1. What VHN and your Clinicians do

VHN Membership is a healthcare membership for Veterans in 2 parts:

• Clinical Baseline. A defined program with a clear end. It includes clinical intake (your history in your own words, symptoms, service and exposure history, and medicines) and gathering your records. Depending on the option you choose, it then includes a physical baseline visit and a results and care plan visit, a mental health baseline, or both, each with a Clinician. It ends with a handoff of your baseline to you and, with your consent, to your VA care team. The outputs of the Clinical Baseline are listed in your MSA.
• Care Advocacy. Ongoing support from your Care Advocate, described in section 9. Care Advocacy is included with the options that include a physical Clinical Baseline. With a Mental Health only Clinical Baseline, it is an optional add-on: a 12-month commitment, either prepaid at $500 with the Clinical Baseline or at $49 a month for 12 months, then month to month.

The Clinical Baseline does not include specialist care, ongoing prescribing, testing beyond a complete blood count (CBC) and comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP), or any promise about a VA decision.

Your Clinicians examine you, decide every diagnosis and opinion on their own findings, and are responsible for the care they provide. Every diagnosis, finding, recommendation, and clinical document produced during your care is the independent professional act of the licensed Clinician who examined you. VHN's care team coordinates that care: scheduling, gathering and organizing your records, communication between you, your Clinicians and your other doctors, and Care Advocacy. VHN's care team also prepares your medication reconciliation and clinical summary alongside your Clinician, and your Clinician confirms their clinical content. Nobody at VHN tells a Clinician what to find, and VHN does not direct any Clinician's clinical judgment. VHN does not practice medicine.

Our independent clinicians, physical and mental health, write an independent medical opinion whenever their own findings support one, whether or not you ever file a claim. Knowing whether a condition may be connected to your service is part of Veteran-centric care. Every member receives the same Clinical Baseline and the same outputs whether or not they ever file a claim.

VHN is not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VHN is not a law firm or a Veterans Service Organization. Membership fees pay for healthcare coordination and advocacy, never for help with a VA claim, and never change with a VA decision. VHN does not prepare, file, present or prosecute VA claims, or provide VA claims strategy. Anything claims-related is deferred to whoever the Veteran works with on their claim.

The medical record produced through your care belongs to you. What you do with it, and what the VA decides, is outside VHN's role and outside VHN's control.

2. The clinician relationship

In this document, a Clinician is an independently licensed health professional, such as a physician, nurse practitioner, psychologist or psychiatrist, acting within the scope of their license. Clinicians are independent practitioners, not VHN employees or agents. VHN pays each Clinician a flat fee per visit. That fee does not change with what the Clinician finds, diagnoses or documents, and it is the same when the Clinician finds no clinical support for a condition. Each Clinician:

• Holds their own active license in good standing and their own professional liability (malpractice) coverage;
• Exercises independent clinical judgment in every diagnosis, finding, and recommendation, uninfluenced and undirected by VHN;
• Is solely responsible for the clinical decisions made in your care.

VHN's role is to coordinate scheduling, records, and communication between you, your Clinician, and your Care Advocate. VHN does not tell a Clinician what to find, what to diagnose, or what to write, and never asks a Clinician to record a measurement not taken or to sign anything the Clinician does not stand behind. If a Clinician's judgment does not support a diagnosis, a functional limitation, a connection to your military service, or a specific document (including an independent medical opinion), that Clinician does not produce it, for you or for anyone else. That independence is what makes the record credible, and it is not negotiable, including at your request.

3. Consent to evaluation and care

By enrolling in VHN Membership, acknowledging the Consent to Care, and proceeding with a scheduled encounter, you give your Clinician permission to evaluate and care for you. You may withdraw this consent at any time by telling your Care Advocate or by no longer seeking care through the Platform. Withdrawing consent does not end your payment obligations under the MSA and does not entitle you to a refund except as described in your MSA.

Clinical intake is conducted by a trained member of VHN's clinical intake team. Intake gathers information for your Clinician; it is not a diagnosis or a medical opinion. Each condition you raise is explored with the same follow-up questions about severity, functional impact and limitations, frequency, and effect on daily life.

Depending on the option you choose, the Clinical Baseline evaluation may include an extended history, a full physical examination with findings measured in person (when the visit is in person) and CBC and CMP laboratory work; a mental health evaluation by a psychologist or psychiatrist, with standardized measures and a clinical interview, including a deeper look at whether any existing condition is getting worse; or both. Your Clinician orders the CBC and CMP through the laboratory the Clinician uses (in-house, Labcorp, Quest or another laboratory), and VHN pays for them. Your Clinician may recommend additional testing that is clinically indicated. Testing beyond CBC and CMP is not included in the Clinical Baseline, and you decide whether to pursue it. You may decline the mental health evaluation, laboratory work, or any specific component in advance without affecting your eligibility for the remainder of your membership benefits. See your MSA, and ask your Care Advocate, how declining a component affects the outputs of your Clinical Baseline.

Your Clinician may request your medication history from pharmacies or health plans to screen for drug interactions and treat you safely. By proceeding with evaluation, you authorize this request.

Encounter modality. VHN arranges in-person visits at the practice of a Clinician in VHN's independent network. Travel to and from an in-person visit is at your own expense. Your physical baseline visit is in person, unless your preference or the distance to a Clinician makes that impractical. Mental health visits are by telehealth only. Follow-up physical visits, including pay-per-visit network visits, may be in person or by telehealth, based on your Clinician's recommendation and your preference. In-person encounters can produce direct physical measurements (range of motion, strength testing, and similar findings) that telehealth cannot. Telehealth encounters can produce diagnosis, clinical reasoning, and documentation of continuity of care, but cannot produce a hands-on physical measurement, and no test or measurement that was not performed is recorded. Your Care Advocate will confirm the format with you before any appointment is scheduled, and will explain what that format will and will not produce for your specific conditions. That conversation is a disclosure, not a recommendation. Within the limits above, the choice of format is yours.

Telehealth-specific consent. If any portion of your care is delivered by telehealth, you additionally acknowledge: the encounter occurs over a secure video or audio connection; telehealth carries the limitations described above compared to an in-person exam; your condition may turn out to need in-person care or, in a true emergency, immediate emergency care, and your Clinician will tell you if that applies; and you must be physically located, at the time of the encounter, in a state where your Clinician is licensed, and you agree not to use any technology or technique to obscure or misrepresent your location. Where a state requires telehealth disclosures beyond what is in this section, those are provided as a separate addendum at the time of your appointment.

4. No guarantee of diagnosis, findings, or outcome

Your Clinician's evaluation is independent and cannot be predicted or promised in advance, by VHN or by anyone else. Specifically:

• VHN does not guarantee that any particular condition will be diagnosed.
• VHN does not guarantee that any specific document, including an independent medical opinion or documentation of a connection between a current condition and your military service, will be produced. Whether any such document is produced is the Clinician's independent clinical decision, made only where the Clinician's own findings support it.
• VHN does not guarantee, estimate, or imply any VA rating, decision, or benefit outcome, and no VHN team member, Clinician, or Platform communication should be understood as making such a promise. Any statement to the contrary does not bind VHN.

The Clinical Baseline Guarantee described in your MSA is a refund of the baseline portion of your membership under the conditions stated there. It is not a promise of any diagnosis, opinion, rating or VA outcome.

5. Your responsibilities

Your Clinician's ability to produce a complete, credible clinical record depends on the information and cooperation you provide. You agree to:

• Give complete and accurate information about your health history, symptoms, and military service history to the best of your ability;
• Attend scheduled appointments, or give reasonable notice if you cannot;
• Provide access to prior medical records you have available;
• Tell your Clinician promptly if a symptom, condition, or circumstance changes.

Incomplete information affects the completeness of your record. This is true of any medical evaluation, from any clinician, and is not unique to VHN.

6. Refusal of recommended care

If your Clinician recommends follow-up testing, a specialist referral, additional treatment, or any other clinical step, and you decide not to pursue it, you have the right to do so. You also acknowledge and agree to the following:

6.1 Effect on your record. Declining a recommended test, referral, or treatment may leave your clinical picture incomplete for that condition. A record with a documented but unpursued recommendation is not the same as a record where the recommended step was completed. Neither your Clinician nor VHN is responsible for gaps in diagnosis, documentation, or downstream decisions (including VA decisions) that result from a recommendation you chose not to follow.

6.2 No liability for the consequences of your decision. Where you have been informed of a Clinician's recommendation and have declined to follow it, your Clinician and VHN are released from liability for any adverse health outcome, diagnostic limitation, or documentation gap that results directly from that decision, to the fullest extent permitted by law. This release applies to the consequences of your informed decision to decline recommended care. It does not waive, and is not intended to waive, any claim arising from a Clinician's own negligence in the care actually delivered to you.

6.3 How refusal is documented. Your Clinician may ask you to sign a separate, specific acknowledgment at the time you decline a particular recommendation (an "Informed Refusal Acknowledgment"), describing what was recommended and confirming you understood the recommendation and the effect of declining it. This point-of-care acknowledgment, where obtained, applies in addition to, and not instead of, this section.

6.4 You may change your mind. Declining a recommendation is not final. You may return to your Clinician or request the recommended step at a later date, subject to your membership's included services. A step not included in your membership may be available as a pay-per-visit network visit under section 10 or through your other care.

7. Not for emergencies

VHN and its Clinicians do not provide emergency care. If you are experiencing a medical emergency or a mental health crisis, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.

Veterans Crisis Line. Dial 988, then press 1. Text 838255. Chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net.

8. Your medical record

You own your record. The clinical record produced through your care belongs to you, and VHN delivers it to you. With your consent, VHN sends your Clinical Baseline to your VA care team. VHN shares your record with anyone else, including a family member, a VA-accredited representative or a Veterans Service Organization, only at your direction and with your written authorization, which you may revoke at any time. VHN never submits anything to the VA for a claim. VHN keeps your information in secure third-party platforms, such as Hint, used to store and protect it. Your authorization for how your health information is used and disclosed is governed separately by VHN's Privacy Policy, the Notice of HIPAA Privacy Practices provided to you at enrollment, and any release you sign.

Your record may be useful to you for many purposes. Your Clinician evaluates you to understand your health, and your Clinician's findings are not shaped by any later use of the record.

9. Care Advocacy and your Care Advocate

Where your membership includes Care Advocacy, or you add it, Care Advocacy continues for as long as it remains active. If you have a Mental Health only Clinical Baseline, you may add Care Advocacy as a 12-month commitment, either prepaid at $500 with the Clinical Baseline or at $49 a month for 12 months, then month to month. Your MSA sets out the full add-on terms. Your Care Advocate checks in with you at least monthly, by phone, text, video or secure message, and provides the Care Advocacy services listed in your MSA.

Your Care Advocate does not diagnose, prescribe or give medical advice. Your Care Advocate does no claims work, is never present at or preparing you for a VA claim exam, and never uses your logins to any account. Your Care Advocate is not a claims representative, not a clinician, and not a legal advisor.

VHN may offer an optional courtesy introduction to a VA-accredited representative, with no payment in either direction, no records shared without your written authorization, and nothing in VHN's process depending on it.

10. Pay-per-visit network visits

Every member, including members with a Mental Health only Clinical Baseline and whether or not they have Care Advocacy, may book network visits. Network visits are physical health visits with a licensed Clinician in VHN's network, on a pay-per-visit (fee-for-service) basis. VHN does not offer mental health visits on a pay-per-visit basis. Network visits may be in person or by telehealth.

• Each network visit is $150. VHN bills it when you request the visit. VHN bills network visits at cost: you pay $150, the full $150 goes to the Clinician, and VHN keeps no part of it. VHN only manages the billing.
• There is no fee if you cancel or miss a network visit.
• You receive a standard receipt. VHN does not bill insurance.
• Network visits are separate from the Clinical Baseline and Care Advocacy, are not included in your membership fee, and are not covered by the Clinical Baseline Guarantee.

Sections 2 through 8 of this document apply to network visits in the same way they apply to the Clinical Baseline.

11. Fees

Membership fees are fixed and are set out in full in your MSA. They are never a percentage of any VA award and are never contingent on any VA decision or outcome. This document does not alter your MSA's fee, renewal, cancellation or Clinical Baseline Guarantee terms; see your MSA for those terms in full.

12. Electronic communications

By using the Platform, you agree that VHN and your Clinician may contact you about your care, your appointments, and your membership by email, text message, phone, or secure message, including through automated systems. VHN sends marketing texts only with your prior express written consent, as described in the Terms of Service. You can opt out of non-essential communications, such as appointment reminders sent by text, by any reasonable means, including replying STOP or another opt-out word, replying in your own words, or telling your Care Advocate. VHN honors an opt-out as soon as practicable and no later than 10 business days after receiving it. If VHN offers a member account or portal, you may also manage these preferences there. You cannot opt out of communications VHN is required to send you, such as changes to these terms or notices about your medical record.

13. Right to discontinue care

A Clinician may decline to continue treating you, and VHN may suspend or end your access to the Platform, where you provide false or misleading information in connection with your care, engage in abusive or threatening conduct toward a Clinician or VHN staff, or engage in conduct VHN reasonably believes is intended to produce a fraudulent medical record. Where a Clinician discontinues care, VHN will help you find a replacement Clinician where reasonably possible, consistent with your MSA.

14. Disclaimers

EXCEPT WHERE A LOSS IS CAUSED BY A CLINICIAN'S OWN NEGLIGENCE OR WILLFUL MISCONDUCT, AND TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VHN AND ITS CLINICIANS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LOSS, INJURY, OR DAMAGE, INCLUDING PERSONAL INJURY OR DEATH, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE PLATFORM OR THE MEDICAL SERVICES COORDINATED THROUGH IT.

15. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, VHN WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST INCOME OR LOST BENEFITS OF ANY KIND, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE PLATFORM OR THE MEDICAL SERVICES COORDINATED THROUGH IT, EVEN IF VHN HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES, SO PART OF THIS LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

16. Dispute resolution and governing law

Disputes between you and VHN arising out of or relating to this document are resolved under the dispute resolution, arbitration, class action waiver and governing law provisions of your MSA.

17. Termination and survival

Your access to Care Advocacy, pay-per-visit network visits and Clinicians ends when your membership ends, whether by cancellation, by a refund under the Clinical Baseline Guarantee, or by termination under your MSA. Ending your membership does not undo evaluations already completed: your medical record remains yours, and VHN will retain copies of your health records for the period required by applicable law, even after your membership ends. The provisions of this document concerning clinician independence, no guarantee of outcome, refusal of care, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution survive the end of your membership and continue to apply to care already provided.

18. General provisions

This document, together with your MSA, the Consent to Care, VHN's Privacy Policy and the Notice of HIPAA Privacy Practices provided to you at enrollment, makes up the entire agreement between you and VHN about the clinical relationship described here, and replaces any earlier agreement on the same subject. You may not transfer your rights or obligations under this document to anyone else. VHN may assign this document in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. If any provision of this document is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Questions about this document can be directed to legal@myvhn.org or Veteran Health Network LLC, 6417 W County Rd. 250, Danville, IN 46122.

19. Changes to these terms

VHN may publish new versions of this document. Each version applies to members who enroll on or after its effective date. If you enrolled earlier, the version in effect when you enrolled continues to apply to you, unless you agree to a new version or the law requires a change. The date at the top reflects the most recent version.

20. Your acceptance of these terms

You accept these terms by enrolling in VHN Membership and by proceeding with any scheduled evaluation. Where a Clinician asks you to sign a separate acknowledgment at the point of care, such as the Informed Refusal Acknowledgment described in section 6.3, that acknowledgment applies to the specific event it covers and does not replace your acceptance of this document as a whole.