HIPAA Privacy Statement

 

This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. The terms “information” and “health information” include any information we have that can be used to identify you and that relates to your physical or mental health condition, the health care you receive, or the payment for such health care. Please review it carefully.

ACCESS INFUSION CARE’S COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY

It is our duty to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of your protected health information (“PHI”). We will create medical records regarding you and the treatment and service we provide to you. We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your PHI. We will share PHI with one another, as necessary, to carry out treatment, payment, or healthcare operations relating to the services to be provided to you.

It is the policy of Access Infusion Care to keep all your medical and personal information confidential. We will use or disclose your PHI to provide information to:

• You or someone who has the legal right to act for you (your personal representative), to administer your rights as described in this notice; and,
• The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, if necessary, to make sure your privacy is protected.

Access Infusion Care can also use or disclose your PHI for purposes of treatment, payment, and healthcare operations. For each of these categories of uses and disclosures, we have provided a description and an example below. However, not every particular use or disclosure in every category will be listed. In all cases, we will only share the minimum necessary information required for the intended purpose.

Treatment means providing services as ordered by your doctor. Treatment also includes coordination and consultations with other health care providers relating to your care and referrals for health care from one health care provider to another. We may also disclose PHI to outside entities performing other services related to your treatment, such as hospitals or diagnostic laboratories.

Payment means the activities we perform to obtain reimbursement for the health care provided to you, including billing, collections, claims management, prior approval, determinations of eligibility and coverage, and other utilization review activities. Federal or state law may require us to obtain a written release from you prior to disclosing certain specially protected PHI for payment purposes, and we will ask you to sign a release, when necessary, under applicable law.

Healthcare operations are the support functions of the facility related to treatment and payment, such as quality assurance activities, case management, receiving and responding to patient comments and complaints, physician reviews, compliance programs, audits, business planning, development, management, and administrative activities. We may use your PHI to evaluate the performance of our staff when caring for you. We may also combine PHI about multiple patients to decide what additional services we should offer, what services are not needed, and whether certain new treatments are effective. We may also disclose PHI for review and learning purposes. In addition, we may remove information that identifies you so that others can use the information to study health care and health care delivery without learning who you are.

OTHER USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION

Under limited circumstances, Access Infusion Care may use or disclose your health information for the following purposes:

• As required by law. We may disclose information when required to do so by law.
• To persons involved with your care. We may use or disclose your health information to a person involved in your care or who helps pay for your care, such as a family member, when you are unable to speak for yourself or in an emergency.
• To health oversight agencies. We may use or disclose your health information to health oversight agencies for activities permitted by law, such as licensure, governmental audits, and fraud and abuse investigations.
• To public health organizations. We may use or disclose your health information for public health activities such as reporting or preventing disease outbreaks. We may also disclose your information to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for purposes related to safety or quality issues, adverse events, or to facilitate drug recalls.
• To protection agencies. We may use or disclose your health information to avoid a serious health or safety threat to you, another person, or the public. For example, disclosing information to public health agencies or law enforcement authorities or in the event of an emergency or natural disaster.
• To business associates. We may use or disclose your health information to business associates who perform activities on our behalf or provide us with services if the information is necessary for such activities or services. Business associates are required, under contract and pursuant to deferral law, to protect the privacy of your information and are not allowed to use or disclose any information other than as stated in our contract and permitted by law.
• Research. We may use or disclose your PHI for research purposes, subject to specific safeguards and authorization requirements as mandated by applicable laws and regulations.

Note: Incidental uses and disclosures of PHI sometimes occur and are not considered to be a violation of your rights. Incidental uses and disclosures are by-products of otherwise permitted uses or disclosures that are limited in nature and cannot be reasonably prevented.

SPECIAL SITUATIONS

Under special circumstances and subject to the requirements of applicable law, Access Infusion Care may also use or disclose your health information for the following purposes:

• Organ and Tissue Donation. If you are an organ donor, we may release PHI to organizations that handle organ procurement or transplantation as necessary to facilitate organ or tissue donation and transplantation.
• Military and Veterans. If you are a member of the Armed Forces, we may release PHI about you as required by military command authorities. We may also release PHI about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authority.
• Worker's Compensation. We may release PHI about you for programs that provide benefits for work-related injuries or illnesses.
• Public Health Activities. We may disclose PHI about you for public health activities, including disclosures:
  • To prevent or control disease, injury, or disability;
  • To report births and deaths;
  • To report child abuse or neglect;
  • To persons subject to the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for activities related to the quality, safety, or effectiveness of FDA-regulated products or services and to report reactions to medications or problems with products;
  • To notify a person who may have been exposed to a disease or may be at risk for contracting or spreading a disease or condition; and,
  • To notify the appropriate government authority if we believe that an adult patient has been the victim of abuse, neglect, or domestic violence. We will only make this disclosure if the patient agrees or when required or authorized by law.
• Health Oversight Activities. We may disclose PHI to federal or state agencies that oversee our activities (e.g., providing health care, seeking payment, and civil rights).
• Lawsuits and Disputes. If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose PHI subject to certain limitations.
• Law Enforcement. We may release PHI if asked to do so by a law enforcement official for the following reasons:
  • In response to a court order, warrant, summons, or similar process;
  • To identify or locate a suspect, fugitive, material witness, or missing person;
  • About the victim of a crime under certain limited circumstances;
  • About a death we believe may be the result of criminal conduct;
  • About criminal conduct on our premises; or,
  • In emergency circumstances, to report a crime, the location of the crime or the victims, or the identity, description or location of the person who committed the crime.
• Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors. We may release PHI to a coroner or medical examiner. We may also release PHI about patients to funeral directors as necessary to carry out their duties.
• National Security and Intelligence Activities. We may release PHI about you to authorized federal officials for intelligence, counterintelligence, other national security activities authorized by law or to authorized federal officials so they may provide protection to the President or foreign heads of state.
• Correctional Institutions. If you are an inmate of a correctional institution or under the custody of a law enforcement official, we may release PHI about you to the correctional institution or law enforcement official. This release would be necessary (1) to provide you with health care; (2) to protect your health and safety or the health and safety of others; or (3) for the safety and security of the correctional institution.
• Serious Threats. As permitted by applicable law and standards of ethical conduct, we may use and disclose PHI if we, in good faith, believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public or is necessary for law enforcement authorities to identify or apprehend an individual.

Note: HIV-related information, genetic information, alcohol and/or substance abuse records, mental health records and other specially protected health information have special confidentiality protections under applicable state and federal law. Substance abuse treatment records are specifically protected under 42 CFR Part 2 regulations, which require patient consent for most disclosures and prohibit redisclosure without patient consent. Any disclosures of these types of records will be subject to these special protections. In a civil, criminal, administrative, or legislative proceeding against an individual, we will not use or share information about your substance abuse treatment records unless a court order requires us or you give us your written permission.

However, in many situations we are prohibited from sharing, and will not share, your PHI for investigations or legal actions concerning reproductive health care access and services where that care is lawful as provided. For example, the law prohibits us from using or disclosing your reproductive health care-related PHI in many instances to:

• respond to investigation requests, court orders, or subpoenas seeking information about or imposing liability on any person for seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawfully provided reproductive health care; or
• identify any person that is subject to a criminal, civil, or administrative investigation or legal action, including any in law enforcement investigations, criminal prosecutions, family law proceedings, or state licensure proceedings, for seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawfully provided reproductive health care.

Some examples of seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating reproductive health care include: using reproductive health care; performing, furnishing, or paying for reproductive health care; providing information about reproductive health care; arranging, insuring, administering, providing coverage for, approving, or counseling about reproductive health care; or attempting any of these activities.

For more information on these prohibited uses and disclosures and when the prohibition applies, see https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/special-topics/reproductive-health/final-rule-fact-sheet/index.html

OTHER USES OF YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION

Under any circumstances other than those listed above, Access Infusion Care will ask for your written authorization before we use or disclose your health information. This includes, but is not limited to, using your PHI for marketing purposes or selling your PHI. You have the right to revoke that authorization at any time in writing.

YOUR RIGHTS

As a patient of Access Infusion Care, you have the right to:

• Request restrictions on our uses and disclosures of PHI for treatment, payment, and health care operations. However, we are not required to agree to your request unless the disclosure is to a health plan in order to receive payment, the PHI pertains solely to your health care items or services for which you have paid the bill in full, and the disclosure is not otherwise required by law. To request a restriction, you may make a request in writing.
• Request to receive confidential communications of your PHI by alternative means or at alternative locations. To make such a request, you may submit a request in writing.
• To inspect and copy (in electronic or paper form) the PHI contained in our records, except:
  • For information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or for use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding;
  • For PHI involving laboratory tests when your access is restricted by law;
  • If you are a prison inmate, and access would jeopardize your health, safety, security, custody, or rehabilitation or that of other inmates, any officer, employee, or other person at the correctional institution or person responsible for transporting you;
  • If we obtained or created PHI as part of a research study, your access to the PHI may be restricted for as long as the research is in progress, provided that you agreed to the temporary denial of access when consenting to participate in the research;
  • For PHI contained in records kept by a federal agency or contractor when your access is restricted by law; and,
  • For PHI obtained from someone other than us under a promise of confidentiality when the access requested would be reasonably likely to reveal the source of the information.
    • In order to inspect or obtain a copy of your PHI, you may submit your request in writing to our Compliance Officer. We will respond to your request within 30 days of receipt. If you request a copy, we may charge you a fee for the costs of copying and mailing your records, as well as other costs associated with your request. We may also deny a request for access to PHI under certain circumstances if there is a potential for harm to yourself or others. If we deny a request for access for this purpose, you have the right to have our denial reviewed in accordance with the requirements of applicable law.
• To request an amendment to your PHI, but we may deny your request for amendment, if we determine that the PHI or record that is the subject of the request:
  • Was not created by us, unless you provide a reasonable basis to believe that the originator of PHI is no longer available to act on the requested amendment;
  • Is not part of your medical or billing records or other records used to make decisions about you;
  • Is not available for inspection as set forth above; or,
  • Is accurate and complete.
    • In any event, any agreed upon amendment will be included as an addition to, and not a replacement of, already existing records.
    • In order to request an amendment to your PHI, you must submit your request in writing, along with a description of the reason for your request.
• To receive an accounting of disclosures of PHI made by us to individuals, or entities other than to you, for the six (6) years prior to your request, except for disclosures:
  • To carry out treatment, payment and health care operations as provided above;
  • Incidental to a use or disclosure otherwise permitted or required by applicable law; or,
  • Pursuant to your written authorization.
    • To request an accounting of disclosures of your PHI, you must submit your request in writing.
    • Your request must state a specific time period for the accounting (e.g., the past three months). The first accounting you request within a twelve (12) month period will be free.
    • For additional accountings, we may charge you for the costs of providing the list. We will notify you of the costs involved, and you may choose to withdraw or modify your request at that time before any costs are incurred.

Data Breach Notification

We will notify you if a data breach occurs that may have compromised the privacy or security of your PHI. We will notify you within the legally required time frame after we discover the breach. Most of the time, we will notify you in writing, by first-class mail, or we may email you if you have provided us with your current email address and you have previously agreed to receive notices electronically.

PRIVACY-RELATED COMPLAINTS

If you believe that your privacy rights have been violated, you should immediately contact Access Infusion Care's Compliance Officer at [insert phone number] or [insert email address]. You may also submit requests related to your patient rights to this contact. We will not take action against you for filing a complaint. You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services at 200 Independence Ave. S.W., Washington DC, 20201.

Right to Change this Notice

We reserve the right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices at any time. Any changes will apply to all PHI we maintain, including information created or received before the changes were made.