INTRODUCTION:
Peninsula Allergy and Asthma Center (PAAC), is committed to protecting the confidentiality of information about you, and is required by law to do so. This notice describes how we may use information about you, and how we may disclose it to others outside of (PAAC). This notice also describes the rights you have concerning your own health information. Please review it carefully and let us know if you have any questions.
HOW WILL WE USE AND DISCLOSE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU?
Treatment: We may use information about you to provide you with medical services and supplies. We may also disclose information about you to others that need that information to treat you, such as doctors, nurses, technicians, emergency service and medical transportation providers, medical equipment providers, and others involved in your care. We may also use information about you to remind you of an upcoming appointment, to inform you about possible treatment options or alternatives, or to tell you about health-related services available to you.
Payment: We may use and disclose information about you to get paid for the medical services and supplies we provide to you. For example, your health plan or health insurance company may request to see parts of your medical record before they will pay us for services provided to you.
Health Care Operations: We may use information about you to improve the quality of care we provide to patients or to run our business operations. We may use information about you to conduct quality improvement activities, to obtain accounting or legal audit and or services, or to conduct business management and planning.
Family Members and Others Involved in Your Care:
We may disclose information about you to a family member or
friend who is involved in your medical care. If you do not want the facility to
disclose information about you to a family member or others, you must notify
the registration and nursing staff at the facility. In the event of a disaster,
we may disclose information about you to help locate a family member or friend
in a disaster.
Special Uses: We will not use your general demographic information to contact you about fundraising opportunities to support our organization and its operations.
Research: We may use or disclose information about you for research projects, such as studying the effectiveness of a treatment you received. These research projects must go through a special process that protects the confidentiality of your information.Required by Law: Federal, state, or local laws do not require patients to authorize disclosure of information which is required to be reported. For instance, we are required to report suspected abuse and neglect, gunshot wounds, etc. Public policy has determined that these types of needs outweigh a right to privacy. We are also required to give information to the state workers' compensation program for work-related injuries.
Public Health: We also may report certain medical information for public health purposes. For instance, we are required by law to report communicable diseases to the State. We also may need to report patient problems with medications or medical products to the manufacturer and to the FDA, or may notify patients of recalls of products they are using.
Public Safety: We may disclose medical information for public safety purposes in limited circumstances. We may also disclose medical information to assist law enforcement officials in identifying or locating a person, to prosecute a crime of violence, to report deaths that may have resulted from criminal conduct at the facility. We also may disclose information about you to law enforcement officials and others to prevent a serious threat to health or safety.
Military Veterans, National Security and Other Government Purposes:
If you are a member of the armed forces, we may release information about you as required by military command authorities or to the Department of Veterans Affairs. We may also disclose medical information to federal officials for intelligence and national security purposes.
Judicial Proceedings: We may disclose medical information in response to an appropriate subpoena or court order.
Information with Additional Protection: Certain types of medical information may have additional protection under state or federal law. For instance, medical information about communicable disease and HIV/AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse treatment, genetic testing, a court-ordered mental evaluation may be treated differently than other types of medical information. For those types of information we may obtain your authorization to release this information except as required by law.
Non-Enumerated Uses:
Out of Pocket Payments restrictions: Individuals that they have a right to restrict certain disclosures of PHI to a health plan if he individual has paid out-of-pocket in full for the health care item or service.
Breach Notices: If our data system has been breached and your PHI was affected you will be contacted.
WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS?
Right to Request Information About You?
You have the right to look at information about you and to get a copy of that information. This includes your medical record, your billing record, and other records we use to make decisions about your care. To request information about yourself, submit a written authorization to PAAC for medical information or billing records. If you request a copy of your information, we may charge you for our costs to copy the information. We will tell you in advance what this copying will cost. You can look at your record at no cost.
Right to Request to Amend or Supplement Information About You That You Believe Is Incorrect or Incomplete: If you see information about you and believe that some of the information is incorrect or incomplete, you may request that we amend your record by submitting a written request.
Right to Get a List of Certain Disclosures of Information About You: You have the right to request a list of certain disclosures we made of information about you. We will provide the first list to you at no charge, but we may charge you for additional lists. We will tell you in advance what this list will cost.
Right to Request Restrictions on How this Facility Will Use or Disclose Information About You for Treatment, Payment, or Health Care Operations: You have the right to request of us not to use or disclose information about you to treat you, to seek payment for care, or to operate the health care system. We are not required to agree to your request, but if we do agree, we will comply with that agreement unless that disclosure of information is necessary to provide you emergency treatment. We will try to honor a restriction of your information for payment purposes. If you want to request a restriction, submit your request in writing describing your request.
Right to Request Confidential Communications: You have the right to request that we communicate with you in a way that you feel is confidential. We will accommodate reasonable requests including alternative addresses or alternative means. For example, you can ask us not to call your home, but to communicate only by mail. To do this, submit your request in writing to Health Information Management. You can ask to speak with your health care providers in private, outside the presence of other patients or staff.
Right to a Copy of the Patient's Notice of Privacy Practices: You have the right to a paper copy of this Notice at any time.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE:We may amend or revise our practices concerning how we will use or disclose patient medical information, or how we will implement patient rights concerning their information. We reserve the right to change this Notice and to make the provisions in our new Notice effective for all information about you that we maintain. If we change these practices, we will publish a revised Notice of Privacy Practices.
WHICH HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS DOES THIS NOTICE COVER?
This Notice of Privacy Practices applies to and its personnel, students, and trainees.
DO YOU HAVE CONCERNS OR COMPLAINTS? Please tell us about any problems or concerns you have with your privacy rights or how we use or disclose Protected Health Information about you. If you have a concern about privacy, contact the Office Manager at 907-262-2229. If for some reason our personnel cannot resolve your concern, you may also file a complaint with the federal government. To file a complaint, contact the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights. We will not penalize you or take any retaliatory action against you in any way for filing a complaint with the federal government.
The effective date of this Notice
is April 1, 2013.