Different personnel in our office may share information about
you for insurance coverage options and disclose information to
people who do not work in our office in order to coordinate your
care, such as phoning in prescriptions to your pharmacy,
scheduling lab work and ordering x-rays. Family members and
other health care providers may be part of your medical care
outside this office and may require information about you that we
have.
For Payment
We may use and disclose health information
about you so that the treatment and services you receive at this
office may be billed to and payment may be collected from you,
an insurance company or a third party. For example, we may
need to give your health plan information about a service you
received here so your health plan will pay us or reimburse you
for the service. We may also tell your health plan about a
treatment you are going to receive to obtain prior approval, or to
determine whether your plan will cover the treatment.
For Health Care Operations We may use and disclose health
information about you in order to run the office and make sure
that you and our other patients receive quality care. For
example, we may use your health information to evaluate the
performance of our staff in caring for you. We may also use
health information about all or many of our patients to help us
decide what additional services we should offer, how we can
become more efficient, or whether certain new treatments are
effective.
Business Associate
We may use or disclose your health
information to a business associate that performs a business
function on our behalf and requires your health information in
order to do so. Such use or disclosure will only occur after
performing due diligence to ensure that the business associate
is meeting all statutory and contractual requirements. A written
contract will be executed with each business associate, and will
be reviewed on a yearly basis, to ensure that the business
associate is providing adequate protected health information
safeguards.
Appointment Reminders
We may contact you as a reminder
that you have an appointment for treatment or medical care at
the office.
Treatment Alternatives
We may tell you about or recommend
possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest
to you.
Health-Related Products and Services We may tell you about
health-related products or services that may be of interest to
you.
Please notify us if you do not wish to be contacted for
appointment reminders, or if you do not wish to receive notices
about treatment alternatives or health-related services. If you
advise us in writing (at the address listed on this Notice) that you
do not wish to receive such communications, we will not use or
disclose your information for these purposes.
Your revocation will be effective when we receive it, but it will not
apply to any uses and disclosures which occurred before that
time. If you do revoke your Consent, we will not be permitted to
use or disclose information for purposes of treatment, payment or
health care operations, and we may therefore choose to
discontinue providing you with health care treatment and services.
SPECIAL SITUATIONS
We may use or disclose health
information about you without your permission for the
following purposes, subject to all applicable legal
requirements and limitations:
To Avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety
We may use and
disclose health Information about you when necessary to prevent
a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety
of the public or another person.
Required By Law
We will disclose health information about you
when required to do so by federal, state or local law.
Research We may use and disclose health information about you
for research projects that are subject to a special approval
process. We will ask you for your permission if the researcher will
have access to your name, address or other information that
reveals who you are.
Organ and Tissue Donation If you are an organ donor, we may
release health information to organizations that handle organ
procurement or organ, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ
donation bank, as necessary to
facilitate
such
donation and
transplantation.
Military. Veterans. National Security and Intelligence If you are
or were a member of the armed forces, or part of the national
security or intelligence communities, we may be required by
military command or other government authorities to release
health information about you. We may also release information
about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military
authority.
Workers' Compensation
We may release health information
about you for workers' compensation or similar programs. These
programs provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness
Law Enforcement
We may release health information if asked to
do so by a law enforcement official in response to a court order,
subpoena, warrant, summons or similar process, subject to all
applicable legal requirements.
Public Health Risks
We may disclose health information about
you for public health reasons in order to prevent or control
disease, injury or disability; or report births, deaths, suspected
abuse or neglect, non-accidental physical injuries, reactions to
medications or problems with products.
Health Oversight Activities
We may disclose health information
to a health oversight agency for audits, investigations,
inspections, or licensing purposes. These disclosures may be
necessary for certain state and federal agencies to monitor the
health care system, government programs, and compliance with
civil rights laws.
Lawsuits and Disputes
If you are involved in a lawsuit
or a
dispute, we may disclose health information about you in
response to a court or administrative order. Subject to all
applicable legal requirements, we may also disclose health
information about you in response to a subpoena.
Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors We may
release health information to a coroner or medical examiner. This
may be necessary, for example, to identify a deceased person or
determine the cause of death.
Information Not Personally Identifiable We may use or
disclose health information about you in a way that does not
personally identify you or reveal who you are.
Family and Friends
We may disclose health Information about
you to your family members or friends if we obtain your verbal
agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to
such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection. We may also
disclose health information to your family or friends if we can infer
from the circumstances, based on our professional judgment that
you would not object.
For example, we may assume you agree to our disclosure of your
personal health information to your spouse when you bring your
spouse with you into the exam room during treatment or while
treatment is discussed.
In situations where you are not capable of giving consent
(because you are not present or due to your incapacity or medical
emergency), we may, using our professional judgment, determine
that a disclosure to your family member or friend is in your best
interest. In that situation, we will disclose only health information
relevant to the person's involvement in your care.
We may also use our professional judgment and experience to
make reasonable inferences that it is in your best interest to allow
another person to act on your behalf to pick up, for example, filled
prescriptions, medical supplies, or X-rays.
OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES OF
HEALTH INFORMATION
We will not use or disclose your health information for any
purpose other than those identified in the previous sections
without your specific, written Authorization. We must obtain
your Authorization separate from any Consent may have
obtained from you. If you give us Authorization to use or
disclose health information about you, you may revoke that
Authorization, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your
Authorization, we will no longer use or disclose information
about you for the reasons covered by your written
Authorization, but we cannot take back any uses or disclosures
already made with your permission.
We will not use your name and location in any facility directory,
as no facility directory exists.
If we have HIV or substance abuse information about you, we
cannot release that information without a special signed, written
authorization (different than the Authorization and Consent
mentioned above) from you. In order to disclose these types of
records for purposes of treatment, payment or health care
operations, we will have to have both your signed Consent and
a special written Authorization that complies with the law
governing HIV or substance abuse records.
YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING
HEALTH INFORMATION ABOUT YOU
Federal law provides you several important rights regarding
your health information. You have the following rights regarding
health information we maintain about you:
Right to Inspect and Copy
You have the right to inspect and
obtain a copy your health information, such as medical and
billing records, in the format you request, that we use to make
decisions about your care. You must submit a written request to
the Privacy Officer in order to inspect and/or copy your health
information. If you request a copy of the information, we may
charge a fee for the costs of copying, mailing or other
associated supplies. We may deny your request to inspect
and/or copy in certain limited circumstances. If you are denied
access to your health information, you may ask that the denial
be reviewed. If such a review is required by law, we will select a
licensed health care professional to review your request and
our denial. The person conducting the review will not be the
person who denied your request, and we will comply with the
outcome of the review.