Consent and Data License Agreement for Veterinary Bill Submission

Version 2026-08-05

The Aesculapius Foundation (TAF) — Veterinary Cost Transparency / Diagnostic Validation Project

By submitting veterinary bill(s) and associated information through this form or upload portal, you consent to the retention and processing described below and agree to these terms.

1. Who May Submit

You confirm that you are 18 years of age or older and that you are the pet owner, guardian, or otherwise authorized to submit the bill and grant the permissions described in this Agreement, including when submitting on behalf of a veterinary practice.

2. Information Collected and Retained

The Foundation may collect and retain your name, contact information, consent evidence, original veterinary invoice images, invoice metadata, information contained in those invoices, optical-character-recognition results, and information generated during automated validation, review, and analysis.

The form may also ask optional questions about insurance coverage, claim outcomes, policy design, premium costs, payment or financing methods, financial assistance, financial hardship, and whether cost affected treatment decisions. You may skip any of these optional questions. The Foundation does not request an insurance policy number or claim identification number through this form.

Your contact information and original invoice images are retained indefinitely under the Foundation’s current retention policy. They are stored in restricted systems and are not automatically deleted after submission or after research data is created. Original invoices may themselves contain personal, animal, veterinary-practice, and other identifying information.

3. Grant of License

You grant The Aesculapius Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN: 20-0530212), a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to store, reproduce, process, analyze, and use the submitted materials and information for educational, research, operational, and charitable purposes consistent with the Foundation’s mission. This includes evaluating veterinary diagnostic tools and pricing patterns; studying how insurance, payment options, and financial pressure affect access to veterinary care; creating research datasets and searchable repositories; preparing reports, educational resources, publications, and presentations; and aggregating information with other submissions.

The license is perpetual and irrevocable for information that has already been separated from contact records, approved for research use, de-identified where required by this Agreement, aggregated, published, or incorporated into a research dataset or other output.

4. Data Processing, Review, and De-identification

Contact information, original documents, raw extraction results, and research data are maintained in access-controlled areas appropriate to their use. Software may extract and map invoice fields such as dates, totals, practice information, service descriptions, quantities, and prices. Mapped fields that pass documented automated validation checks may be added to the research dataset without individual human approval. Records that trigger validation exceptions are withheld for review, and a periodic sample of otherwise accepted records receives human quality review. The Foundation may correct, restrict, or remove research records when review identifies an error or inappropriate disclosure.

Raw optical-character-recognition responses and original invoice images remain in restricted systems and are not copied wholesale into the research dataset. Automated promotion is limited to mapped fields approved for the research schema.

Personal contact information is not included in approved research or public outputs. Information approved for research or public use will be de-identified as appropriate for the approved use. De-identification applies to approved research and public outputs; it does not mean that identifying information is immediately removed from the original invoice or from restricted operational records.

Veterinary-practice information may be present in original invoices, restricted records, and research data. The Foundation does not promise that practice information will always be removed from internal research records. Any public presentation of practice-level information will be subject to Foundation review, applicable policy, and applicable law.

5. Retention Policy

Under the current policy, contact records and original invoice images are retained indefinitely in restricted systems. The Foundation currently has no automatic deletion schedule for these records. The Foundation may review and revise its retention policy prospectively, subject to applicable law and documented governance.

6. Withdrawal, Correction, and Deletion Requests

You may contact the Foundation to request that it stop using your submission for future research or to request access, correction, or deletion where applicable. The Foundation may provide a secure update link for correcting optional insurance or affordability answers. Requests will be evaluated under applicable law, the Foundation’s policies, technical feasibility, and the status of the data.

Submission does not create a promise that original invoices or contact records will be deleted on request or within a fixed period. Information that has already been de-identified, aggregated, published, or incorporated into a research dataset or other output may not be identifiable or removable. Nothing in this Agreement waives rights that cannot legally be waived.

7. Data Security and Access

Contact information, original documents, raw extraction results, and other restricted data are stored in access-controlled systems available only to authorized personnel and service providers with an operational need. Research access does not include contact records unless that access is specifically authorized for an operational need. The Foundation does not sell personal data.

Anyone given access to non-public data must be authorized and subject to appropriate review and controls. Only approved, de-identified information may be used in public research reports or public summaries.

8. Voluntary Participation and No Compensation

Participation is voluntary. You may submit a veterinary bill without answering the optional insurance, payment, affordability, hardship, or treatment-impact questions. You will receive no compensation for submitting information or for the Foundation’s permitted use of it. Aggregate contributions may be acknowledged without identifying an individual submitter.

9. Program Discontinuation

If the Project or Foundation discontinues operations, previously published or de-identified outputs may remain available. Restricted records will be handled under applicable law and an approved transition, archival, transfer, or disposition plan. No automatic deletion upon discontinuation is promised by this Agreement.

10. Governing Law

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, except where applicable law requires otherwise.

11. Questions and Requests

Contact: contact@aesculapiusfoundation.org.