NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES Effective Date: May 1, 2007 Revised Date: October 1, 2007 Version: 2.0 This
notice describes how health information about you may be used and disclosed
and how you can get access to this information. Please
review it carefully. If you
have any question about this notice, please email our Chief Privacy Officer
at PrivacyOfficer@vistahealthcare.net Or you
may contact our secure line at 909-527-8938.
Each time
you visit a hospital, physician, or other healthcare provider, a record of your
visit is made. Typically, this record contains your symptoms, examination and
test results, diagnoses, treatment, a plan for future care or treatment and
billing-related information. This notice applies to all of the records of your
care generated by the hospital, whether made by hospital personnel, agents of
the hospital, or your personal doctor. Your personal doctor may have different
policies or notices regarding the doctor's use and disclosure of your health
information created in the doctor's office or clinic.
Our Responsibilities:
We are
required by law to maintain the privacy of your health information and provide
you a description of our privacy practices. We will abide by the terms of this
notice.
Uses and Disclosures:
How we may use and disclose Health Information about you.
The
following categories describe examples of the way we use and disclose health
information:
For Treatment: We may use health information about
you to provide you treatment or services. We may disclose health information
about you to doctors, nurses, technicians, health students, or other hospital
personnel who are involved in taking care of you at the hospital. For example:
a doctor treating you for a broken leg may need to know if you have diabetes
because diabetes may slow the healing process. Different departments of the
hospital also may share health information about you in order to coordinate the
different things you may need, such as prescriptions, lab work, meals, and
x-rays.
We may also
provide your physician or a subsequent healthcare provider with copies of
various reports that should assist him or her in treating you once you're
discharged from this hospital.
For Payment: We may use and disclose health
information about your treatment and services to bill and collect payment from
you, your insurance company or a third party payer. For example, we may need to
give your insurance company information about your surgery so they will pay us
or reimburse you for the treatment. We may also tell your health plan about
treatment you are going to receive to determine whether your plan will cover
it.
For Health Care
Operations: Members
of the medical staff and/or quality improvement team may use information in
your health record to assess the care and outcomes in your case and others like
it. The results will then be used to continually improve the quality of care
for all patients we serve. For example, we may also combine health information
about many patients to evaluate the need for new services or treatment. We may
disclose information to doctors, nurses, and students for educational purposes.
And we may combine health information we have with that of other hospitals to
see where we can make improvements. We may remove information that identifies
you from this set of health information to protect your privacy.
We may also
use and disclose health information:
· To business associates we have
contracted with to perform the agreed upon service and billing for it;
· To remind you that you have an
appointment for medical care;
· To assess your satisfaction with our
services;
· To tell you about possible treatment
alternatives;
· To tell you about health-related benefits
or services;
· To contact you as part of fundraising
efforts;
· To inform Funeral Directors
consistent with applicable law;
· For population based activities
relating to improving health or reducing healthcare costs; and
· For conducting training programs or
reviewing competence of healthcare professionals.
· When disclosing information, primary
appointment reminders and billing/collections efforts, we may leave messages on
your answering machine or voice mail.
Business Associates: There are some services provided in our
organization through contracts with business associates. Examples include
physician services in the emergency department and radiology, certain
laboratory tests, and a copy service we use when making copies of your health
record. When these services are contracted, we may disclose your health
information to our business associate so that they can perform the job we've
asked them to do and bill you, your insurance company or a third- party payer
for services rendered. To protect your health information, however, we require
the business associate to appropriately safeguard your information.
Directory: We may include certain limited information
about you in the hospital directory while you are a patient at the hospital.
The information may include your name, location in the hospital, your general
condition (e.g., good, fair) and your religious affiliation. This information
may be provided to members of the clergy and, except for religious affiliation,
to other people who ask for you by name. If you would like to opt out of being
in the facility directory please request the Opt Out
Form from the admission staff or Facility Privacy Official.
Individuals Involved in
Your Care or Payment for Your Care: We may release
health information about you to a friend or family member who is involved in
your medical care or who helps pay for your care. In addition, we may disclose
health 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.
Research: We may disclose information to researchers
when an
institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and
established protocols to ensure the privacy of your health information has
approved their research and granted a waiver of the authorization requirement.
Future Communications: We may communicate to you via newsletters,
mail outs or other means regarding treatment options, health related
information, disease-management programs, wellness programs, or other community
based initiatives or activities our facility is participating in.
Organized Health Care
Arrangement: This facility and its medical staff members
have organized and are presenting you this document as a joint notice.
Information will be shared as necessary to carry out treatment, payment and
healthcare operations. Physicians and caregivers may have access to protected
health information in their offices to assist in reviewing past treatment as it
may affect treatment at the time.
Affiliated Covered Entity: Protected health information will be made
available to hospital personnel at local affiliated hospitals as necessary to
carry out treatment, payment and health care operations. Caregivers at other
facilities may have access to protected health information at their locations
to assist in reviewing past treatment information as it may affect treatment at
this time. Please contact the Facility Privacy Official for further information
on the specific sites included in this affiliated covered entity.
As required by law, we may also use and disclose health
information for the following types of entities, including but not limited to:
· Food and Drug Administration
· Public Health or Legal Authorities
charged with preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability
· Correctional Institutions
· Workers Compensation Agents
· Organ and Tissue Donation
Organizations
· Military Command Authorities
· Health Oversight Agencies
· Funeral Directors, Coroners and
Medical Directors
· National Security and Intelligence
Agencies
· Protective Services for the President
and Others
Law Enforcement/Legal
Proceedings: We may disclose health information for law
enforcement purposes as required by law or in response to a valid subpoena.
State Specific
Requirements: Many
states have requirements for reporting including population-based activities
relating to improving health or reducing healthcare costs. Some states have
separate privacy laws that may apply additional legal requirements. If the
state privacy laws are more stringent than federal privacy laws, the state law
preempts the federal law.
Your Health Information Rights
Although
your health record is the physical property of the healthcare practitioner or
facility that compiled it, you have the Right
to:
· Inspect and Copy: You have the right to inspect and obtain a copy of the
health information that may be used to make decisions about your care. Usually,
this includes medical and billing records, but does not include psychotherapy
notes. We may deny your request to inspect and copy in certain very limited
circumstances. If you are denied access to health information, you may request
that the denial be reviewed. Another licensed healthcare professional chosen by
the hospital will review your request and the denial. The person conducting the
review will not be the person who denied your request. We will comply with the
outcome of the review.
· Amend: If you feel that health information we have
about you is incorrect or incomplete, you may ask us to amend the information.
You have the right to request an amendment for as long as the information is
kept by or for the hospital. We may deny
your request for an amendment and if this occurs, you will be notified of the
reason for the denial.
· An Accounting of Disclosures: You have the right to request an accounting of
disclosures. This is a list of certain disclosures we make of your health
information for purposes other than treatment, payment or healthcare operations
where an authorization was not required.
· Request Restrictions: You have the
right to request a restriction or limitation on the health information we use
or disclose about you for treatment, payment or healthcare operations. You also
have the right to request a limit on the health information we disclose about
you to someone who is involved in your care or the payment for your care, like
a family member or friend. For example, you could ask that we not use or
disclose information about a surgery you had.
We are not required to agree to
your request if the law permits otherwise. If we do agree, we will comply
with your request unless the information is needed to provide you emergency
treatment.
· Request Confidential Communications:
Request Confidential Communications: You have the right to request that
we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain
location. For example, you can ask that we contact you at work instead of your
home. The facility will grant requests for confidential communications at
alternative locations and/or via alternative means only if the request is
submitted in writing and the written request includes a mailing address where
the individual will receive bills for services rendered by the facility and
related correspondence regarding payment for services.
Please
realize we reserve the right to contact you by other means and at other
locations if you fail to respond to any communication from us that requires a
response. We will notify you in accordance with your original request prior to
attempting to contact you by other means or at another location.
· A Paper Copy of This Notice: You have the right to a paper copy of this
notice. You may ask us to give you a copy of this notice at any time. Even if
you have agreed to receive this notice electronically, you are still entitled
to a paper copy of this notice.
For an electronic copy of this notice, please log on www.vistahealthcare.net .
To exercise
any of your rights, please obtain the required forms from the Privacy Official
and submit your request in writing.
CHANGES TO THIS NOTICE
We reserve
the right to change this notice and the revised or changed notice will be
effective for information we already have about you as well as any information
we receive in the future. The current notice will be posted in the hospital and
include the effective date. In addition, each time you register at or are
admitted to the hospital for treatment or healthcare services as an inpatient
or outpatient, we will offer you a copy of the current notice in effect.
COMPLAINTS
If you
believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complaint with
the facility in person or by emailing us at PrivacyOfficer@vistahealthcare.net.
You may also file a complaint with the Secretary of the Department of Health
and Human Services. All complaints must be submitted in writing. You will not
be penalized for filing a complaint.
OTHER USES OF HEALTH INFORMATION
Other uses
and disclosures of health information not covered by this notice or the laws
that apply to us will be made only with your written permission. If you provide
us permission to use or disclose health information about you, you may revoke
that permission, in writing, at any time. If you revoke your permission, we
will no longer use or disclose health information about you for the reasons
covered by your written authorization. You understand that we are unable to
take back any disclosures we have already made with your permission, and that
we are required to retain our records of the care that we provided to you and
documented in the hospital.