NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES

Notice of Privacy Practices

In compliance with HIPAA-The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1990. This notice describes how your health information may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information.

I.  Uses and Disclosures

The Agency will not disclose your health information without your authorization, except as described in this notice.

Plan of Care/Treatment:  We may use and disclose health information about you for your treatment.  For example, doctors, nurses, technicians, or other personnel, including people outside our office, who are involved in your care may need the information to provide you with health care. We may disclose health information about you to other health care professionals, places and entities that may be involved in your medical care after you leave our Agency.

Payment:  We may use and disclose health information about you to obtain payment from your health plan, you or a third party, for the treatment and services rendered. The Agency may also need to obtain prior approval from your insurer before any services can be rendered.

Healthcare Operations:  We may use and disclose health information about you to support our health care operations.  For example, we may use health information to review our treatment and services and evaluate the performance of our staff in caring for you.  Regulatory and accrediting organizations may review your clinical record to ensure compliance with their requirements.

Appointment Reminders:  We may use you health information to contact you to remind you of scheduled appointments.

Health Related Products, Treatment or Service:  We may use and disclose your health information to tell you about health related products or services or treatment that may be of interest to you.

Notification:  We may release health information about you to a family member, friend, or any other person involved in your health care.  We may also give information to those you identify as responsible for payment of your care.

Disaster Relief Efforts: We may disclose health Information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that others can be notified about your condition, status and location.

Research:  We may use and disclose health information about you for research purposes.  All research projects are subject to s special approval process through and appropriate committee.

Required by Law: We disclose health information when required by law such as in response to a request from law enforcement in specific circumstances or in response to valid judicial or administrative orders (i.e. a court order, subpoena, warrant, investigation of a crime, or if you are involved in a lawsuit or dispute). We may release health information about you to coroners, medical examiners, funeral directors, U.S. Military and/or U.S. Department of State, organ and tissue donation agencies, and/or worker’s compensation programs

Public Health: We may disclose health information about you to public health agencies, or other authorized entities, as permitted by state law, to prevent or control diseases, injury, or disability, to report abuse or neglect, to notify you of product recalls, to maintain registries of certain information, such as immunization registries, for purposes of conducting public health surveillance, public health investigations, or public health interventions.

Business Associates:  There are some services provided through contracts that we have with business associates.  A company who bills insurance companies on our behalf is also our business associate, and we may provide your medical information to such a company so the company can help us obtain payment for the health services we provide.  To protect your medical information we require our business associates to appropriately safeguard your information through a written agreement.

Health Oversight:  We may disclose your health information to health oversight agencies for the purposes of legally authorized health oversight activities, such as audits and investigations necessary for oversight of the health care system and government benefit programs.

II. Individual Rights

You have the following rights regarding health information we maintain about you:

• To request in writing a restriction on certain uses or disclosures of your medical information for treatment, payment or health care operations. 
• To obtain a paper copy of this notice upon request, even if you agreed to receive this notice electronically, by contacting the Agency.
• To inspect and obtain a copy of your health information, in most cases.  If you request a copy (paper or electronic), we may charge you a reasonable, cost-based fee.
• To request in writing an amendment to your records if you believe the information in your record is incorrect or important information is missing. We could deny your request to amend a record if the information was not created by us, is not maintained by us, or if we determine the record is accurate.  You may appeal this decision by us not to amend your record in writing.  Even if we deny you request for amendment, you have the right to submit a written addendum with respect to any item or statement in your record you believe is incomplete or incorrect.
• To be notified of a breach of any of your unsecured Protected Health Information.
• To obtain an accounting of disclosures stating who and where your health information has been disclosed for purposes other than treatment, payment, health care operations or where you specifically authorized a use or disclosure in the past six (6) years.  The request must be in writing and state the time period desired for the accounting.  After the first request, there may be a charge for additional requests made within a twelve (12) month period.