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HIPAA NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act (HIPAA)
This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
OUR RESPONSIBILITIES We are required by applicable federal and state law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information. “Protected health information” (PHI) is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and that relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services. We are also required to give you this notice about our privacy practices, our legal duties, and your rights concerning your PHI. We must follow the privacy practices that are described in this notice while it is in effect. This notice takes effect April 14, 2003 and will remain in effect until we replace it. We reserve the right to change our privacy practices and the terms of this notice at any time, provided such changes are permitted by applicable law. We reserve the right to make the changes in our privacy practices and the new terms of our notice effective for all PHI that we maintain, including PHI we created or received before we made the changes. Before we make a significant change in our privacy practices, we will change this notice and make the new notice available upon request. Provision of Notice: The Notice will be available in the doctor’s office for review.
USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION We reasonably ensure that the (PHI) we request, use, and disclose for any purpose is the minimum amount of PHI necessary for that purpose. We treat all qualified individuals as personal representatives of our patients. We generally allow individuals to act as personal representatives of patients. The two general exceptions to allowing individuals to act as personal representatives relate to unemancipated minors and abuse, neglect, or endangerment situations. We make all reasonable efforts to ensure that PHI is only used by and disclosed to individuals that have a right to the PHI. Toward that end, we make reasonable efforts to verify the identity of those using or receiving protected health information. We use and disclose PHI about you for treatment, payment, and health care operations. Following are examples of the types of uses and disclosures that we are permitted to make. Treatment: We may use or disclose your PHI to a physician or other health care providers providing treatment to you. Treatment includes those activities related to providing services to you including releasing information to other health care providers involved in your care. Payment: We may use and disclose your PHI to a health plan, health care provider, or other entity subject to the federal Privacy Rules for payment purposes. Payment relates to all activities associated with getting reimbursed for services provided, including submission of claims to insurance companies and any additional information requested by the insurance company so they can determine if they should pay the claim. Health Care Operations: We may use and disclose your PHI in connection with our Health Care Operations. Health Care Operations includes a number of areas, including quality assurance and peer review. These activities may include providing customer services, responding to complaints and appeals from members, providing case management and care coordination. Personal Representatives: We will disclose your PHI to your personal representatives when the personal representative has been properly designated by you. Emergency contacts and personal caregivers are considered personal representatives. Health and Practice Related Services: We may use your PHI to contact you with information about benefits, services or treatments being offered that may be of interest to you. Such information may be provided to you through mailings (letters, invitations, brochures, etc.) On Your Authorization: You may give us written authorization to use your PHI or to disclose it to another person and for the purpose you designate. If you give us an authorization, you may withdraw it in writing at any time. Your withdrawal will not affect any use or disclosures permitted by your authorization; we cannot use or disclose your PHI for any reason except those described in this notice. USES AND DISCLOSURES – NOT REQUIRING AUTHORIZATION Disclosures to Those Individuals Involved in Individual’s Care: We will disclose PHI to those involved in your care when you approve or, when you are not present or not able to approve, when such disclosure is deemed appropriate in the professional judgment of the practice. When you are not present, we will determine whether the disclosure of your PHI, is authorized by law and if so, disclose only the information directly relevant to the person’s involvement with your health |