Legal
Effective Date: January 1, 2026 | Last Updated: January 1, 2026
These Terms of Service govern your use of this website and the PalliMate platform. They are separate from, and narrower than, the Essential Service Agreement that governs the clinical relationship between you and PalliMate. If you are a prospective patient, please read both. If you are a visitor here to learn about the practice, this document is the one that applies to you.
By accessing pallimate.com, contacting PalliMate through the website, creating a patient portal account to begin services, or otherwise using PalliMate's platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (the "Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the website or platform.
PalliMate's patient-facing legal documents are:
PalliMate also publishes a Patient Handbook and Welcome Guide as reference documents for patients and prospective patients. These are not binding agreements; they describe how PalliMate services work in practice and do not modify the documents listed above. In any conflict between a reference document and a binding document, the binding document controls.
These Terms address the website and platform only. If you become a patient, you will sign the ESA at that time, and the ESA will govern the clinical aspects of the relationship. If any provision of these Terms conflicts with the ESA for someone who has signed the ESA, the ESA controls.
To accept these Terms, you must be at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter a binding contract in your jurisdiction. By using the website, you represent and warrant that you meet these requirements, that all information you provide is accurate and complete, and that you will promptly update any information that changes.
PalliMate's clinical services have additional eligibility requirements, including Tennessee residency and physical presence in Tennessee at the time services are delivered. Those requirements are addressed in the Essential Service Agreement and do not apply to general use of the website.
Patients access PalliMate services through a third-party HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform. The patient portal account is the only means of accessing protected health information, secure messaging, and video consultations. Creating an account involves agreeing to these Terms as well as the telehealth platform's own terms of service and privacy policy.
You are responsible for the security of any account you create in connection with PalliMate. This includes keeping credentials confidential, never sharing your account with another person, enabling multi-factor authentication on your email account where available, and logging out of shared devices after use.
The telehealth platform uses passwordless sign-in, meaning one-time access links are sent by email. Because your portal can be accessed by anyone with access to your email, securing your email account is equally important as securing the portal itself. If you suspect unauthorized access to your email or portal, contact PalliMate immediately.
PalliMate is not liable for harm resulting from theft or misuse of your account credentials, disclosure of login information to others, unauthorized access resulting from your failure to maintain reasonable security practices, or any activity occurring under your account due to compromised credentials.
PalliMate provides consultative palliative medicine guidance via telehealth to patients and families navigating serious illness. The scope of services, the specific service tiers offered, fees, billing, cancellation terms, telehealth consent, clinical limitations, Tennessee residency requirements, Primary Caregiver provisions, and all other terms governing the physician-patient relationship are set forth in the Essential Service Agreement, which patients review and sign before clinical services begin.
These Terms govern the website and platform. They do not govern clinical services, and they do not create a physician-patient relationship between Dr. Meadows and any visitor or user of the website. Clinical services are governed exclusively by the ESA and, for Medicare beneficiaries, by the separate Medicare Private Contract required by federal law.
The PalliMate website is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection and is made available for informational purposes to any visitor. PalliMate's clinical services, however, are offered only to patients who reside in Tennessee and who are physically present in Tennessee at the time services are delivered. Nothing on the website constitutes an offer of clinical services to residents of any other jurisdiction, and the availability of website content outside Tennessee does not create any entitlement to clinical services.
You agree not to use the website or platform in any manner that:
Violation of any of the above may result in termination of your access to the website and platform, referral to law enforcement where appropriate, and legal action to recover damages.
The PalliMate website includes a HIPAA-secure contact form for prospective patients and others to inquire about the practice. The website also lists an email address and phone number for general inquiries.
Submitting the contact form, sending an email, leaving a voicemail, or otherwise reaching out through the website does not establish a physician-patient relationship with Dr. Meadows, create a duty to provide clinical care, obligate Dr. Meadows to accept you as a patient, or obligate Dr. Meadows to respond within any particular timeframe.
PalliMate reviews submissions and determines, at PalliMate's sole discretion, whether to offer services to the person submitting. A physician-patient relationship is established only pursuant to the Essential Service Agreement, which the patient reviews and signs, together with the separate federally required Medicare Private Contract for Medicare beneficiaries, before clinical services begin.
The contact form on the PalliMate website is HIPAA-secure. Information submitted through the contact form, including protected health information, is transmitted securely and is covered by PalliMate's Business Associate Agreement with its telehealth platform.
General email to care@pallimate.com and voicemail to PalliMate's phone line are not HIPAA-secure channels. Please do not include detailed medical history, diagnoses, medications, or other protected health information in email or voicemail. For any communication involving clinical information before becoming a patient, use the contact form on the website.
Once you are an established patient, all clinical communication takes place through the patient portal's secure messaging and video, not through email or voicemail.
The PalliMate name, logo, website content, blog posts, educational materials, forms, and all other content created by PalliMate or Dr. Meadows (collectively, "PalliMate Content") are owned by PalliMate, PLLC, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other applicable intellectual property laws. Consultation summaries, clinical notes, and other patient-specific documents generated by Dr. Meadows remain the intellectual property of PalliMate, though patients have the rights of access and use provided by HIPAA and the Privacy Policy.
You may view and read PalliMate Content for your personal, non-commercial informational use. Any other use, including copying, reproducing, distributing, publishing, modifying, creating derivative works, or using PalliMate Content for commercial purposes, requires PalliMate's prior written permission.
PalliMate Content may not be used, in whole or in part, to train, fine-tune, evaluate, benchmark, augment, or otherwise develop any artificial intelligence or machine learning model, large language model, image generation system, or similar automated system, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without PalliMate's prior express written permission. This prohibition applies regardless of the method used to access the content, including manual copying, automated crawling, scraping, and use of third-party datasets that incorporate PalliMate Content. PalliMate reserves all rights under 17 U.S.C. §1202 and other applicable law to enforce this restriction.
"PalliMate" and the PalliMate logo are trademarks of PalliMate, PLLC. You may not use these marks without prior written permission, and you may not remove, alter, or obscure any copyright notice or proprietary marking on PalliMate Content.
Information you submit through the website contact form, along with any feedback or testimonials you provide, may be used by PalliMate in accordance with these Terms and the Privacy Policy. Patient health information submitted through the telehealth platform remains subject to HIPAA and the Notice of Privacy Practices. You grant PalliMate a limited license to use information you submit for the purpose of responding to inquiries or providing services.
If you provide feedback, testimonials, or suggestions about PalliMate or Dr. Meadows, you grant PalliMate a royalty-free, perpetual license to use that feedback for the purpose of improving services and for general marketing. PalliMate will not use your full name publicly without your explicit written permission. You may withdraw permission for future use of your feedback by contacting PalliMate; prior uses are not affected.
PalliMate delivers clinical services through SimplePractice, a third-party HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform. By using PalliMate's services, you also agree to SimplePractice's terms of service and privacy policy, which are available on the SimplePractice website. PalliMate does not own, operate, or control SimplePractice and is not responsible for SimplePractice's operations, outages, security incidents, or policy changes beyond PalliMate's reasonable control. PalliMate maintains a Business Associate Agreement with SimplePractice as required by HIPAA.
Payments are processed through Stripe via the SimplePractice platform. PalliMate is not responsible for fees or errors assessed by Stripe, for third-party payment-processing failures, or for the security of the Stripe platform itself. PalliMate will work in good faith to assist with resolution of legitimate billing issues.
The PalliMate website may link to third-party websites. PalliMate does not control and is not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or operations of any linked site. Visiting a third-party site is at your own risk.
You may link to the PalliMate website, provided the link uses plain text (not the PalliMate logo or any other PalliMate trademark without permission), does not suggest affiliation or endorsement, does not portray PalliMate in a false, misleading, or derogatory manner, and does not appear on a site containing unlawful or objectionable content. PalliMate reserves the right to require removal of any link for any reason without advance notice.
PalliMate may publish blog posts, articles, and other educational content on the website. All such content is provided for general educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not establish a physician-patient relationship, and is not a substitute for consultation with a qualified healthcare provider who knows your individual situation. Nothing written on the PalliMate website should be relied on as a basis for medical decision-making. Medical decisions should be made in consultation with your treating physicians.
PalliMate may add to, modify, update, archive, or remove blog and educational content at any time without notice. Older posts reflect the author's views at the time of publication and may not reflect current thinking, current standards of care, or current law.
PalliMate does not currently accept public comments, guest posts, or other user-generated contributions on the website. If user-generated content becomes available in the future, additional terms will apply, and PalliMate reserves the right to moderate, edit, or remove any submitted content at its sole discretion.
PalliMate respects intellectual property rights. If you believe that material on the PalliMate website infringes a copyright you own or are authorized to represent, you may send a written notice to PalliMate containing the elements required by 17 U.S.C. §512(c)(3):
Notices should be addressed to:
PalliMate, PLLC
Attn: DMCA Notice
Dr. James Meadows, MD
1050 Glenbrook Way, Suite 480-182
Hendersonville, TN 37075
care@pallimate.com
PalliMate will respond to notices that substantially comply with the requirements above. Knowingly making a material misrepresentation in a DMCA notice may subject the sender to liability for damages under 17 U.S.C. §512(f).
If material you posted was removed in response to a DMCA notice and you believe the removal was in error, you may submit a counter-notification containing the elements required by 17 U.S.C. §512(g)(3), including your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which you reside (or, if outside the United States, the Northern District of California) and your acceptance of service of process from the person who submitted the original notice.
PalliMate may terminate access for users who are determined to be repeat infringers of copyright.
PalliMate is committed to making its website accessible to people with disabilities and works toward conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. If you encounter a portion of the website that is not accessible to you, or if you need alternative means to access information or complete a task, please contact PalliMate at care@pallimate.com or 615-533-5655. PalliMate will work in good faith to provide the information or service through an accessible alternative.
How PalliMate handles your information is governed by the Notice of Privacy Practices (for protected health information under HIPAA) and the Privacy Policy (for other information collected through the website), both of which are available on the website and are incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you have questions about privacy, please review those documents or contact PalliMate directly.
All content on the PalliMate website, including blog posts and other written material, is provided for general educational and informational purposes. It is not medical advice, does not create a physician-patient relationship, and should not be relied on as professional advice. You should consult your treating physicians for guidance specific to your situation.
Any testimonials appearing on the website reflect the individual experiences of the persons providing them. Results experienced by one person are not a promise or prediction of results for others. No testimonial is offered as a guarantee of any specific outcome.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE PALLIMATE WEBSITE AND PLATFORM ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR AVAILABILITY. PALLIMATE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, SECURE, OR FREE FROM VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL CODE, NOR THAT ANY ERRORS WILL BE CORRECTED, NOR THAT THE RESULTS OBTAINED FROM USE OF THE WEBSITE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE.
PalliMate does not guarantee uninterrupted access to the website or the telehealth platform. Internet outages, device malfunctions, telehealth platform issues, power outages, and other technical problems beyond PalliMate's reasonable control may occur.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY TENNESSEE LAW:
This section governs liability arising from use of the PalliMate website and platform. For patients who have signed the Essential Service Agreement, the ESA's limitation of liability and indemnification provisions govern the clinical relationship; this section does not replace or weaken those provisions.
PalliMate, PLLC and Dr. James Meadows shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages arising out of or related to use of the website or platform, including lost profits, lost data, lost opportunities, loss of goodwill, emotional distress, or business interruption, even if PalliMate has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
In no event shall the total cumulative liability of PalliMate, PLLC and Dr. James Meadows arising out of or related to use of the website or platform exceed the greater of (a) one hundred dollars ($100), or (b) the total amount paid by you to PalliMate in the six (6) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
PalliMate is not liable for:
Nothing in these Terms limits any right that cannot be limited under applicable Tennessee or federal law, including the right of a patient to bring a legitimate medical malpractice claim against Dr. Meadows for substandard clinical care.
You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless PalliMate, PLLC, Dr. James Meadows, and their respective officers, employees, agents, contractors, and representatives from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees, arising out of or related to:
This indemnification is in addition to, and not in place of, any indemnification obligations set forth in the Essential Service Agreement.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Tennessee, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
If a dispute arises out of or related to these Terms, the party raising the dispute shall first notify the other party in writing, describing the issue. Both parties agree to make good-faith efforts to resolve the dispute through direct communication. If the dispute is not resolved within 30 days after written notice, either party may proceed to mediation.
Before either party initiates any lawsuit or legal proceeding arising out of or related to these Terms, both parties agree to attempt mediation with a neutral mediator in Tennessee. Mediation costs shall be split equally unless otherwise agreed. Each party pays its own attorney's fees for mediation. Statements made and materials prepared for the purpose of mediation are confidential and not admissible in any subsequent proceeding, to the extent permitted by law. If the dispute is not resolved within 60 days after the first mediation session, either party may proceed to litigation.
If mediation does not resolve the dispute, any lawsuit or legal proceeding arising out of or related to these Terms shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in the county where PalliMate's principal place of business is located. You consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts. The prevailing party in any such proceeding may recover reasonable attorney's fees and costs, at the court's discretion.
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, BOTH PARTIES WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY IN ANY ACTION ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS.
Any dispute between you and PalliMate must be resolved on an individual basis only. You may not bring a claim as a plaintiff or class member in any class action, consolidated action, or representative action against PalliMate or Dr. Meadows.
The mediation requirement above does not apply to (a) emergency requests for injunctive or equitable relief, (b) collection actions for debts under $5,000, or (c) actions in which the statute of limitations would otherwise expire during the mediation process.
Nothing in these Terms creates any partnership, joint venture, employment, agency, or franchise relationship between you and PalliMate.
PalliMate may update these Terms from time to time. When material changes are made, PalliMate will post the revised Terms on the website with a new "Effective Date" and, for active patients, provide notice through the telehealth platform's secure messaging and email. Material changes take effect 30 days after posting unless otherwise stated. Continued use of the website after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.
PalliMate may assign these Terms, in whole or in part, to a successor entity in connection with a sale, merger, reorganization, or practice succession. You may not assign these Terms without PalliMate's prior written consent.
PalliMate's failure to enforce any provision of these Terms shall not be construed as a waiver of that or any other provision, and PalliMate may enforce the provision at any future time.
If any provision of these Terms is found invalid or unenforceable, it shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, or severed if modification is not possible. The remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.
The following provisions survive termination of your use of the website or platform for any reason: Intellectual Property (Section 8), Disclaimers and No Warranties (Section 15), Limitation of Liability (Section 16), Indemnification (Section 17), Dispute Resolution (Section 18), and any other provision that by its nature is intended to survive termination.
Neither party shall be liable for failure or delay in performing its obligations under these Terms due to causes beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, government actions, public health emergencies, power outages, internet infrastructure failures, cyberattacks, third-party platform failures, or Dr. Meadows' own serious illness or incapacitation. Performance obligations are suspended for the duration of the force majeure event.
You consent to receive communications, notices, and agreements from PalliMate electronically, and you agree that electronic signatures and records have the same legal effect as paper signatures and records, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
Notices from PalliMate under these Terms may be delivered through the telehealth platform's secure messaging (for active patients), email to the address associated with your account or most recent inquiry, postings on the website, or U.S. mail. Notices to PalliMate must be sent to care@pallimate.com or to 1050 Glenbrook Way, Suite 480-182, Hendersonville, TN 37075.
These Terms, together with the Notice of Privacy Practices and Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and PalliMate regarding use of the website and platform, and supersede any prior understandings or agreements on that subject. For patients who have also signed the Essential Service Agreement, the ESA, Notice of Privacy Practices, and Privacy Policy, together with these Terms, constitute the complete framework of binding agreements. The Patient Handbook and Welcome Guide are non-binding reference documents. The ESA controls in any conflict concerning the clinical relationship.
PalliMate, PLLC
Dr. James Meadows, MD
1050 Glenbrook Way, Suite 480-182
Hendersonville, TN 37075
Email: care@pallimate.com
Phone: 615-533-5655
Website: pallimate.com
If concerns cannot be resolved directly with Dr. Meadows, complaints may be filed with:
By using the PalliMate website or platform, you acknowledge that you have read and understood these Terms of Service, that you agree to be bound by them, that you meet the eligibility requirements in Section 2, and that you have had the opportunity to review the Privacy Policy and Notice of Privacy Practices. If you are or become a patient, you further acknowledge that the Essential Service Agreement governs the clinical relationship and controls in any conflict with these Terms concerning clinical matters.
