’t instant, so don’t use Arcus for anything that can’t wait.

How Arcus works

Arcus is a technology and care coordination company. We don’t practice medicine. Clinical care is provided by independent, affiliated professional medical groups (the “medical groups”) and their licensed clinicians, who use their own professional judgment. Lab tests are performed by independent certified laboratories, and prescriptions are filled by the pharmacy you choose. Each of them is responsible for its own services.

Who can use Arcus

• You’re 18 or older.
• You’re in a state where Arcus offers care at the time of your visit.
• You give accurate, current and complete information about yourself and your health, and keep it up to date.
• You use Arcus for your own care, unless you’re someone’s legally authorized representative.

Consent to telehealth

Telehealth means getting care from a clinician who isn’t in the same place as you. With Arcus that’s mostly by text and photos, and by phone or video when your clinician needs it. By starting a visit, you agree to receive care this way and you understand that:

• Your clinician can’t examine you in person, so they rely on what you tell them. Sharing everything relevant, honestly, matters.
• Your clinician may decide your concern can’t be treated safely by text and ask you to be seen in person, at urgent care or in an emergency room.
• Technology can fail. Messages can be delayed, and despite reasonable safeguards, information can be lost or seen by someone it wasn’t meant for.
• You can stop receiving care by telehealth at any time without affecting your right to future care.

Your visits

• A visit starts with a few short questions. Then a licensed clinician continues the conversation by text.
• Response times vary and aren’t guaranteed.
• Your clinician decides whether to diagnose, treat, order tests or prescribe. Starting a visit doesn’t guarantee any of these.
• Follow your clinician’s instructions, and tell them if your symptoms change or get worse.

Prescriptions

• Clinicians prescribe common, non-controlled medications when they decide it’s appropriate. Arcus doesn’t prescribe controlled substances.
• Prescriptions go to the pharmacy you choose. The pharmacy fills them and is responsible for dispensing and for its prices.
• Refills need a clinician’s review and may need a new visit or lab test.
• Take medications only as prescribed, read the information that comes with them, and tell your clinician or pharmacist about side effects.
• Prescriptions are for you only. Don’t share or sell them.

Lab tests

• Your clinician orders lab tests when they’re appropriate. Independent certified laboratories perform them.
• You’re responsible for going to your lab appointment and following its instructions, like fasting.
• Your clinician reviews your results and adds a note to your record.
• If a result needs urgent attention, we’ll try to reach you with the contact details you gave us, so keep them current.

Insurance, costs and payment

• Before your visit we check your eligibility and show you what we expect you to owe. Your plan makes the final coverage decision, and if it decides differently, what you owe can change.
• We file prior authorization requests when they’re needed, but approval is up to your plan.
• You authorize Arcus and the medical groups to bill your insurance plan for your care and to receive its payments directly.
• You’re responsible for copays, coinsurance, deductibles, anything your plan doesn’t cover, and any service you choose to pay for yourself.
• You authorize us to charge your payment method on file for amounts you owe. If a payment fails, we may pause services until it’s sorted out.
• If you’re uninsured or not using insurance, you have the right to a good faith estimate of expected charges under the No Surprises Act.
• If you think you were charged by mistake, contact us and we’ll review it.

Texts, emails and calls

By giving us your phone number, you agree to receive texts and calls from Arcus and the medical groups about your care and your account, including automated messages. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out of texts, or HELP for help. Because visits happen by text, opting out may limit what you can do on Arcus.

We send marketing messages only with your separate consent, and agreeing to them is never a condition of care. Mobile carriers aren’t liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

Your account

• Keep your login details and your phone secure, and don’t share them. You’re responsible for activity in your account.
• Tell us right away if you think someone else has used your account.
• We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms, put others at risk, or when the law requires it.

Using Arcus responsibly

You agree not to:

• Give false information or pretend to be someone else.
• Get care or prescriptions for someone else.
• Harass, threaten or abuse clinicians or staff.
• Misuse, share or resell medications prescribed through Arcus.
• Interfere with Arcus, try to access it without permission, or copy, scrape or reverse engineer it.
• Use Arcus for anything unlawful.

Health information on our website

Information on our website, including the BMI calculator, is for general education only. It isn’t medical advice, and it doesn’t create a relationship between you and a clinician. Talk to a clinician about your own health.

Our content and yours

Arcus owns the website, software, design and content, and they’re protected by law. We give you a limited, personal, non-transferable right to use them for your own care. You keep ownership of what you send us, and you let us use it to provide our services, as described in our Privacy policy. If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them without owing you anything.

Other companies

Arcus connects you with labs, pharmacies, insurance plans and other companies we don’t control. Their own terms and policies govern their services, and we aren’t responsible for them.

Disclaimers

Except where the law says otherwise, Arcus’s website and technology are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We don’t promise that Arcus will be uninterrupted or error-free. Nothing in these terms limits the professional duties your clinicians owe you.

Limits on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Arcus isn’t liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits or data, arising from your use of Arcus. Arcus’s total liability for any claim relating to these terms or our services is limited to the greater of what you paid Arcus in the 12 months before the claim, or $100. Some states don’t allow these limits, so they may not apply to you, and they don’t apply to liability that can’t be limited by law.

If you break these terms

You agree to cover Arcus’s reasonable losses and costs, including legal fees, from claims caused by your breaking these terms or the law, or by false information you gave us.

Disputes and arbitration

Most problems can be solved quickly. Before starting a formal claim, email legal@arcus.healthcare and give us 60 days to try to resolve it.

If we can’t, you and Arcus agree to resolve any dispute relating to these terms or our services through final, binding arbitration on an individual basis instead of in court. Either of us may still bring an individual claim in small claims court. You and Arcus each give up the right to a jury trial and to take part in a class action or class arbitration.

The American Arbitration Association will run the arbitration under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, and Arcus will pay the filing and arbitrator fees those rules require. This agreement doesn’t cover medical malpractice claims against your clinicians or the medical groups, which are handled as your state’s law provides.

You can opt out of arbitration within 30 days of first accepting these terms by emailing legal@arcus.healthcare with your name and a statement that you’re opting out. Opting out doesn’t change anything else in these terms.

Closing your account

You can close your account at any time by contacting us, and we can suspend or close it as described above. When an account closes, the medical groups keep your medical records as the law requires, and you can still ask for a copy. Sections that by their nature should continue, including payment, disclaimers, limits on liability and disputes, stay in effect.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We’ll post the new version here with the date at the top, and if a change is significant, we’ll tell you before it takes effect. If you keep using Arcus after that, you accept the new terms. Changes to the arbitration agreement won’t apply to disputes that have already started.

General terms

These terms are governed by federal law and the laws of the state where Arcus is organized, without regard to conflict of law rules, except where your state’s law requires otherwise. If any part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest stays in effect. These terms and our Privacy policy are the whole agreement between you and Arcus about our services. You can’t transfer these terms; we may transfer them as part of a merger, acquisition or sale. If we don’t enforce a term right away, we haven’t given up the right to enforce it later.

Contact us

Questions about these terms: legal@arcus.healthcare. For help with your care or your account, visit Help.