Privacy Notice
THIS PRIVACY NOTICE IS BEING PROVIDED TO YOU AS A REQUIREMENT BY FEDERAL LAW, THE HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT (HIPAA). IT IS EFFECTIVE APRIL 14, 2003.
THIS PRIVACY NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE YOUR PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION TO CARRY OUT TREATMENT, PAYMENT, OR HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES THAT ARE PERMITTED OR REQUIRED BY LAW.
It also describes your right to access and control your protected health information. Your “protected health information” means any written or oral information about you, including demographic data that can be used to identify you, created or received by your health care provider, which relates to your past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition.
How Your Protected Health Information Can Be Used:
Disclosures of your protected health information for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice may be made in writing, orally, or by electronic means.
How Your Protected Health Information Can Be Used Without Your Authorization Or Your Opportunity To Object:
How Your Protected Health Information Can Be Used Without Your Authorization, But With An Opportunity For You To Object:
We may use your protected health information to maintain a directory of patients in our facility. The information included in the directory will be limited to your name, your location in our facility, and your condition described in general terms.
We may disclose your protected health information to a friend or family member who is involved in your medical care or payment for care. In addition, if applicable, we may disclose medical information about you to an entity assisting in a disaster relief effort so that your family can be notified about your condition, status and location.
You may object to these disclosures. If you do not object to these disclosures, or we determine in the exercise of our professional judgment that it is in your best interest for us to disclose information that is directly relevant to the person’s involvement with your care, we may disclose your protected health information.
How Your Protected Health Information, Which You Authorize, Can be Used:
Other than the uses and disclosures described above, we will not use or disclose your protected health information without your written authorization. Authorizations are for specific uses of your protected health information, and once you give us authorization, any disclosures we make will be limited to those consistent with the terms of the authorization. You may revoke your authorization, by submitting a revocation in writing, at any time, except to the extent that we have already taken action in reliance upon your authorization.
The Following Are Your Rights Regarding Your Protected Health Information:
We are not required to agree to a restriction you may request. We will notify you if we do not agree to your restriction request. If we do agree to the restriction request, we will not use or disclose your protected health information in violation of the agreed upon restriction, unless necessary for the provision of emergency treatment.
We may terminate our agreement to a restriction if you agree to the termination in writing; if you agree to the termination orally and the oral agreement is documented, or if we notify you of termination of the agreement and the termination applies only to protected health information created or received by us after you receive the notice of termination of the restriction.
Request for restrictions must be made in writing to the General Manager.
By law, you do not have a right to access psychotherapy notes; information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or for use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative proceeding; and protected health information which is subject to a law which prohibits access to protected health information.
However, you do have the right to request a review of denial to access this protected health information.
We may deny your request to inspect or copy your protected health information if, in our professional judgment, we determine that the access requested is likely to endanger you or another person, or is likely to cause substantial harm to another person referenced within the protected health information. You do have the right to request a review of denial to access.
If you request a copy of your information, we may charge you a fee for the costs of copying, mailing, or other costs incurred by us as a result of complying with your request.
Requests for access to your protected health information must be made in writing.
You will not be penalized for filing a complaint.
Our Requirements Regarding Your Protected Health Information
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information and to provide you with this Privacy Notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information. We are required to abide by the terms of the Notice currently in effect. We reserve the right to change the terms of this Notice and to make any new provisions effective for all protected health information that we maintain. If we change the Notice, we will provide a copy of the revised notice through in-person contact.
Contact Information
For further information about this Notice, if you have privacy issues, or if you believe that your privacy rights have been violated, please contact:
General Manager
Reagan Medical Center